Couchbase Survey Shows 9 Out of 10 Developers Are at or Over Capacity; Automation and SQL-based Query Capabilities Top Their Productivity Wish Lists

Couchbase, Inc., the cloud database platform company, announced findings from new industry research commissioned by Couchbase examining the trends, challenges and opportunities developers who build with databases are experiencing in their roles. The April 2023 survey of 533 US-based software developers – composed of professionals ranging from individual contributors to C-levels – revealed that 9 out of 10 developers are at or over their work capacity and calling for automation and SQL-based database query tools to help them boost productivity. Additionally, a majority of respondents (86%) with roles at manager-level and above indicated they are currently facing challenges hiring developers with the right skill set.

With so many developers at or over their work capacity, only 5.1% responded they have the ability to take on more projects. As developers’ overall workload increases, more developers are also taking on tasks outside of their normal purview. Specifically, when developers were asked if their responsibilities have been affected in the past 12 months, 3 out of 4 shared they sometimes or consistently take on responsibilities outside of their job description. Of the developers whose roles have seen an increase in workload, more than half (54.1%) are experiencing increased stress, 43.8% are overwhelmed, 40.2% are feeling burned out and 31.3% express a lack of work-life balance. To address the challenges developers are experiencing in their roles, the survey findings reveal many are pointing to automation along with SQL-based database tools as the top two ways to increase their productivity.

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“As the pace of digital innovation continues to accelerate, it’s no surprise that developers want more automation and familiar, easy-to-learn tools to help them keep up with their day-to-day workflows,” said Perry Krug, head of developer experience at Couchbase. “Automating repetitive, lower-value tasks frees up developers’ availability to redirect their time and talent to higher-value projects like creating business-critical applications. At Couchbase, we also see firsthand the immense benefit of providing developers with tools that leverage the SQL++ query language – developers are able to ramp up quickly and build applications without a ‘speed bump’ or steep learning curve.”

Additional key findings from the survey include:

• A majority of respondents (87.2%) still use legacy relational databases as their primary database to build applications, and they are actively looking for more flexibility and agility. The factors developers say would influence them to explore non-relational databases (e.g., NoSQL) include speed, flexibility, security, scalability and cost savings.
• In the coming year, developers aim to prioritize increasing scalability, reducing costs and maintaining data governance compliance for their database infrastructure.
• The top internal challenges faced by developer teams include talent shortages, the need to ask for access to data or other systems and meeting ever-growing compliance requirements.
• Hiring managers say the top three technical skills required to build modern applications are cloud-based technologies, SQL and experience working with teammates throughout the data lifecycle. However, as the employment landscape continues to evolve, 86% of managers and above report that hiring developers with the right skill set remains a significant challenge.
• Companies are addressing the developer experience gap by offering mentorship and training programs, with 71.6% of respondents stating their companies provide such opportunities. When looking for a new job, developers consider these top three factors as priorities: work-life balance, compensation and company culture.

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