Developers spend more time on operational and background tasks than they do on coding, according to an IDC analyst report published this month.
Application development accounted for 16% of developers’ time in 2024, up from 15% the year before, while the majority of developers’ time was spent on operational and supportive tasks, according to the report, titled “How Do Software Developers Spend Their Time?,” authored by Adam Resnick, IDC research manager for modern software.
Developers spent the largest amounts of time on operational tasks including implementing CI/CD processes and methodologies, application performance monitoring and management, and infrastructure performance monitoring and management, Resnick said. The largest shift in survey results from 2023 to 2024 was the increase in time developers devoted to security, which rose from 8% to 13%.
