Challenges are an inevitable part of any industry, and software development is no exception. Of particular importance in this field are those tied to technical debt, which refers to the future costs and complications that come from prioritising speed of development over good practices. In this report, we will explore the most common challenges faced by professional software developers and the effect of factors like development team size and organisation age on these challenges.

Key questions answered:

• What challenges do professional developers face in their software development projects?
• How does the incidence of these challenges vary across organisations of different sizes?
• Does organisational age have an influence on the challenges that developers face?