Software development trends come and go. Throughout the long history of software development, new innovations such as software development methodologies, technologies, and software development programming languages have appeared on the scene. Some of them, for example, C, have stayed the course. Other software development trends like the system development life cycle (SDLC) methodology or the RPG programming language had a long life but were then superseded. Adopting the latest software development trends without fully understanding them has never been a good idea. For example, when relational databases first appeared, the top database in the trending software development technologies was UNIFY paired with the ACCELL programming language. Oracle was a few places down the list. It took just three years for Oracle to take the lead in the latest software development trends, and UNIFY and ACCELL soon became niche solutions with no investment and a shortage of skilled software development staff.
Software Development Trends to Watch
However, it’s essential for any organization to stay appraised of the recent trends in software development. This will help you on your continuing journey to build cutting-edge digital products at optimal cost. As we get to the third decade in the 2000s, what are the current software development trends that you need to keep an eye on? Here are some of them:
- GitOps
- Low code
- Blockchain
- Cloud Computing
GitOps:
The goal of the GitOps software development methodology is to provide a ‘single source of the truth’ regarding your software configuration. It uses a free and open-source distributed version control system known as Git. This was created to manage the code for any size or shape of the software development project quickly and efficiently. All changes to code are introduced through the Git repository, facilitating easy auditing and error-tracking. GitOps is most suited to agile development approaches, but might not suit more traditional waterfall software development methods.
Low-code:
The purpose of Low-code is to simplify the process of software creation. The ongoing need to reduce the time taken to deliver software developments inspired the creation of different platforms where software can be developed by “solving a puzzle” of different features in a graphical interface completely devoid of programming, hence ‘low-code.’ This means that someone with no coding experience can create customized software using drag-and-drop, making the delivery of digital products much faster, easier, and cheaper. The approach is good for standardized operations, but coding can still be needed for complex functionality and integration.
Blockchain:
Blockchain arose from the need to provide secure information hosting, initially for financial transactions. It organizes data as a chain of encrypted data blocks, where one transaction is equal to one block. Each block in the chain contains data and hash numbers corresponding to the previous and the succeeding blocks. This makes it impossible to add new blocks or implement any changes without then being detected. Hacking a blockchain system is almost impossible due to its secure architecture. However, it is a complicated system where control over the data is distributed among all the participants of the chain and where the user cannot just do something privately.
Cloud computing:
Although cloud computing in its current form has now been popular for a decade, the massive increase in home working sparked by the global COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for workers to be able to access the applications that they need from anywhere. This has brought cloud computing back into the top software development trends, as more and more software developments need to be brought into the cloud. Cloud computing provides remote data storage and processing, accessible from anywhere using a local application or web browser. Examples of widely used cloud computing services are Google Services and Amazon Web services. Cloud computing solutions significantly reduce reliance on having specialist IT infrastructure skills in your organization and can provide always-on, scalable, secure processing and storage services, accessible from any device and from virtually any location in the world.
Summary:
Software Development Trends
Software development trends come and go. Throughout the long history of software development, new innovations such as methodologies, technologies, and programming languages have appeared on the scene. It’s essential for any organization to stay appraised of the recent trends in software development. This will help you on your continuing journey to build cutting-edge digital products at optimal cost. Here are some of the current trends: GitOps, Low code, Blockchain, Cloud Computing
