Author: Eleonora Fanouraki

Meet the Enterprise Developers – Interview Series #3: The Game Development Industry

Post author By Eleonora Fanouraki
Post date October 5, 2023

Ever wondered what it’s like to be at the helm of crafting tools that enhance the lives of game developers? We sat down with Anant Sharma, an Enterprise Software Developer at a prominent game studio, to dive deep into his world. Anant’s journey is not only fascinating but also filled with valuable insights for both aspiring developers and those curious about the dynamic tech landscape.

As we begin, Anant sheds light on his role, where he and his team create tools that elevate the quality of life for game developers within their studio.

Q1. Can you briefly describe your Job as an Enterprise Software Developer?

Anant: We are creating tools for other game developers at our game studio to improve their Quality of life in the development process.

He then proceeds to discuss the pros and cons of working in a large company versus a startup environment, offering a valuable perspective for professionals at any career stage. Whether you’re aiming for stability or the thrill of wearing multiple hats, Anant’s insights have you covered.

Q. What are some of the challenges and benefits of working at a large company compared to a start-up?

A: Pros:

1. You get to interact with people of various backgrounds and get to learn from them in a more proactive manner compared to start-ups where there is less workforce.

2. Job stability and benefits that exceed what start-ups have to offer.

Cons:

1. Since you have to wear many hats to get things done in startups, you get to have a more diverse CV at a startup compared to a large company where you are supposed to work on specific things.

2. Startups have more flexibility for working hours compared to large companies since when there are many people you need to have core working hours to make sure all the workforce is active for the ease of communication.

Embracing Remote Work: Anant’s Desire for Change

In this segment, Anant shares his aspirations for a completely remote work setup, giving us a glimpse into the evolving landscape of enterprise operations. As remote work gains momentum, Anant’s perspective reflects the changing dynamics of the modern workplace.

Q. If you could change one thing about how your organisation operates, what would it be?

Currently, our organisation is working in a hybrid mode, with 2 days at the office. I wish it was completely remote.

AI’s Impact on Daily Life: Anant’s Experience and Company Policies

Anant delves into how AI is transforming his daily routine and shares the nuances of company policies regarding AI tool usage. AI is reshaping industries, and Anant’s thoughts shed light on the practical applications of this cutting-edge technology.

Q. How is AI impacting your day-to-day life? Is there a policy regarding the use of AI tools in your company?

We are actually already using AI to improve our quality of life, the policy around that depends on things like which AI you are interacting with. In some cases you are not allowed to share the company code base with the AI for results, also making sure the code generated by AI is checked since it’ll be your own responsibility. We are also testing GitHub copilot with some developers to see its impact on our process.

The Tech Stack of an Enterprise Software Developer: Tools, Frameworks, and More

Anant offers insights into the tools, frameworks, and responsibilities that shape his role as an enterprise software developer.

Q. How much of your work depends on specific tools, frameworks, programming languages or cloud providers?

As tools programmers, we not only work on creating the tools for the game engine but also stuff related to native code. Apart from that, sometimes we also have to interact with the CI/CD pipeline to improve it.

Staying Ahead in the Game: Anant’s Strategies for Keeping Up-to-Date

Anant discusses his approach to staying current in the ever-evolving tech landscape, sharing valuable tips for continuous learning.

How do you keep your skills and knowledge up-to-date?

I think there are many ways to keep yourself up to date, things that work for me are: 1. Industry updates 2. Being part of conferences 3. Spending time in learning and development (which is part of our company policy)

Behind the Procurement Curtain: his Role in Tool and Service Selection

For those curious about decision-making processes in tech, Anant’s insights provide a behind-the-scenes look.

Q: How much influence do you’ve when it comes to procuring a new tool or service to support the projects at work?

A: It’s a mutual team-wide discussion

Anant Sharma’s journey as an Enterprise Software Developer offers a window into the exciting and rapidly evolving world of tech. His experiences, challenges, and aspirations provide valuable lessons for professionals and enthusiasts alike. As the tech landscape continues to transform, Anant’s story reminds us of the importance of adaptability, innovation, and continuous learning in thriving as a developer.

Stay tuned for more engaging interviews from our enterprise developers series

Enterprise Developers Interviews

Meet the Enterprise Developers – Interview Series #2: The data storage & processing sector

Post author By Eleonora Fanouraki
Post date August 23, 2023

You might have heard the term “Enterprise Developer” buzzing around, especially in communities like Developer Nation. It generally points to professionals who work in larger teams or organizations that focus on creating high-level software.

Our second interview features an Enterprise Developer from the data storage & processing sector, who we’ll call Dev B to keep things confidential. Despite the anonymity, Dev B shares valuable insights into this fascinating domain. Stay tuned for more conversations as we continue to uncover the world of Enterprise Developers.

Discovering the Role

Q: Can you briefly describe your Job as an Enterprise Software Developer?

Dev B: Someone who works in the data availability and replication domain on multi-cluster distributed systems.

Challenges and Benefits of Company Size

Q: What are some of the challenges and benefits of working at a large company compared to a start-up?

Dev B: Stable environment where the company can afford you to train on their systems as compared to directly jumping on projects and work as soon as you join a startup

Seeking Collaboration

Q: If you could change one thing about how your organisation operates, what would it be?

Dev B: More team collaborations across different projects.

Collaboration is the lifeblood of innovation, and Dev B sees room for improvement in this aspect within his organization. He envisions more collaborative efforts across various projects.

AI’s Subtle Impact

Q: How is AI impacting your day-to-day life? Is there a policy regarding the use of AI tools in your company?

Dev B: AI for me is a means to quickly look up effective/optimal ways of solving trivial programming-related queries.

Artificial Intelligence is a buzzword that’s transforming industries worldwide. For Dev B, AI serves as a tool to swiftly find optimal solutions to programming queries. It’s a way to streamline and enhance the programming process by quickly identifying effective problem-solving approaches.

The Tools That Shape the Craft

Big organisations often have customised in-house tools tailored to their specific needs which though having a learning curve can get the work done more efficiently.

On the other hand 3rd party or open-source tools provide an alternative where you’ll find a ton of support, documentation and use case but you’ll have to adapt it for your specific needs

Q: How much of your work depends on specific tools, frameworks, programming languages or cloud providers?

Dev B: Mostly internal frameworks and the majority of C++ and c programming language.

In the world of software development, tools, frameworks, programming languages, and cloud providers define the landscape. For Dev B, internal frameworks take centre stage, with a predominant use of C++ and C programming languages. These are the tools that allow him to bring complex systems to life.

In this insightful interview series, we’ve delved into the world of Enterprise Developers, uncovering their unique roles and perspectives. Through our conversation with Dev B, an Enterprise Developer in the data storage and processing sector, we’ve gained valuable insights into the challenges, benefits, and dynamics of this domain.

The importance of collaboration, the subtle impact of AI, and the instrumental role of specific tools and languages have come to the forefront. As we continue our journey to explore more Enterprise Developers’ stories, we look forward to unravelling the intricacies that shape the software development landscape. Stay tuned for more conversations that shed light on this fascinating realm.

News and Resources

Happy Code, Swift Code: The 10% Developer Advantage

Post author By Eleonora Fanouraki
Post date August 4, 2023

Does happiness lead to productivity? It might sound intuitive already, but we are obsessed with data. So, we looked into it. And by “we” I mean SlashData and Sentry joined forces to analyse the feedback taken from survey respondents who are professional developers who write software on a regular basis.

To make our filtering even more accurate, it mainly involved experienced developers with at least 10 years of software development experience, as they were required to have a live application. This intentional filtering ensures that the average developer surveyed possesses extensive knowledge and can provide valuable insights into the software development process.

Are happier developers more productive?

Firstly we wanted to identify what makes developers happy and we found:

1. Company size and colleague count don’t significantly impact happiness levels.

2. Whether you’re an experienced coder or new to the field, everyone’s happiness is similar.

3. Delving into infrastructure tasks brings more joy! Devs spending 10 extra hours a week on these issues experience a 3% happiness boost.

4. Managers or those with ‘chief’ titles tend to be 6% happier than their peers.

These insights shed light on what contributes to developer satisfaction in the workplace. Understanding these factors can help foster a more positive and productive environment for all developers.

We conducted an in-depth analysis to uncover valuable developer efficiency insights:

We developed a unique productivity metric by combining three crucial measurements, focusing on how quickly developers complete programming tasks and deploy code to production.

Here’s what our productivity metric considers:

Time from code committed to code in production.
Time taken to recover from an unexpected outage.
Frequency of code deployment to production.

Interestingly, we observed that developers in larger companies tend to take slightly more time to complete tasks compared to their counterparts in smaller organizations. This information provides valuable insights into the dynamics of developer productivity across various company sizes.

What hinders and boosts productivity?

When it comes to barriers, larger companies might experience a slight dip in productivity, with every 500 additional employees contributing to a 1% drop.

Internal processes and bureaucracy can be culprits, but fear not – we’ll share tips to optimize workflow! Communication is another key player; if it’s smooth sailing, devs thrive, but if not, productivity could plummet by a whopping 48%. However, only 10% of developers face this issue.

By combining frequency and time metrics, we unveil a cool productivity score measured in hours, allowing us to understand the overall productivity landscape.

The best part? Happy developers are productive developers! Being 10% happier means completing tasks 10% faster, and each year of experience in software development boosts productivity by 6%.

Let’s take a closer look at developers’ workloads and what they wish for versus reality!

The biggest difference lies in dealing with internal messaging, processes, and infrastructure issues. Developers express the desire to allocate 19% and 17% less of their time to these time-consuming tasks. It’s clear that efficient communication and workflow tools are essential for smooth business operations.

We analyzed their productivity and found that developers spend the most time on software development, followed by project management.

They spend about 31% and 16% of their week on these tasks.

Interestingly, developers want to keep doing these tasks as they’re crucial components of their ideal week too. Oh, and here’s a nugget;

the more time they spend coding, the happier they are!

Software development

Let’s dive into how developers spend their time on software development!

Writing code is the most time-consuming activity for 29% of developers, with a whopping 69% spending a lot of their overall time on it.

The conceptual design phase also takes up significant time, but it’s an enjoyable activity for 60% of developers. However, debugging or fixing code is another time-consuming task, with 67% of devs dedicating a lot of time to it. But here’s the catch – only 51% actually enjoy it. Debugging can be a real workflow challenge and hurt productivity.

What do they feel about their tasks?

Fixing bugs and improving software performance bring joy to 65% of developers.

They take particular pride in improving software/app performance (21%) and debugging code (12%).

Writing good code is a big source of pride for 27% of developers, and a total of 69% find pride in this task.

What about the challenges?

The top two challenges are cleaning up legacy code (33% of developers) and running into untested code (32%).

Interestingly, cleaning up legacy code was more common in larger teams, where devs work with a 12% bigger team. But don’t worry, larger teams have more resources for testing, so running into untested code isn’t as big of a challenge for them.

Now, onto the root causes of issues. A whopping 37% of devs say a rushed timeline is the biggest problem they face. Among programmers and software developers, 45% identify rushed timelines as a key challenge, 14 percentage points more than CEOs and managers (31%).

Let’s explore the challenges faced by developers in different roles.

We’ll break it down by the prominent positions, such as management/chiefs, programmers/software developers, architects, and IT workers.

Surprisingly, shifting and unclear priorities are among the top three obstacles across all roles, but they’re especially prominent for programmers/software developers and managers/chiefs. Another common challenge for everyone, but particularly for architects, is too many meetings.

Interestingly, many of the top challenges reported in all roles are process-related. This emphasizes the importance for companies to implement good policies and procedures to optimize workflow and boost developer productivity.

News and Resources

AI Spotlight: 63% of Developers Engage with AI-Assisted Development

Post author By Eleonora Fanouraki
Post date June 27, 2023

You’re familiar with at least one AI-assisted development tool; That’s right, the ChatGPT. Its popularity has skyrocketed in the last few months and with good reason.

It is designed to assist users in generating human-like text but it’s been helpful to developers too, as they can leverage ChatGPT to automate certain tasks, generate code snippets, assist in writing documentation, or even prototype conversational interfaces. While ChatGPT is primarily a language model, it can be used in the development process to aid in various aspects of software development.

In SlashData’s 24th edition of State of Developer Nation, we asked developers if they use AI and how. This led to a dedicated chapter on all the new technologies that captivate developers’ imaginations.

The data from the survey suggest that 63% of developers engaged in some aspect of AI-assisted development, making it evident that this technology is rapidly maturing and transforming from a mere trend to a valuable tool.

AI-Assisted Development: A Growing Trend

While overall engagement has experienced a slight decline of 4% over the past year, the nature of developer involvement has undergone a fascinating shift.

More developers are actively working on or learning about AI-assisted development, showing a 6% increase in engagement.

Simultaneously, the number of developers with latent interest has decreased by 6%.

This dynamic suggests that AI-assisted development is maturing and gaining practical applicability in the development landscape.

Generative AI: Unleashing Creative Possibilities

Alongside AI-assisted development, generative AI has emerged as a new and exciting technology.

With 57% of developers actively involved or interested in generative AI, curiosity and excitement abound. While AI-assisted development still leads in adoption at 17%, generative AI projects attract 14% of engaged developers.

The Many Uses of Generative AI

Developers use generative AI in three main ways:

as a helpful tool for their development process
by integrating it into projects through APIs
or even by creating the models themselves.

Ongoing investigations are exploring these usage patterns to uncover more insights into this groundbreaking technology.

Challenges and Opportunities

Although generative AI is gaining high engagement, there are factors that affect its adoption among developers.

Some developers may be hesitant to rely solely on generative models for critical or security-conscious tasks.

However, there is a growing adoption of generative AI for visual assets in software development, which reduces the risks of errors and security vulnerabilities.

Overcoming Challenges

Developers who work on generative AI models face the challenge of needing a large amount of training data.

However, certain tools offer the ability to fine-tune pre-trained models for specific tasks, making this challenge easier to overcome. As developers become more familiar with assistive and generative AI technologies, we can expect a surge in their adoption, leading to innovation and creativity.

Leadership’s Role

Interestingly, leaders in C-suite and other leadership positions show higher engagement rates with emerging technologies.

About 49% and 50% of those who approve tool expenses or budgets are actively involved in AI-assisted development.

This trend suggests that the revolution in AI-assisted development is driven by leaders who recognize its potential.

Looking Ahead: The Changing Landscape:

When we take a broader view, we see a cyclical pattern in the adoption and interest in emerging technologies. Developer interest has dropped by 5% overall, while adoption has increased by 4 percentage points.

This contrast indicates a dynamic shift in developer preferences, marking a change from previous trends.

In summary, AI-assisted development is rapidly evolving and attracting developers’ attention. Generative AI opens up exciting possibilities, and leadership engagement plays a crucial role in driving its growth. Cryptocurrencies continue to be intriguing, and the landscape of emerging technologies is constantly shifting.

Did you find this article interesting? Download the free report to learn about:

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