Runway Report Uncovers Automation Paradox: More Automation Makes Mobile App Releases Less Efficient

Report shows that mobile engineering teams with significant investment in release automation reported the most inefficient, low-value work per release cycle.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, UNITED STATES, September 10, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- New research by leading mobile release management platform Runway (runway.team) reveals a counterintuitive finding that challenges conventional wisdom about mobile engineering: Teams with significant investment in release automation reported the most inefficient, low-value work per release cycle.

This “automation paradox” highlights how individual, specialized tools (CI/CD platforms, project management systems, and communication tools) can increase complexity without addressing the fundamental coordination challenges facing today’s mobile engineering teams. In fact, research shows that significant automation investment has about as much impact on efficiency as no automation investment.

The 2025 State of Mobile Release Management Report surveyed 300 senior mobile engineers across the US and UK to understand how mobile teams release at scale and where hidden costs exist in their processes. Among its key findings:

1. Automation alone isn't solving the problem. Paradoxically, teams who spent the most amount of time per release on low-value work (6-10 hours) were the - same teams who had invested the most in automating their release processes. This highlights how automation and related tooling can actually increase complexity without addressing core coordination challenges.

2. Mobile releases waste massive amounts of time and resources. Engineers spend an average of 5 hours per release on non-productive tasks like manual coordination, approvals, and context switching—equivalent to losing more than 3 full engineering weeks annually to preventable process waste.

3. Faster releases don’t imply better processes. Teams releasing biweekly or faster actually experience more waste per release, with 44% of biweekly+ teams spending 6-10 hours per release on low-value work compared to 30% of teams that release monthly. Market pressure to ship faster creates exponential coordination challenges without proper tooling and processes in place.

4. Hotfixes have become too normalized. Over three-quarters (77%) of teams experience incidents requiring hotfixes every fourth release, reflecting a pattern of regular disruption that diverts resources from feature development to firefighting and increases stress in teams.

5. The coordination gap is costing businesses. Teams estimate that better release coordination could have prevented 63.1% of past release incidents, directly improving product quality and user experience and safeguarding revenue.

"As former mobile engineers, we've lived through the chaos of fragmented release processes firsthand—but we’ve also seen that mobile teams often overlook the real impact of this status quo. This research confirms that mobile teams are burning engineering weeks on release overhead and suffering from unnecessary quality issues." - Gabriel Savit, Runway CEO and Co-founder

The 2025 State of Mobile Release Management Report offers actionable insights for mobile engineering leaders looking to quantify the impact of mobile releases and to foster internal advocacy for better processes. By leveraging the Report’s findings, teams can:
- Benchmark their current mobile release process against industry standards
- Quantify the ROI of improved releases in terms of recovered engineering time and improve app quality
- Reduce incident rates through better visibility and coordination
- Transform release management from a necessary evil into a competitive advantage

"Our goal with this Report is to give mobile engineering leaders the data they need to make a clear business case for investing in better release processes," Savit said. "The most surprising finding was that simply throwing more automation at the problem makes it worse. Mobile teams need holistic tools and processes that address both technical and human sides of release management, not just more point solutions to add to their already fragmented toolchain."

You can read the full report for free at https://www.runway.team/report/introduction-key-findings. Runway is also hosting a virtual panel discussion on the data, “Mobile DevEx: The hidden cost of releases”, with experts from Sentry (https://sentry.io) and other industry leaders Oct. 9, 2025 @ 10 am PT/1 pm ET. You can register for free here.

ABOUT THE REPORT
The 2025 State of Mobile Release Management Report is based on responses from 300 senior mobile engineers at companies with 500-10,000 employees in retail, B2B, fintech, and health verticals. The survey was administered by an independent research firm and captures responses from engineers who are actively involved in mobile release processes at companies with significant mobile-driven business and monthly or faster release cadences.

The Report's findings are based on responses collected between January and February 2025.

ABOUT RUNWAY
Runway is a mobile release management platform purpose-built by former mobile engineers who have lived through the pain of subpar mobile releases. By automating tedious tasks, unifying fragmented tools, and enhancing visibility and accountability around releases, Runway helps mobile teams save hours per release, reduce risk and stress, and improve collaboration and app quality.

Trusted by leading mobile teams at companies like DoorDash, Skyscanner, SoFi, monday.com, Kickstarter, and Turo, Runway ensures releases are transparent, repeatable, and hands-free so engineers can focus on building features instead of fighting fires.

Website: https://runway.team
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/runway-team/
Twitter: https://x.com/RunwayTeam
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@RunwayTeam

Riley Maguire
Runway
email us here

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