If the past decade has been a period of rapid digitalization, then in the current decade we will consolidate this transformation, driving innovation at an even faster pace. Especially in the new post-covid world when almost every business has faced the new reality of being isolated from consumers (everyone remembers the times when almost everything was closed and customers were forced to buy goods and order services online,as a result businesses became interested in moving digital as never before, like barbershops) and goods developers suffered from the lack of automation and smart robotics (even now we have a collapse in auto industry, that appeared based on quarantine restrictions and import/export issues in Asia where lots of factories are built). All of this caused a new wave in remote management, like building energy management systems (BEMS) or IoT-powered smart LED lighting. All of this together opened new potential of the new way of building software development projects.
Over the years, software development has undergone significant revolutions with many different themes. There was a time of massive shift towards agility that fostered iterative and collaborative development. Another era began with microservices and APIs that allowed developers to build smaller applications and build with fewer resources.
Therefore, as we enter a new era of software development with a focus on creating smarter and more innovative software, it is important to know what the industry leaders are doing.
Therefore, in this article, we will look at research involving technology leaders in various fields to identify trends of the most important thoughts and ideas that are expected to influence software development in 2021 and in the coming years.
“No code” development approach
No-Code is an approach to software development that requires little or no coding skills. This allows people with no programming knowledge to edit applications using drag and drop and similar visual processes.
The growing popularity of codeless platforms will change the way we think about software and open up new horizons for a whole new group of “developers”.
For Wade Foster, CEO of Zapier, codeless development is about empowerment. As for the future of development without code, he is very optimistic and believes that:
In less than a year, there will be no more code than product coding.
The first no-code product will go public over the next five years.
Over the next five years, there will be more use of codeless tools.
He is not the only one who shares these hopes. Gartner predicts that by 2024, 65% of all application development will be based on low code, which is considered a revolution.
Indeed, code-free development democratizes the development process by providing scalable technology solutions to a much wider audience and making them easier to use across all industries. No-code solutions will undoubtedly accelerate innovation and new software products. After all, anyone with a good idea can start a new business with a highly scalable, efficient, and customizable product.
Automation testing and DevOps
One of the main trends in software testing lately is the adoption of Agile and DevOps.
When asked what testing best practices he recommends to avoid release delays, Brendan O’Leary, Senior Development Evangelist at GitLab, said, “The more you can consolidate, automate, and integrate testing into your entire DevOps stream, the more dividends “.
When testers use disparate tools to create and run tests, and developers use different tools to deploy a product, the proliferation of different tools makes it difficult for organizations to create a single DevOps stream in which teams can more easily collaborate and share information. As a result, these organizations are often faced with duplicate efforts and development goals for testers and developers.
O’Leary also recommends starting with automated testing rather than turning it on in the last stages. “While it may be an upfront investment to start with, the benefit is that once an automated test program is created, it will be much easier to repeat than to start from scratch.”
Once you have a solid foundation, such as an automated test deployment pipeline, it is much easier to integrate additional testing tools for specific use cases. This is where DevOps practices can help speed up the overall development cycle and improve the productivity of software delivery.
