This article summarises findings from the GitLab 2018 Global Developer Report, originally reported by itweb.co.za. The survey was conducted towards the end of 2017.
Overview: Agile Leads in Adoption, DevOps Leads Among High Performers
Agile remains the most popular software development methodology by a wide margin, but high-performing development teams are considerably more likely to embrace a DevOps culture. That is one of the headline findings from the GitLab 2018 Global Developer Report, which surveyed approximately 5,300 software professionals from around the world towards the end of 2017.
Respondents were geographically distributed, with the majority coming from Europe (46%) and North America (36%), and roughly 1.5% from Africa.
Methodology Adoption Rates
When asked which software development methodology their team primarily used, respondents reported the following breakdown:
- Agile – 60%
- DevOps – 23%
- Waterfall – 16%
- Conversational Development – 12%
- Rapid Application Development (RAD) – 9%
- Other – 9%
Notably, among those who selected “Other” to describe their development process, the most common adjective used was “chaos” — a candid signal that a significant portion of teams operate without a clearly defined methodology.
DevOps and Agile: Complementary, Not Competing
Rather than positioning DevOps and Agile as mutually exclusive, the GitLab report framed them as complementary. Agile focuses on iterative delivery and responsiveness to change within development teams, while DevOps extends that collaboration outward — bridging the gap between software development and IT operations. The goal of DevOps is to improve communication, collaboration, and integration between these two business functions, reducing friction across the delivery pipeline.
In practice, many organisations adopt Agile practices within their development teams while simultaneously pursuing a broader DevOps culture that spans development, QA, security, and operations.
High Performers vs Low Performers
The report segmented respondents into high-performers and low-performers based on deployment frequency and time allocation:
- High-performers: Deployed code on demand or multiple times per day, and estimated spending 50% or more of their time on new work.
- Low-performers: Deployed code between once per day and once per month, or as infrequently as once every six months.
The difference in DevOps adoption between these two groups was striking:
- 45% of high-performing teams reported having a strong DevOps culture.
- Only 21% of low-performing teams said the same.
High-performing teams also reported better visibility into their pipelines and stronger cross-functional collaboration — outcomes the report attributes, at least in part, to their DevOps practices.
Automation Is a Top Priority for DevOps Practitioners
Automation of the software development lifecycle emerged as a defining priority for high-performing teams. The data showed a clear gap between DevOps and Agile practitioners on this front:
- 71% of DevOps practitioners rated automating more of the software development lifecycle as a high priority.
- 60% of Agile practitioners said the same.
Organisations that had adopted DevOps were also more likely to deploy on demand — reinforcing the link between automation investment and deployment frequency.
Perception Gap: Managers vs Developers on DevOps ROI
Both developers and managers agreed on the value of improved collaboration and communication that DevOps enables. However, a notable perception gap emerged when it came to time savings:
- 81% of managers agreed that DevOps saves time in the development process.
- Only 65% of developers agreed with the same statement.
This gap may reflect the difference between strategic-level visibility (where managers see throughput gains across the organisation) and day-to-day developer experience (where tooling friction, cultural resistance, or incomplete automation may offset some of the benefits).
Remote Teams and DevOps Culture
The survey also surfaced an interesting finding about remote work and DevOps adoption:
- 41% of remote teams reported having a well-established DevOps culture.
- Only 34% of in-office teams said the same.
This may reflect the fact that distributed teams are more dependent on robust tooling, automated pipelines, and clear communication processes — the very foundations of a DevOps culture — in order to function effectively across time zones and locations.
DevOps as a Technology Investment Priority in 2018
Among the most important technology investments for 2018, the survey ranked DevOps third — behind continuous integration, deployment and delivery (CI/CD) and automation and containers. Agile, by contrast, did not rank as highly as a priority investment area, suggesting that while Agile is broadly adopted, organisations were directing new spending toward DevOps tooling and practices.
A Note on Survey Bias
It is worth acknowledging a significant caveat: the survey was conducted by GitLab, and respondents were drawn largely from the GitLab community. Given that GitLab is a platform built around DevOps principles and continuous delivery, participants are likely predisposed toward DevOps-friendly perspectives. The relatively strong showing for DevOps in the results — and the favourable attitudes toward DevOps tooling and automation — should be interpreted in that context.
Key Takeaways
- Agile is the most widely adopted software development methodology (60% of respondents), but DevOps is growing rapidly.
- High-performing teams are more than twice as likely to have a strong DevOps culture compared to low-performing teams (45% vs 21%).
- Automation of the software development lifecycle is a higher priority for DevOps practitioners than Agile practitioners.
- A perception gap exists between managers and developers on the time-saving benefits of DevOps.
- Remote teams appear more likely to have an established DevOps culture than in-office teams.
- The survey has an inherent GitLab community bias that should be factored into any interpretation of the results.