Developers spend most of their time not coding – IDC report

Developers spend more time on operational and background tasks than they do on coding, according to an IDC analyst report published this month.

Application development accounted for 16% of developers’ time in 2024, up from 15% the year before, while the majority of developers’ time was spent on operational and supportive tasks, according to the report, titled “How Do Software Developers Spend Their Time?,” authored  by Adam Resnick, IDC research manager for modern software.

Developers spent the largest amounts of time on operational tasks including implementing CI/CD processes and methodologies, application performance monitoring and management, and infrastructure performance monitoring and management, Resnick said. The largest shift in survey results from 2023 to 2024 was the increase in time developers devoted to security, which rose from 8% to 13%.

Meanwhile, generative AI and agentic AI tools aimed at increasing developer productivity present ways to reduce the time developers spend on documentation, testing, and deployment while also accelerating coding efforts, the report noted.

IDC’s report is based on developers’ responses to the question, “Thinking over the typical month, what percent of your time is spent on the following tasks/activities?” Survey respondents chose from a list that included tasks ranging from developing applications to security, deploying code, and implementing CI/CD. The results for 2024:

Developing applications, 16%

Writing requirements and test cases and for applications, 14%

Security, 13%

Implementing CI/CD processes and methodologies, 12%

Application performance monitoring and management, 12%

Deploying code, 12%

Infrastructure performance monitoring and management, 11%

User experience, 10%