The tools being used are the most important factor in controlling software development project costs, trumping even management decisions or requirements – but only among those developers who are using a continuous delivery model.  The newly released North American Development survey showed that a plurality of continuous delivery model users, 28.3%, cited their tools as the top cost control factor, but among developers not using this approach, decisions from management were more important in the project’s cost.

The survey of over 400 software developers in North America also showed that Cloud is critical to users of a continuous delivery model. Over half of those using the model said its use was primarily in the Cloud, and 25% said it was entirely in the Cloud.   The developers were split as to whether the greatest beneficiaries of the model were IT Operations, the developers themselves or Clients.

“This shows the importance of tools in automating the continuous delivery model,” said Janel Garvin, CEO of Evans Data. “Without tools to enforce processes and enable developers to rapidly release and deploy new versions, continuous delivery is just a set of best practices.  The combination of automated tools and Cloud streamlines development and is critical for continuous delivery in an organization.”

The North American Development Survey is conducted twice yearly and delivers over 200 pages of data on software developers’ technology usage, adoption and intentions and is now in its 15thyear and 29thedition. Topics covered include Developer Demographics, Firmographics, Target and Host Platforms, Mobile Development, HPC, Virtualization, Cloud Development, Software Development Lifecycle, Continuous Delivery and DevOps, Technology Adoption, Development Tool use, HTML5 Adoption, and more.

For complete Table of Contents see: http://www.evansdata.com/reports/viewRelease.php?reportID=1