About The Authors

September 2023 - Engineering

A third of engineering roadblocks go unnoticed by leadership: A survey of software developers in the U.S. has revealed a disconnect between themselves and leadership, with the latter group often not aware of what engineering teams are focusing on according to developers, and a third saying that the majority of engineering roadblocks go unnoticed.

The survey of over 350 software developers in the U.S. was conducted by Uplevel and Atomik Research, finding that more than half (56%) of the developers polled saying that CTOs will make significant strategic decisions without realising the negative impact on their team, while 51% said they move people around on projects without knowing what the full implications will be. Just over two-fifths of respondents also said that CTOs can overwork their developers.

It also found that the vast majority of developers (96%) believe that not knowing what their own leadership team is working on is detrimental to the larger team.

The research also found that three in 10 respondents believe that their engineering leaders rely on gut feelings alone to measure the effectiveness of a team, gaining visibility through meetings/conversations (57%), engineering insights & intelligence tools (57%), messages/emails (53%) and surveys (46%).

It also highlighted that almost nine in 10 developers found insights and intelligence tools beneficial and accurate when measuring engineering effectiveness.

When asked about the metrics they would like to see their CTOs use to measure and better support their teams, data on hours worked -- in order to highlight burnout -- was cited by more than half of those polled (52%). Other answers given included allocation data (49%) and Available Deep Work (focus) time (46%).

Other Engineering Research Findings

Other Latest Market Research Insights