Software development in 2022: five realities CIOs should know

The nature of software will never really change . just as Capitol Canary Chief technology officer of the company Mikhail Opletayev said ,“ Software is a set of instructions that tell a computer what to do .”

per contra , software development ( Developers write and pass these instructions ) Will change regularly . as time goes on , Some principles remain more or less unchanged , But many aspects of how software is developed and produced are constantly developing , Such as languages and libraries 、 Method 、 Tools 、 pack 、 Testing, etc .

therefore , What it means to build and operate software , And the reality of what it means to build and lead a software development team . The following describes the successful IT Leaders understand the importance of modern software development 5 A reality .

1、 The developer experience is everything

“ The developer experience is everything ” This statement is a bit exaggerated , But it may be better than IT It's even worse to explain the scene word for word .

Shipa.io Chief technology officer of the company Ravi Lachhman say ,“ Today's CIOs need to understand the fact that , That is, they have the ability to shape the developer experience , This may be the most critical factor in attracting and retaining development talents .”

Developers with poor experience often don't release great software , Although it is a little simplistic to say so , But bad ( Or mediocre ) The problems caused by the developer experience will be even worse .

The competition for talents is real , Trying to fill a software development position does not mean that business managers are incompetent . But if you encounter difficulties in recruiting or retaining talent , While ignoring the developer experience , That's another matter .

Lachhman say ：“ Software developers seek new challenges to improve their skills , Expand their field and technical expertise , To maintain relevance , Get greater professional and financial returns . If the developer fails to provide such an opportunity , Software developers can easily leave to work for another company .”

Lachhman Shared some examples of how to prioritize and optimize the developer experience ：

• Realize responsibility rotation ： The CIO should allow software development engineers to periodically rotate different goals or workflows in digital transformation projects .
• Reduce friction ： CIOs should try to reduce obstacles from the initial idea of the developer to the production of the finished product .
• Authorize developers to view the results and build on them ： Empowering developers to quickly review and iterate over their achievements is also critical .
• Focus on and alleviate burnout ： Like anyone , The cognitive load of developers is limited , Few people like to constantly switch scenes .

The developer experience is more than recruiting and retention ： It is the cornerstone of good software . It is now also a successful digital transformation ( Or failure ) Indicators of —— Prioritizing employee experience and reducing burnout is a recent release 《 Harvard Business Analytics service report 》 One of the key recommendations for maintaining the momentum of digital transformation .

Lachhman Express , In this regard , Developer longevity is often a positive indicator .

Lachhman say ,“ In view of the valuable knowledge accumulated over time , The rich experience of software developers is an important advantage for enterprises to implement the journey of digital transformation , Retaining software developers means keeping them engaged and motivated . Developers have had a positive experience , Will achieve greater success , And get more power in the process of digital transformation .”

2、 Automation is everywhere

If the experience of developers is the core of the success of software teams , Then automation will help the technology succeed . The speed and frequency of today's software development may cause even the best software developers to be tired ; Automation is helping developers without disrupting the team or the system .

IT Automation is nothing new , But it is stronger than ever , And almost everywhere , From testing and security to deployment and expansion . Continuous integration (CI)/ Continuous delivery (CD) The pipeline reflects this reality , The enterprise is right Kubernetes The same is true of the mass adoption of .

Automation for IT Leaders bring some concerns , Including the consequent fear of job safety . Enterprise leaders recognize that automation is a powerful tool , It enables software teams to use the same ( Or less ) Resources to do more , Instead of just putting unsustainable stress and workload on the team .

3、 Decentralization is increasingly becoming the norm

So is software development IT A link to the trend of decentralization ： In a container 、 Microservice architecture 、 Open source 、 For example, mixed cloud and cloudy .

All these reflect the new methods and patterns of how to build and run software in an increasingly decentralized and heterogeneous way . All this reflects the cost 、 performance 、 government 、 New opportunities and new complexities in security .

2022 Beginning of the year , Capgemini Americas customized software development GTM Responsible person and cloud computing center of excellence (CoE) Person in charge vice president Kaushik De Express , Models such as containerization and hybrid clouds reflect IT In meeting customers 、 Board of directors 、 partners 、 Investors and other stakeholders play an indispensable role in the huge demand for digital transformation and innovation .

The relationship between hybrid cloud and edge computing is deepened, and the development of edge applications , Is one of the emerging examples of this broad trend .

But decentralization does not mean letting go . On the contrary , As distributed software development and infrastructure become the norm ,IT Leaders need to find platforms and processes that enable control and flexibility .

De say ,“ Business leaders should expect to see a platform that controls what environments and services people can provide .”

4、 Security is essential

It should be obvious , but IT Professionals know the reality ： For a long time , Security has always been regarded as an afterthought in the software development life cycle , Whether it's intentional 、 Ignorance is another root cause ： This is something that others need to worry about .

This is changing , Probably never change . In many enterprises , Strong security is now a board level issue . And there are too many threats , The cost of not taking adequate measures to prevent and mitigate these threats is too high , So let's not neglect ., CEO of Bank of America Brian Moynihan stay 2021 Annual representation , The company currently spends more than... On network security every year 10 Billion dollars .

Although this is a particularly large security budget , But it is part of a broader trend ： stay Red Hat The company's 2021 In the global technology outlook , Security is listed as the top overall funding priority ,45% Interviewed IT Leaders make it their top priority .

just as Red Hat Company technical evangelist Gordon Haff As pointed out at the time , At least part of the money is used to survive in an extremely complex threat environment . But it also reflects the need to embed... Throughout the software development pipeline ( And automate as much as possible ) Greater security concerns , Especially considering the trend of decentralization and external container registry 、 Libraries and other software components .

Haff writes ,“ Raise awareness of issues such as software supply chain security , Understand the sources and vulnerabilities associated with dependencies such as libraries , This is an important step towards alleviating these problems .”

5、 Software is business

The last point is , Software development as the background IT The era of a fuzzy technology island in function should be officially declared to be over .

This reality may not yet be deeply rooted in every enterprise , But that doesn't make it less real . Software development is inextricably linked with the top and bottom . No software development , There is no digital transformation . Choose any of the major buzzwords in the business world (“ Digital transformation ”), Software almost inevitably works .

This reality has another dimension ： It's not magic .IT And business leaders need to focus on and consciously understand the way they develop software 、 reason 、 Time and place , In order to make IT Make a great impact , Such as innovation commitment .

Haff say ,“ Modern software development should do something different for the business of enterprises , For example, improve the customer experience and increase revenue , Or maybe you should ask why you did it .”