Software Development Trends 2016

In the year 2016 software development approaches will change tremendously, according to Forrester, an independent technology research company headquartered in Cambridge, USA.

Very demanding requirements of the customers are the main reason for transformation.

Everyone needs software for their business, be it a website, a mobile app, analytics tools or anything else. On the one hand, this makes software engineers and software development teams highly demanded. But on the other hand, developers are pressured and often blamed for being too slow or not flexible.

Methodologies which allow software developers go agile and increase flexibility are well-known. But to put these approaches to a good use, oftentimes companies have to change their organization structures. Not every company is ready and willing to do this.

Forrester analysts hold an opinion that 2016 will bring changes to this situation.

It won’t do for a long term without a rapid changeability, so development teams will be built based on flexibility and agile approach. This can seriously transform working environments and software development culture.

Here Are Some More Trends to Take into Account:

1. The most crucial skill to acquire and improve will be JavaScript development. This programming language is becoming one of the most influential and it is estimated that in 2016 employers will energetically look for JavaScript engineers.

2. Shortage of talented software developers and engineers is increasing, what applies to both Europe and the USA. Companies have to create a well-thought hiring and talent management system in order not to end up in a “you snooze, you lose” situation.

3. Developers should be able to imagine a user of a mobile app as a customer first. This means that during the development process they do not keep in mind a traditional HTML web page that somehow needs to be shrunk to the screen size of a mobile device, but vice versa.

To be able to think and develop this way, software engineers obviously have to use new frameworks and new programming languages.

4. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for mobile solutions are becoming more and more important. Development teams should put care and many efforts into developing them.

5. Testing of mobile apps will be increasingly automated and become significantly cheaper than today. Examples of standardized test environments are Amazon's AWS Device Farm or Google's Cloud Test Lab. This also means that software products will get better, as bugs will be found faster and the process itself will be more reliable.

6. The market of SaaS providers will expand. In 2016 the global turnover in this sector is expected to exceed one billion dollars, according to Forrester.