New research highlights growing importance of DevOps
- Date: 21 August, 2018
A major study new has concluded that DevOps and machine learning are the two most important trends in the software industry today.
Now in its eighth year, the Annual Developer Survey undertaken by Stack Overflow questioned a massive 100,000 developers and the results make for very interesting reading.
A key finding from respondents was that their highest levels of interest were in in DevOps methodologies and machine learning. The languages and frameworks associated with these methodologies and technologies are on the rise, and developers working in these areas command the highest salaries, with DevOps specialists and engineering managers being particularly well remunerated.
The survey also showed that DevOps specialists and developers who code for desktop and enterprise applications have an average of eight years of professional coding experience. DevOps as a discipline and professional identity is relatively new, but the survey found that people working in this field are highly experienced.
Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services was named one of the top three ‘most-loved’ development platforms in the survey, selected by 68% of respondents as a technology they expressed interest in continuing to develop with. The two most popular platforms were Linux with 76% and serverless with 75%.
Other key findings included:
- JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language for the sixth year in a row
- Python is the most wanted language for the second year in a row, meaning that it’s the language which developers who don’t yet use it most commonly say they want to learn
- MySQL and SQL Server are the most commonly used databases
- Agile and Scrum are the most popular methodologies used by developers to keep their projects on track. Other popular development methodologies include Kanban, pair programming, and extreme programming (XP)
- Git is the dominant choice for version control for developers today, with almost 90% using it to check their code
And, of course, career advancement is always an important consideration for developers. However, when it comes to looking for a new job, different kinds of developers apply different sets of priorities. Women say their highest priorities are company culture and opportunities for professional development, whilst men are more focused on the compensation package and working with specific technologies.
