12 Future Predictions for Software Development

In this age of digital transformation, technology is emerging faster than ever before. Business owners must look for strategies and solutions to evolve and make their businesses thrive. In order to stay competitive, they should keep themselves updated and aware of the latest trends in the market. Let’s have a look at our predictions for software development in 2019. By adopting these trends, you can transform your business to a new level.

1. Containerization- Eases development, testing, and deployment

Migrating software from the developer’s PC to any other server often turns into a mess. This occurs when there are differences in machine environments, infrastructure, and libraries. Here the containerization technique can be of great help to the developers and testers alike. The way it works is it isolates the software from its environment; and it’s, therefore, able to virtually run anywhere. It lets the software work steadily, despite differences in development and deployment instances.

Containerization tools like Docker and Kubernetes will gain popularity. They make everything associated with deploying and managing the application easier.

2. Serverless architecture- Reduces overhead of managing and operating servers

Serverless technology will grow at an astounding rate in the years to come. This rising technology is expected to reach the pinnacle of the cloud ecosystem. Choosing serverless architecture increases the speed of development. It eliminates network management tasks, letting developers build and run applications and services without worrying about servers.

Benefits of serverless architecture:

No need to maintain any server
Applications can be scaled automatically
Provides built-in availability and fault-tolerance.

AWS Lambda is a serverless computing platform that enables the developer to run code for virtually any type of application with no need of a server and administration management. Though it’s not a new phenomenon, the advancement in serverless technology is going to pick up the pace in the coming years. NodeSource recently released NISolid for AWS Lambda. It will optimize the performance, security, and operational efficiency of serverless AWS Lambda functions.

3. Functional Programming- writing compressed and predictable code

Functional programming makes the code easier to follow, test and debug. Developers are adopting this approach for high-level abstraction, that hides a large number of implementation details. This makes the code compact and ensures fewer errors. Unlike the Single Page Application, it’s easy to maintain and debug the code in functional programming.

With Elm (programming language) and Facebook ReasonML (toolchain for OCaml), developers are accepting the functional programming solution to bring the language closer to the problem, and not vice-versa.

4. Build software with software: Create a fully functional app without any coding knowledge

Programming languages have become more flexible in syntax, easy to debug and deploy. Several tools are readily available to develop web and mobile applications without having any coding knowledge. They offer customization options and easy GUI to developers. This initiative will help developers to build an app in half the time. This would also bridge the gap between envisioning the software and building it in real life. Building and launching the app will become less daunting and more affordable.

5. Business Intelligence and Analytics module: Enable better decision making

Enterprises are growing their businesses by adopting more and more business intelligence (BI) and analytics modules into their products and services. Intelligent data collection and analysis are key aspects to drive more value from the data being generated by the systems. Embedding machine learning with BI and analytics module will become a trend in the future as they will deal with the complexity of data and carry data analysis efficiently.

6. AI first strategy: Making software smarter than before

Google and Microsoft are already evolving from a ‘mobile-first’ to an ‘AI-first’ world. Other companies are focusing on areas such as- geographical information, image recognition, and natural language processing. Embedding AI and Machine Learning techniques in the process of software development is becoming a key strategy for enterprises. AI-first strategy, from conversational digital assistants to self-driving technologies, are becoming conventional in software development.

7. Integration of security testing and DevOps: Affordable way to test the reliability of code

Automating the server and applications deployment is a key requirement in DevOps. Introducing security testing at the time of development is becoming the goal of DevOps. It is evolving and continuing to change the meaning of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Building the security code at the time of development will provide developers with real-time feedback of the code they are developing. Early security testing will be an affordable approach, as the cost is higher to rectify the code if it is introduced later in the cycle.

8. Edge computing: Process the data quickly

Businesses can benefit by adopting edge computing to increase their operational reliability and security for devices and data. Edge server takes off the load from the server side and processes the data closer to the user. This smaller transmission distance leads to faster response times. It’s of value in situations where we need to examine real-time data from IoT devices. But, in the future, we will see this in non-IoT areas as well, like implementing regulatory compliance locally instead of in a central data server.

9. Blockchain: Improve the transaction process

Enterprises are reaping the potential benefits of Blockchain technology. Blockchain collaboration with IoT, AI, and Edge computing are transforming businesses worldwide. Some Blockchain use cases are:

Improving the government services and ensure trust: Serve citizens’ needs, fight fraud and help meet compliance demands
Payment and digital currency: Enables 24/7 payment support system, enhanced regulatory compliance, secured networks, and robust access controls
Healthcare: Allows clinical data to be automatically aggregated, replicated and distributed among researchers and practitioners and provenance tracking and controls.

Blockchain will be a smart solution for software developers to build processes for revenue management, tracking supply chains, and simplified payment and medical claims processing, etc.

10. Custom application with API integration: Develop your software in lesser time

Third party API integration plays a pivotal role in shaping the APIs that developers are using today. With this approach, there will be a huge improvement in the business processes. Unlike custom development, using third-party API is less time consuming for developers. Integration of an already existing solution to match customers’ requirements is less expensive than full-fledged development. In 2019, businesses prefer to work mostly on integration between different services instead of custom software development.

11. Data-Driven Rating Systems: Intelligent data analysis to improve sales

With data-driven rating systems, companies are utilizing their employees’ behavioral data to improve their sales operations. The reliability of online reviews and ratings is heavily impacting businesses today, so they are looking for a platform that has intelligent data analytics techniques to generate objective ratings for their products and services. These systems are going to be crucial in decision-making.

12. Advanced Graphical tools: Illustrating workflows and products better

With the interdependence of the outside world and devices, software platforms are becoming trickier. Businesses require graphics tools to represent the process flows and working of their system. These tools will eradicate the ambiguity related to companies workflows, at the same time enabling the customers to better understand the products and services.