Top Trends In Software Development

Keeping up with the latest trends is not always a bad thing – especially in the world of software development. For a software development company, such as BairesDev, trends indicate where the industry is heading and where businesses should be focusing in the near future.

From new development methods and customer preferences to emerging technologies, trends are key indicators as to which skills software development providers should be on the look for. Staying on top of the latest and greatest in the industry is a good way for companies to future-proof their development skills to ensure that they are keeping up with the times.

Today’s Top Software Development Trends

The speed at which technology evolves makes it even more important for software developers to stay updated with the current trends. After all, software is the backbone of the computer world. Below are just a few of the most popular software trends that companies and development teams of all sizes should have on their radar:

Artificial Intelligence

Although artificial intelligence has been used as a buzzword or a thought for the future in the past, modern technology has finally become powerful enough to make AI tools a reality. From machine learning and deep learning to broader applications of AI programs, many organizations are starting to depend on artificial intelligence on a daily basis regardless of their niche, industry, or size.

The future of not only software development, but technology itself lies in big data, algorithms, and other machine-powered AI tools that can draw new conclusions and automate processes. For example, chatbots have become a trend on nearly every modern website and app. Artificial intelligence has replaced human customer service representatives in these instances and provides more accurate customer behavior analysis. AI helps make every task automatic while maintaining or even improving accuracy, reliability, and overall speed.

Cross-Platform Development

Historically, application development has meant choosing a single platform (such as iOS or Android) to start on. Then, once the app is built on the first platform, software developers could create another version for a different platform. This required quite a bit of time and devotion of resources to port the code between the various operating systems.

New tools, such as Google’s Flutter and Appcelerator Titanium, have become trends in the world of development as they make life easier for developers by allowing the writing of apps that work on nearly every mobile and desktop platform. While there have been similar tools available in the past, these new technologies create apps that behave natively while maintaining performance and taking advantage of native APIs and interfaces.

Blockchain

Although talk of bitcoin and cryptocurrency has rapidly declined as a trend, the blockchain technology behind it is increasing in popularity. Blockchain is typically used in the world of finance, but it is now applicable to a variety of industries including media and publishing, healthcare, and banking. This technology helps in the process of securing and simplifying the recording of transactions in a decentralized ledger. It can store any type of record in a public-facing database that is secure from cybercriminals and hackers.

The tech’s reliability and safety have posed blockchain to become a major player in the world of software development. Distributed apps, for example, are a fairly recent development in tech-based on blockchain apps. Software developers looking to create decentralized and secure open-source solutions will find this trend to be particularly helpful.

Internet of Things

The Internet of Things has exploded in popularity in recent years. From smart microwaves to motor vehicles, smartphones and laptops are definitely not the only devices connected to the internet nowadays. With the addition of 5G wireless networks, more and more devices will connect to the internet. Being that these devices are also always on and communicating, a major trend for software developers in the near future is the writing of energy-efficient code for these always-on devices.

Low-Code Development

The software development process has historically called for teams of computer science experts, dedicated testers, and expert coders to fully create a product or solution. This can sometimes make the process time-consuming and expensive. Low-code development is a trend that all software developers need to know about. This process makes it simple to code applications through the use of graphical user interfaces instead of more complex programming languages.

Low-code development platforms often feature drag-and-drop interfaces for visual application building rather than writing code for each piece or aspect of a project. This allows devs to fully visualize an application without getting stuck in the writing of every detail. Low-code development has recently become popular in the development of business applications as it allows for the building of software for less time and money. It is slowly making its way into other business sectors as well.

Trends are constantly coming and going, but these software development trends are only going to continue to grow in popularity and use cases throughout the industry and beyond.