Collaborative development is disrupting the way software is built; nearly 700 developers and business managers surveyed about their participation and investments in the practice
SAN FRANCISCO, The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, March 26, 2014 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced the immediate release of its first-ever “Collaborative Development Trends Report,” which shares the results of an invitation-only survey of nearly 700 software developers and business managers about their participation and investments in collaborative development practices.
The rise of Linux and open source tools and components in the enterprise software industry over the past decade has been well documented. More recently, a new business model has emerged in which companies are joining together across industries to share development resources and build common open source code bases on which they can differentiate their own products and services. This collaborative approach is transforming industries from cloud computing and the datacenter, to automotive and mobile computing, and creating the next generation of technologies. The Linux kernel community pioneered this approach to software development and their success has helped to inspire the spread of collaborative methods to other industries and technologies.
Released today at The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit in Napa, Calif. the report finds that companies are increasing collaborative development and view it as essential to success. Developers, too, are benefiting from this trend.
Key findings from the report include:
Companies get involved in collaborative software development to advance business objectives and to be part of industry innovation. Ninety-one percent of business managers and executives surveyed ruled collaborative software development somewhat to very important to their business. And nearly 80 percent say collaborative development practices have been seen as more strategic to their organization over the past three years. Nearly half of business managers surveyed said they prioritize collaborative development because it allows them to innovate and/or help transform their industry.
Investments in collaborative software development are on the rise. Among business managers and executives, 44 percent said they would increase their investments in collaborative software development in the next six months; 42 percent said they would sustain their current investment, and no one reported they would decrease their investment. Sixty-three percent of software developers surveyed said they spend more time now on collaborative software development, compared with five years ago. And 59 percent reported increased participation in collaborative software development in just the last year.
Individual developers and businesses both benefit from the trend toward collaboration. Eighty-three percent of software developers said they benefited personally from collaborative development through exposure to new tools and development practices. More than 77 percent of business managers said collaborative development practices have benefited their organizations through a shorter product development cycle/faster time to market.
“Linux is the largest collaborative development project in the history of computing and has paved the way for other collaborative efforts to accelerate technology advancements and dramatically reduce research and development costs,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “These collaborative development practices are dramatically disrupting the way technologies are built and distributed, and the new Collaborative Development Trends Report helps inform how and what we can expect in the coming months.”
The report is the result of a survey The Linux Foundation sent to its members during the first week of March 2014. The companies polled are among the industry leaders that are driving the collaborative development revolution and include such notables as Cisco, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Intel, Google, NEC, Oracle, Qualcomm and Samsung, among others. The majority of respondents work at organizations with $500 million or more in annual revenue (69 percent) and more than 500 employees (76 percent).
To download the complete report, please visit: http://www.linuxfoundation.org/publications/linux-foundation/collaborative-development-trends-report-2014
For more information about The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, please visit: http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/collaboration-summit To watch the keynote presentations via live stream for free, please visit: http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/collaboration-summit/program/live-video-stream
About The Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux and collaborative software development. Founded in 2000, the organization sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and promotes, protects and advances the Linux operating system and collaborative software development by marshaling the resources of its members and the open source community. The Linux Foundation provides a neutral forum for collaboration and education by hosting Collaborative Projects, Linux conferences, including LinuxCon, and generating original research and content that advances the understanding of Linux and collaborative software development. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.
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