Thoughtworks Study Reveals Key Strategies for Empowering Engineering Effectiveness

August 22, 2023 at 08:00 AM EDT

Thoughtworks (NASDAQ: TWKS), a global technology consultancy that integrates strategy, design and engineering, commissioned Forrester Consulting to explore the importance of engineering effectiveness in driving the flexibility and performance of business. The findings of the in-depth survey of 400+ software engineering decision-makers across a range of countries and industries are included in the study entitled, “Empowering Engineering Effectiveness: Strategies for Maximizing Output and Minimizing Waste.”

The survey results show successful organizations align engineering teams with business results, with investment in key engineering practices to enhance the process. Key findings of the survey include:

Over half (59%) of the leaders surveyed said their organizations’ engineering agility is not where they need it to be today, potentially leading to poor business agility and risk of falling behind the competition.
Less than half of organizations have adopted fundamental engineering practices like DevOps, test-driven development, and cloud-native technologies.
Seventy-three percent said their engineers spend significant time addressing tech debt and business-as-usual (BAU) issues.
Eighty-two percent said they plan to implement a self-service internal developer platform within the next three years.

The clear common thread that decision-makers have seen in business agility are the positive effects of early initiatives in improving engineering agility. Many leaders cited plans to streamline the development process, promote collaboration and empower developers to create innovative solutions with developer platforms. While each organization’s needs are different, all seek to build and maintain highly-productive engineering teams that deliver the software they need quickly, cost-effectively and to a consistently high standard.

“As the survey results found, more than half of business leaders say their engineering teams are not sufficiently effective and agile to quickly pivot and adapt in today's fast-changing world,” said Rachel Laycock, Chief Technology Officer, Thoughtworks. “Improved engineering capability can have a transformative impact on the business. Crucially, decision-makers cite substantial improvements to the business – more revenue, better customer experience, greater ability to innovate, and improved time to market - from focusing on improving engineering effectiveness.”

Launched in March 2023, Thoughtworks Engineering Effectiveness is a comprehensive suite of services and tools that drive software excellence by addressing platform engineering, developer productivity, accelerators, testing strategies, technical debt and engineering culture. With the solution’s focus on strengthening the fundamentals in engineering best practices, organizations are better prepared to capture the full potential of emerging technologies such as generative AI in software development. Further, with a strong measurement and governance practice, the solution also has the capability to make clear the value generative AI is adding to engineering productivity improvement.

To learn more about Forrester’s findings, download the study here.

Join Thoughtworks on Wednesday, September 20, 2023 at noon ET for a webinar featuring Forrester Senior Analyst Andrew Cornwall. More details on the webinar here.

Supporting resources:

Learn more about Thoughtworks Engineering Effectiveness.
Keep up with Thoughtworks news by visiting the company’s website.
Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.

- ### - <TWKS915>

About Thoughtworks

Thoughtworks is a global technology consultancy that integrates strategy, design and engineering to drive digital innovation. We are over 11,500 people strong across 51 offices in 18 countries. For 30 years, we’ve delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology as the differentiator.