Software is everything these days. Even non-software companies have software. Which basically means that every organization needs some measure of software development capability. Enter: Developer Velocity. If you’ve never heard of this term, it’s time that you will.
If you do a little bit of digging, you’ll find that the term Developer Velocity is starting to gain traction. It all dates back to 2020, when McKinsey & Company published a report (with Microsoft contribution) called: “Developer Velocity: How software excellence fuels business performance” revealing that businesses with top developer velocity index scores present a 4–5x faster revenue growth than companies with bottom DVI scores. In other words, if you look at developer velocity, a high score means more money, which is why this term got everybody so worked up in the first place.
But what is Developer Velocity really?
Get ready, because there are many definitions to that term. Whether it’s “empowering developers, creating the right environment for them to innovate, and removing points of friction” (McKinsey report), or “removing barriers to unleash the full potential of developers” (Microsoft ), or “the ability to drive transformative business performance through software development” or “turning developers’ ideas into software that supports the needs of your customers, and the goals of your business”, the bottom line is clear: it’s something you want to have, and fast.
Microsoft went even further and released a dedicated webpage on Developer Velocity, calling everyone to “drive innovation and business performance by empowering your developer teams.”
Microsoft not only hopped on the Developer Velocity train, but they also created an assessment tool to discover your organization’s score on the Developer Velocity Index (DVI).
We decided that all the hype deserves the proper attention, so we sat down with experts from Microsoft, McKinsey & Company, and AT&T and took a plunge into the Developer Velocity report on how enterprises accelerate software transformation. You can watch it here:
The Real Question on Everyone’s Mind – How to Improve Developer Velocity?
OK, so we’ve established what Developer Velocity is (sort of), but how you go about getting some?
The above webinar also includes insights on how to create the right environment for developers to innovate (which leads to a higher DVI score), which tools to use and what to avoid (the one factor that destroys developer velocity). But that’s not all. We’ve written a guide that includes 8 tips on how to enhance Developer Velocity such as: learning to fail fast (apparently failing is good, if it’s fast), prototyping, effective branch management and more. Check out the guide here.
See You Soon, Developer Velocity
Though still new, Developer Velocity feels like it’s here to stay, and with it, as Microsoft emphasized, the tools that accelerate Developer Velocity. Which tools are these? Well… it’s up to you to decide which tools in your arsenal (existing or desired) create the right environment to innovate, remove points of friction, unleash the full potential of developers and so forth. For us at Incredibuild, our solution to accelerate build times is all about removing friction (time spent on waiting for builds to finish) and creating opportunities for developers to innovate and realize their full potential. So, when you say “Developer Velocity” we say “Bring it on!”
