UK software deployment teams are encountering significant challenges in meeting industry standards, primarily due to skills gaps. Research from the Salesforce DevOps platform Gearset highlights that these teams are 26 percent more likely to experience delays in deployment compared to those arriving ahead of schedule. Staggeringly, 82 percent of businesses surveyed reported facing these issues, resulting in an average loss of £107,000 annually from delayed software rollouts. An analysis of performance metrics against Google’s DORA report reveals that a typical British organization deploys software only once every 29 days.
When delays do occur, they extend project timelines by an average of 3.8 months, positioning UK performance firmly in the low-performing category. With a lead time for changes averaging 17 days and a recovery time from failed deployments of five days, the sluggish DevOps pipelines are evident. Over half of the respondents in the survey cited under-resourced teams as the leading cause of these setbacks. A staggering 51 percent pointed to insufficient personnel and inadequate tools as critical barriers to timely and effective deployments.
This creates a vicious cycle where development teams are too stretched to implement solutions that could ease their burdens. The pervasive shortage of IT skills exacerbates these issues, impacting 87 percent of teams surveyed. This lack of expertise hampers the adoption of crucial automation tools, which 43 percent identified as a major consequence of the skills gap that could otherwise enhance deployment reliability. Moreover, a concerning misalignment exists between business leaders and IT departments regarding deployment success.
Leaders estimat that only 10 percent of deployments face delays, while a contrasting 52 percent of team leaders report delays. Achieving effective communication and alignment between management and technical teams, alongside investment in skills and automation, is critical for UK organizations to mitigate delays and improve their competitiveness in the global market.