Couchbase Survey Shows 9 Out of 10 Developers Are at or Over Capacity

New research finds 86% of talent acquisition managers currently face challenges in hiring developers with the right skill set.

Couchbase, a cloud database platform company, recently shared findings from new industry research commissioned by Couchbase examining the trends, challenges, and opportunities developers who build with databases are experiencing in their roles.

According to an April 2023 survey of 533 software developers in the U.S., professionals ranging from individual contributors to C-levels, 90% of respondents are at or above their work capacity. They are calling for automation and SQL-based database query tools to improve productivity. The survey also shows that 86% of respondents with manager-level roles or higher are facing challenges in hiring developers with the right skill set.

The survey reveals that with most developers already at their maximum capacity, only 5.1% are able to take on more projects. As a result, many developers are taking on tasks outside their job description in an effort to manage their increasing workload. In fact, 3 out of 4 developers have shared that their responsibilities have been affected in the past year. Over half (54.1%) of those experiencing an increase in workload report feeling stressed, 43.8% are overwhelmed, 40.2% feel burned out, and 31.3% struggle with work-life balance. The survey suggests that to address these challenges, developers recognize automation and SQL-based database tools as top ways to increase their productivity.

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.

“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.”

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Couchbase Survey Shows 9 Out of 10 Developers Are at or Over Capacity

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