Everyone Has APPtitude: Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery

Transcription

1 Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction APPtitude and Its Seven Personas Key Survey Findings Survey Methodology Conclusion Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 2

3 INTRODUCTION Ready or not, today s world is all about apps. Whether for customer facing interactions or for internal business processes, enterprise application development is now at the center of every strategic discussion. Every company, no matter the industry, must think and act like a software company in order to succeed. The rationale is simple. The enterprise needs a growing number of apps to power business operations and customer interactions. But IT traditional teams simply aren t capable of delivering all of the innovative apps the business needs. To keep the business moving forward, professional developers can no longer be the only group building apps. Today, every employee in an organization should think of him - or herself as part app developer. That s not to say everybody will build their own apps. It s more about empowering every employee to play an active role in app development in order to unleash the creativity of your entire workforce. To better understand this phenomenon, Mendix released a social survey to uncover information on the various roles within app delivery projects. This report describes the survey and its results. LEARN WHY EVERY COMPANY IS A SOFTWARE COMPANY Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 3

4 APPTITUDE AND ITS SEVEN PERSONAS Your APPtitude describes your role within the app development process. It describes your interest and competency in the application lifecycle. Within the application lifecycle, there are a variety of important roles that we ve mapped to seven personas. Upon survey completion, each respondent s APPtitude persona is immediately calculated and displayed along with a short message. Both persona and message are shown below: The Programmer The Hardcore Coder Congratulations, it s people like you who make the appdriven world go round. Notable coders include Marc Zuckerberg and Bill Gates (not bad company, huh?). The Visionary Blue Sky Idea Guy We ve got a regular Nicola Tesla on our hands. The sky s the limit for folks like you, and that s lucky for us because innovations like the alternating current keep the lights on and the AC cranking! Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 4

5 APPTITUDE AND ITS SEVEN PERSONAS The Conductor Keep the Train on Track If it weren t for people like you, we d all be running around like chickens with our heads cut off. Teams need someone to stand up and crack the whip, and we get the feeling you re the one for the job. The Hero Find a Way or Make One When the pressure s on and time s running out, you re a Swiss army knife with an APPtitude to get your team across any finish line. You wear multiple hats, a characteristic that makes you popular when it s time to pick teams. The Negotiator Lean, Mean, Negotiating Machine You re methodical, data driven, and generally have the right answer at your fingertips. You re easily frustrated when others aren t as tuned in and won t tolerate lack of movement around you. Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 5

6 APPTITUDE AND ITS SEVEN PERSONAS The Captain Captain of industry We salute you, sir! You set the agenda, keep the ship in top shape, and set the course for future exploration. Your commanding presence keeps the lights on and the apps working. The Architect Rubik s Cube Commander You clearly get the importance of structure, but more so, you understand the big picture and can pull the right materials together. In the end, apps aren t built without your expertise! Keep on solving puzzles, buddy! Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 6

7 KEY SURVEY FINDINGS The APPtitude survey succeeded in producing more information on the changing roles within app delivery and the overall democratization of the process. We ve provided information on the breakdown of each persona as well as the two main findings associated with this study. 50 Respondent APPtitude Number of Respondents The Architect The Captain The Conductor The Hero The Negotiator The Programmer The Visionary Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 7

8 KEY SURVEY FINDINGS First Finding 75% More individuals without traditional programming backgrounds are participating in the application development process. In other words, app development is being democratized as enterprises look to close the gap between growing business needs and IT s ability to deliver. 25% Programmer Breakdown The Programmer Everyone Else Only one quarter of respondents received The Programmer persona. The Programmer illustrates those individuals who prefer hand coding. We can also conclude that a significant majority of respondents perceive themselves to be app developers, but do not have the same interest or ability to hand code. Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 8

9 KEY SURVEY FINDINGS Second Finding The citizen developer phenomenon is taking hold within the business realm. According to Gartner s IT Glossary, a citizen developer is a user who creates new business applications for consumption by others using development and runtime environments sanctioned by corporate IT. Gartner continues by describing the changes that business and IT groups have made in order to encourage more ownership across the business. Low-code development platforms and cloud computing services make it easy for business representatives to participate in application development projects, and even do a significant portion of the work themselves, if they re so inclined. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CITIZEN DEVELOPER Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 9

10 KEY SURVEY FINDINGS Second Finding Continued Our survey confirmed the prevalence of these individuals within projects today and also provides insight into specific job roles that this individual may hold. When evaluating those application developers who likely use low-code methods or play other, non-programming roles in the process, we found that most individuals resided outside of the traditional IT group. One third of this population have business oriented roles. Within that realm, we found a high volume of project managers, business analysts, and other business management stakeholders. You also see a significant number of individuals with non-traditional roles, coming from universities, or from the partner ecosystem represented here under the Other category. Combined, we see that IT individuals are actually in the minority, indicating that the citizen developer phenomenon is taking hold aggressively within the business realm. 33% 43% 24% Respondent Job Type Business IT Other Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 10

11 SURVEY METHODOLOGY In July 2014, Mendix launched a global survey to understand the changing roles in enterprise app delivery. The survey targeted techsavvy individuals who participate to some degree in the application development process. Respondents included architects, analysts, project managers, IT staff members, and business leaders. 42% 3% 3% 9% 8% 4% 3% Respondent Job Role 8% 5% 15% Architect Business Analyst Business Management Chairman/CEO/Pres Programmer IT Consultant IT Management IT Other Project Management Other * Students, Mendix partners, and those who did not share job role information are included within the Other category. Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 11

12 SURVEY METHODOLOGY Mendix promoted the survey through social channels, targeting relevant media outlets, technical communities, and bloggers. The results are based on a response population of 151 individuals located across the globe. 2% 38% 60% Respondent Region APAC Americas EMEA The survey asked each participant to uncover their role within application development, described as their inner APPtitude. To do so, respondents answered eight, purposefully lighthearted questions. Each question was created to identify common traits and behaviors that may correlate with the individual s technical and business ability. The sum of all questions produced an APPtitude score that corresponded to one of seven unique personas. Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 12

13 CONCLUSION As your business embraces its future as a software company, so will your employees. Everyone is a potential app developer and should be empowered to share ideas and actively participate in the innovation process. In many instances, employees can take those ideas through design and development with the help of visual, model-driven tools (all in accordance with IT governance). While not all development can be completed by the masses, the move towards democratization of app development will free your business from its dependency on professional developers. Moreover, it will free the IT group. This much needed time can then be dedicated to addressing more strategic needs as well as focusing on the more technical aspects of development projects, such as integration and performance. If you haven t already, get in touch with your inner APPtitude. TAKE THE QUIZ Survey Reveals Changing Roles in Enterprise App Delivery 13

14 mendix.com Mendix is the app platform company for the enterprise. We enable companies to build, integrate and deploy web and mobile applications faster and with better results, effectively driving ROI in days not months. Learn more, join our user community and get started for free at now.mendix.com. Mendix Inc All Rights Reserved