Every engineering team has one: the system nobody wants to touch. The one held together by cron jobs, wishful thinking, and a README that just says “good luck.” You ship on Friday and spend the weekend with one eye on your phone, waiting for the inevitable page.
What if it’s not just you feeling anxious? What if it’s the entire industry?
We had to know. In March 2025, we surveyed 226 developers, architects, and engineering leaders to map the reality we’re all living in. From software engineers and tech leads writing the code to engineering managers and executives making the decisions, we asked about the brittle systems, the manual recovery nightmares, and all the blockers between you and actually building great software.
The results are so eye-opening that we turned them into The State of Development 2025 report. And now, you can get your own copy.
Your boss thinks everything’s fine. You know it’s not.#
Here’s the kicker: engineers and their managers are living in completely different universes. When we asked about challenges, the responses split like they came from different planets.
Case in point: 34% of engineers are struggling with failure recovery. It doesn’t even crack the top three concerns for decision makers. What are they worried about instead? Here’s a chart from our report:
What else is in there?#
This report gives you the data you need to understand where you stand and to start meaningful conversations with your team.
A few of the striking findings we explore in the full report include:
- 94% use AI, 42% are building it, and 39% are working on the reliability backbone.
- Only 1 in 4 teams report having smooth workflow operations. The other 75% are firefighting.
- At companies with over 1,000 employees, developers barely get a say in tooling decisions. We show you who’s really calling the shots.
The full report goes much deeper, answering questions like:
- What’s the #1 factor teams consider when choosing new tools? (Hint: it depends on who you ask.)
- How do the priorities of a small startup differ from a large enterprise?
- What keeps decision makers up at night when systems fail?
- How do you stack up against the competition? (Use our readiness checklist to figure it out.)
Stop guessing#
This report is your golden ticket. Use it to benchmark your team, build your tooling case, or finally have that “we need to talk” conversation — with receipts to back you up.
Ready to stop firefighting and start building? Download the full State of Development 2025 report now.