SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new report from Constellation Research finds that a more flexible staffing approach can reduce the failure rate of software projects from 70-plus percent to less than 10 percent, while also driving marked improvements in cost efficiency (30 percent) and project satisfaction (3.6X). The report states that distributed work could change the nature of enterprise IT and software development in the 2020s as profoundly as cloud computing did over the past two decades.
The Constellation study is based on detailed data supplied by Gigster from 190 digital projects and 1,161 sprints, conducted in 2018 and 2019 across Gigster’s client base. Highlighting a rapid evolution in the future of work, it points out that dynamic project staffing is spreading across the enterprise, with 72 percent of all such projects happening in large enterprise and IT professional services firms, up from 52 per cent just two years earlier.
The Gigster project analysis validates key benefits of distributed work and dynamic staffing, which is particularly relevant in a world where more and more tech workers are working remotely:
- Software projects managed with flexible staffing achieved a 91 percent success rate—a sharp contrast with the historical 70-plus percent failure rate of digital transformation projects (as reported by McKinsey in 2018).
- The digital projects studied were 30 percent more cost-efficient, due to optimized resource utilization.
- Employee and customer satisfaction were 3.6 times higher than traditionally managed projects, due to more diverse engagements, more employee input in staffing and better alignment with customer requirements.
The report gives a practice Gigster calls “elastic staffing” credit for many of the benefits. Elastic staffing is an agile approach that uses an advanced platform to manage talent and teams across software development projects. This makes it possible to scale resources dynamically, which ensures the right skills are used at the right time. Unlike fixed staffing approaches that assign full-time roles and resources for the entire project, elastic staffing adjusts resource levels for each project milestone based on the actual workload and skill sets needed for that phase.
“This report shows that leading CIOs can adopt best practices from the gig economy to gain efficiency, reduce risk and improve job satisfaction,” said Dion Hinchcliffe, Vice President and Principal Analyst at Constellation. “Our analysis found that IT organizations can use Gigster's platform to be 30% more efficient, reduce risk by 60% and deliver 3.6x higher project satisfaction.”
Hinchcliffe added, “Constellation also finds that when data from projects is more transparent, it results in more proactive measures to ensure on-time delivery, correct risks as soon as they emerge, and better track and reward high performers as well as weed out those who aren’t able to deliver efficiently.”
Sourcing talent remains one of the biggest challenges that IT departments face, with shortages of skilled candidates who often require expensive recruiting and lengthy onboarding processes. The study also describes how Gigster’s elastic staffing offers employers a way to get around those hurdles, offering them faster access to talent.
“With remote work exploding, IT leaders need team intelligence tools to manage productivity and risk,” said Chris Keene, CEO of Gigster. “Constellation Research has proven that Gigster enables distributed teams to achieve 30% higher productivity, 60% lower risk and 3.6x higher employee satisfaction. Constellation’s analysis validates what we’ve learned across thousands of projects: elastic staffing makes for happier employees, more productive software teams and more reliable delivery.”
For more details, download the full Constellation study here. Constellation’s Dion Hinchcliffe and Gigster’s Chris Keene will also co-host a webinar about the study June 25 at 10:00 am PT / 1:00 pm ET. Register here for the webinar.
About Gigster
Gigster is a software-and-service company that has helped hundreds of businesses deliver thousands of innovative software milestones. Founded in 2013, Gigster helps companies recruit the best digital talent from anywhere in the world, and uses advanced technology to continuously calibrate each distributed team’s combination of skill sets. The company’s elastic staffing model ensures that the workforce is always the right size, with the right talent, at the right time. Ongoing peer reviews by independent experts dramatically reduce the risk of innovation. On average, clients experience an unprecedented 91 percent success rate for software projects, 30 percent gains in cost efficiency and 3.6X employee and customer satisfaction.
About Constellation Research
Constellation Research is an award-winning, Silicon Valley-based research and advisory firm that helps organizations navigate the challenges of digital disruption through business models transformation and the judicious application of disruptive technologies. Unlike the legacy analyst firms, Constellation Research is disrupting how research is accessed, what topics are covered and how clients can partner with a research firm to achieve success. Over 350 clients have joined from an ecosystem of buyers, partners, solution providers, C-suite, boards of directors and vendor clients.
