The document discusses the state of modern application development based on a survey of over 300 respondents. Some key findings include: - Nearly 61% of organizations surveyed had fully decentralized or were in the process of decentralizing their application development teams. - The use of site reliability engineers (SREs) and executive oversight of DevOps initiatives has increased significantly since the previous survey in 2019. - Security integration remains a top priority for application infrastructure, along with analytics to improve performance and troubleshooting. - Most organizations are deploying applications to the public cloud and using containers more extensively, with many adopting Kubernetes in production environments.

1. The State of Modern
Application Development:
From Speed to Awareness
Dennis Nils Drogseth
Vice President of Research
drogseth@emausa.com
Will Schoeppner
Director of Research
wschoeppner@emausa.com

2. Watch the On-Demand
Webinar
https://info.enterprisemanagement.co
m/the-state-of-modern-application-
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3. Featured Speakers
Dennis joined EMA in 1998 and brings several
decades of experience in various aspects of
marketing and business planning for service
management solutions. He supports EMA through
leadership in IT service management (ITSM),
CMDB systems, and megatrends like advanced
operations analytics, cross-domain automation
systems, IT-to-business alignment, and service-
centric financial optimization.
Will is an accomplished information technology
and business operations leader with more than 25
years of experience developing, managing, and
leading business operations, integrated
technology, and vendor management. Prior to
joining EMA, he led Strategy and Performance for
the Governor’s Office of Information Technology
as the Deputy Chief Strategy Officer.
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 3
Dennis Nils Drogseth
Vice President of Research
| @ema_research
Will Schoeppner
Director of Research

4. © 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 4
Event Recording
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Questions
Log your questions in the Q&A panel anytime during the event.
Questions will be addressed during the Q&A session of the event.
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Logistics

5. Sponsors
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6. Agenda
Demographics
overview: size,
verticals, and
geography
1 2 3
Roles and
role-related
views
Organizational
and DevOps
directions
4
Processes and
best practices
5
Application
infrastructure:
the move to
cloud and IoT
6
Deployments,
tools,
reporting,
and metrics
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7
Drivers,
challenges,
and success

7. Demographics
Overview:
Size, Verticals,
and Geography
7
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8. Demographic Highlights
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 8
306 completed
responses out of
more than 3,000
in Q3 2021
• From North America,
Europe, and APAC
Size: 250
employees to
more than 20,000
• With the majority in
the mid-tier
Prior research
to contrast:
“Optimizing
DevOps Initiatives:
The View from
Both Sides of the
DevOps Divide,”
August 2019
| @ema_research

9. Geographies in Perspective
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 9
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Country specifics in terms
of # of responses:
United States = 119
UK = 33
France = 23
Germany = 31
China = 30
India = 45
Australia = 25
Sample Size = 306

10. Size in Perspective
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 10
Consistent with other EMA research, the upper mid-
tier (2,500-9,999) was most likely to have more
advanced capabilities, such as:
• More fully agile development
• More fully automated change management
• More active use of AI/ML for security testing
• More use of containers for edge or IoT applications
Why?
• More resources than smaller
companies
• Fewer
political/organizational/geograp
hical challenges than larger
companies
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11. The Five Most Prevalent Verticals
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Sample Size = 174

12. Roles and Role Views

13. A Wide Mix of Roles
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Sample Size = 306

14. That we Condensed Into Five
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Application
development:
software
engineering,
project/program
management, and
platform team
members
1 2
DevOps:
Q/A test, security,
fraud/risk and
compliance, site
reliability engineers
(SREs), DevOps
environment
management, cloud
platform
architecture, IT
architecture
3
IT executive suite:
or IT executive
management
4
Business:
IT business analysis
and business
stakeholders
5
IT operations:
ITSM and
user/customer
experience
management

15. Two Role-Related Insights From EMA’s Analysis
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Which activities are the most critical?
Application development – 7 activities
DevOps – 5.6
IT executive suite – 7.9
IT operations – 5.9
Business – 5
Application development – application design
DevOps – IT project and portfolio management
tied with DevOps automation for CI/CD
IT executive – DevOps automation for CI/CD
IT operations – IT project and portfolio
management
Business – application deployment to staging
How many activities or processes is your
company engaged in?

16. SREs are Significantly Extending the Game
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Sample Size = 306

17. As is Executive Oversight
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Sample Size = 306

18. Organizational and
DevOps Directions

19. Nearly 61% were either fully decentralized or in the process of becoming so
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 19
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Sample Size = 306
Fully + ‘in process’ = 61.1%
Compared with 45% in 2019

20. Perspectives on Decentralization
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Those fully decentralized were more likely to have:
• SREs or their equivalent
• IT VP or CIO oversight
• Executive-level business involvement
• Platform teams
• Low-code/no-code environment to promote business interaction
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21. Other Critical Organizational Trends
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85% of respondents indicated the presence of
platform teams in their environment
Platform teams fully supported more than
half
74% are doing this at least in part through low-
code/no-code environments
Nearly 90% of respondents indicated
business stakeholder involvement in
shaping application functionality
The rise of platform teams to select
tooling and create integrated platforms
and workflows

22. Integrated Security via Infosec Teams was Another Priority
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Sample Size = 306

23. News on the DevOps Front
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Is the handoff between
development and
operations improving?
• 62% indicated DevOps interactions
as positive to seamless
• In 2019, it was only 46%
Is there a separate
organization or team
overseeing and evaluating
cross-silo DevOps processes?
• 57% of respondents answered “yes.”
43% worked through a
central change approval
board
• Only 21% claimed changes were
primarily automated across IT
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24. Effective ITSM Integrations can be Critical for Success
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Sample Size = 306, Valid Cases = 306, Total Mentions = 900

25. IT Operations Leads in Validating Success
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Sample Size = 306

26. Processes and
Best Practices

27. Top Activities in Terms of Prevalence
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IT project and portfolio
management
1 2 3
DevOps automation
for continuous
integration and
continuous
deployment (CI/CD)
DevOps for
databases
4
Performance testing
5
Application design

28. Top Activities in Terms of Criticality
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 28
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Sample Size = 306, Valid Cases = 306, Total Mentions = 753

29. Thoughts on Effectiveness
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More processes and best practices in play correlate
with greater effectiveness in speed and performance:
E.g., for best practices and effectiveness in speed to deliver:
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Extremely effective =
4.8 best practices
Very effective =
4.6 best practices
Other =
3.2 best practices

30. Top Seven Best Practices
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Sample Size = 306, Valid Cases = 306, Total Mentions = 1,344

31. Application
Infrastructure:
The Move to Cloud
and IoT

32. Critical DevOps Application Priorities Reflect a Mix of Business-Enabling and
IT-Enabling Options
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Sample Size = 306, Valid Cases = 306, Total Mentions = 1,290

33. The Move to Cloud and Virtualization
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50% of applications are
running in the public cloud
• Up from 45% in 2019
40% are running in
containers
• Up from 33% in 2019
Respondents averaged for
their DevOps infrastructures:
• More than 100 virtualized servers or
VMs
• More than 140 bare metal server
and containers
• With 41% showing significant
usage of Kubernetes in
production
• 39% in pre-production
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34. The Internet of Things and Edge Locations are Looming Opportunities
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Sample Size = 276, Valid Cases = 276, Total Mentions = 783

35. More Insights on Edge and IoT
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35% of respondents were actively addressing IoT and
edge locations
• 33% plan to within six months
• 21% plan to within twelve months
How would they be developed?
• 34% develop internally
• 16% look for IoT-related applications developed externally
• 50% view the process as a mix of both
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36. Security Stands Out Once Again as a Top Challenge
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Sample Size = 276, Valid Cases = 276, Total Mentions = 881

37. Deployments,
Tools, Reporting,
and Metrics

38. Perspectives on Deployments
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 38
On average, 250 production releases were deployed
annually
• Versus 131 production releasees in 2019
With 80 custom development projects
• Versus 57 in 2019
60% freeze deployments at times for security
updates, long-term planning, and other reasons
• Which correlated with effectiveness in speed and performance
About 30% of all changes
experienced issues that
required some level of
remediation
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39. Security and Analytics led for Application Deployment Technology Integrations
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Sample Size = 306, Valid Cases = 306, Total Mentions = 918

40. Most Frequently Used Toolsets
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Top 5 targeted specifically at development:
API testing
Mobile testing
Performance and load testing
Functional testing
Source code control and management
Top 5 targeted more broadly for DevOps:
IT project and portfolio management
DevOps or DevSecOps platforms
Application performance management (APM)
Collaboration tools
Infrastructure monitoring tools
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1
2
3
5
4
1
2
3
5
4

41. Analytics Priorities Featured Feedback on Performance and Minimizing Development Time
in Troubleshooting
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Sample Size = 294, Valid Cases = 294, Total Mentions = 899

42. Top Five Automation Priorities
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IT process automation or runbook
Workflow automation combined with social IT
Configuration automation
Automation in support of business-specific outcomes
Security-related process automation (playbooks)
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1
2
3
5
4

43. Prioritizing Improvements Stood Out as the #1 UEM Challenge
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Sample Size = 296

44. Most Leveraged Technical and Business Metrics
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Top five technical metrics:
Level of security, risk, data integrity
Mean time to recover (MTTR)
Deployment frequency
Time to deliver new applications
Response time per application
Top five business metrics
IT Improved IT OpEx efficiencies
Development quality and speed of software
delivery
Business activity metrics
Metrics to show end-user application
preferences
Industry compliance-related metrics
1
2
3
5
4
1
2
3
5
4

45. Top Seven Reporting Priorities
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Sample Size = 306, Valid Cases = 306, Total Mentions = 1,030

46. Drivers, Challenges,
and Success

47. Top Five Drivers for Application Development Initiatives
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 47
Superior performance and reliability
Improved integration across development, ITOps, and ITSM teams
Improved customer satisfaction (external)
Improved customer satisfaction (internal)
Business process optimization and efficiencies
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1
2
3
5
4

48. Effectiveness in Quality and Performance Strongly Correlated with Effectiveness in Speed
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49. Security and
compliance issues
1 2
IT infrastructure
complexity has
increased so much
that everything takes
longer
3
Agile approaches to
application
development are
demanding cultural
changes, which are
slowing down project
delivery
4
Legacy monitoring
tools lead to long
troubleshooting times
5
Skillset availability
given the changing
application
environment
Top Five Roadblocks for More Effective Application Development and Delivery
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50. Recommendations for Going Forward
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 50
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Sample Size = 306

51. Learn More!
Learn more and download the
report! https://bit.ly/2XKJiwz
© 2021 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. 51
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