Software development challenges are technical and Strategic

In a tech landscape obsessed with speed and innovation, software development remains one of the most complex and failure-prone processes in business. Poorly structured codebases, outdated documentation and brittle architecture may sound like engineering issues, but the ripple effects of failures in these areas can deeply impact product leaders, marketers, operations teams, and even customer-facing departments!

SlashData’s latest State of the Developer Nation report, based on input from over 10,500 developers across 127 countries, takes a data-first look at the persistent obstacles software teams face. The findings detailed in the report go beyond the status quo to clarify which organisations are most at risk, and how these challenges scale with company size and age.

This isn’t just a developer survey. It’s market research for tech decision-makers ready to prioritise long-term software sustainability.

The Top Challenges: A Crisis in Code and Communication

Nearly 9 out of 10 professional developers face at least one challenge in their day-to-day software development work. At the top of the list?

• Code that is difficult to read, maintain, or extend (31%)

• Insufficient or outdated documentation (31%)

• Insufficient test coverage or ignored test results (27%)

It is vital to note that these are not new, exotic issues but rather foundational issues whose widespread nature point to systemic breakdowns in software quality assurance and team knowledge management. For organisations betting big on digital transformation, these cracks can silently sabotage scalability, increase time-to-market and erode developer morale.

Key takeaway for Product and Program Managers

If your team is regularly missing sprints, shipping bugs or onboarding new hires slowly, these aren’t growing pains! They are warning signals of deeper architectural and documentation debt that compound over time! 

Company Size: More Developers, More Challenges?

It’s a natural assumption that larger development teams should have more resources to handle complexity. SlashData’s findings show the opposite trend. Developers in organisations with over 1,000 employees involved in software projects face an average of 3 challenges, compared to just 2.4 challenges in small teams (1–10 developers).

The biggest gaps emerge in documentation and design:

• 46% of developers in large teams report documentation issues, versus just 28% in small teams.

• 30% face outdated or flawed software designs, making scalability difficult.

It's clear that size doesn’t actually guarantee maturity. Without strong engineering practices and a scalable knowledge-sharing culture, larger teams simply amplify dysfunction.

Key takeaway for Engineering and DevOps leads:

These findings support investing in scalable documentation systems, internal developer portals and automated linting or code hygiene tools that evolve with your team size.

Company Age: The Paradox of Experience

SlashData’s report also reveals a nuanced relationship between company age and software challenges. Newer organisations (under 5 years old) are more likely to report facing challenges overall (92%). That being said, older organisations (30+ years) are more likely to experience a higher number of distinct challenges per developer, especially around:

• Documentation (39%)

• Flawed software design (29%)

This dual dynamic suggests that while younger companies face resourcing and maturity issues, older companies struggle with legacy systems and institutional inertia.

Strategic implication for CTOs and innovation teams:

Avoid the trap of “it still works” thinking. Legacy systems should be proactively modernised, especially if your organisation is expanding into AI, mobile, or cloud-native architectures that demand modularity and flexibility.

What’s Fueling the Fire: Beyond Code

In addition to documentation and architecture, other common challenges include:

• Software components not kept up to date (26%)

• Reliance on outdated or unsuitable third-party libraries/tools (24%)

• Improperly set up or maintained development or production environments (21%)

These aren’t isolated issues. They are interconnected symptoms of insufficient planning, fragmented tooling strategies and a lack of shared ownership across teams.

How market research helps:

Segmented insights and data on across parameters like company size, age and performance (like that provided by SlashData) empower Product and Engineering leads to benchmark against global peers. This can then translate into prioritised roadmaps, smarter resourcing and better tooling choices. 

A Checklist for Cross-Functional Teams To Consider: 

No single role can fix systemic software challenges alone. But the solutions must begin with cross-functional alignment. Here’s how different teams can act on SlashData’s findings:

For Product & Program Managers

• Allocate time in roadmaps for refactoring and documentation.

• Track developer satisfaction and onboarding metrics as health indicators.

• Choose tools that support structured code hygiene (e.g., internal style guides, IDE plug-ins).

For Engineering Leads

• Implement pair programming or code review policies to reduce knowledge silos.

• Encourage modular design to make legacy code more maintainable.

• Use metrics (test coverage, commit quality) to track progress on technical debt.

For Business Analysts & Executives

• View software challenges as risk vectors in product delivery and team productivity.

• Use SlashData’s benchmarks to evaluate where your organisation stands.

• Fund developer experience initiatives as part of broader digital strategy.

For Marketing & Talent Leaders

• Position your company as an engineering-first culture with modern practices.

• Use insights from this report to inform recruitment messaging (e.g., “we invest in clean code, not just fast delivery”).

• Understand that developer satisfaction and output are tied to sustainable systems, not just perks or pay.

Conclusion: Software Challenges Are a Business Challenge

As the tech industry continues to chase AI, DevEx, and cloud innovation, the basics still matter. SlashData’s State of the Developer Nation Q1 2025 report makes clear that foundational software issues such as code quality, documentation, architecture remain unsolved at scale!

For any organisation serious about growth, these insights should be a catalyst for change.

This is why SlashData’s research isn’t just developer data. It’s strategic market intelligence. Whether you’re building the next big SaaS platform or scaling a legacy IT system, understanding the nuances of developer challenges can directly inform better decisions across engineering, product and business strategy.

To explore more findings and see where your organisation stands, access the full report at: slashdata.co/free-resources