Software development trends of 2021

The year 2020 has become challenging for businesses as they face the urge to leverage the new management models to successfully organize the workflows for employees and maintain smooth customer experiences.

Things have not changed in 2021, and companies keep enabling digital transformation at a rapid pace: the first demand of most businesses today is to organize convenient remote infrastructures within the shortest time.

Although the demand for IT solutions has been already high during the past decade, the current situation showed the unprecedented call for new digital features and functions. It results in new challenges for developers who need to find novel solutions for businesses.

Most of these solutions have already existed, but the pandemic turned them into hot trends in the IT market. This review will consider the changes in the current software development priorities and how these changes will affect the future.

High demand for developer talent

Developers are the key figures of the IT market, so the companies consider their digital transformation as a thing related to finding new talents. Thus, the demand for IT professionals is growing, and the figures prove it: the hiring of IT professionals has significantly grown in most industries since the pandemics began. Among the most required specialists are engineers, developers, and digital marketers.

Although the demand is higher than ever before, there is a significant lack of talent. The shortage of professionals globally slows down the whole digital transformation process, so accessible education might turn into the top priority of the companies and government. The training programs (for instance, Microsoft’s global skills initiative) are supposed to prepare and onboard new specialists by providing free education and information, cheap certification, and job offers.

Growing new talents

The skills initiatives for adults are a quick solution for current demand, but engaging a new generation of developers is also essential. The interest in the IT industry will remain high, so many companies choose to inspire children and youth by launching special entertaining and educational programs. The learning content that will educate, entertain, and inspire is the next big trend of the nearest future.

Remote learning tools: YouTube and more

As education tends to go in the virtual environment, too, companies like Microsoft pay attention to creating various tools for learning. Such tools vary from video lessons for self-learners to platforms for remote educations, with all solutions for educators and students. Such platforms help develop a friendly tech environment and enable the creation of infrastructures for a high-quality remote learning process. The infrastructures involve various tools that enable efficient collaboration between novice developers and teachers and boost the growth of new talent.

Remote-first approach

Although many businesses have got back to their normal office routine lately, the remote work is here to stay for a long time. Many companies shifted to a so-called hybrid schedule when employees must work at an office only half of the time, while some adopted a fully-remote approach. For instance, Linkedin saw a 4,5x increase of remote positions, and Microsoft aims to foster a more inclusive remote-first environment. 

Inclusive and supportive team cultures and human-centered developer tools

A human-centered design is a particular approach to software development that implies creating solutions focused on users. In other words, developers must look at the whole process from the human perspective, which means they are supposed to be open to user feedback and community input. 

To apply the human-centered approach successfully, IT developers require particular tools and environments that make it possible to establish the right connection and communication. Such tools involve collaborative solutions like mentoring, learning, pair-programming, proper onboarding of new employees, and more, with the primary aim to create a strong connection and supportive environment in developing teams.

Scaling out with the open-source

The latest trends show increased interest in open-source project creation. Instead of inventing brand-new solutions from scratch, software developers opt for using open source. As the market requires leveraging novel technologies rapidly, IT specialists focus on the particular business needs in their software, so the majority of modern applications contain open-source components. Besides, open source is a special community that may help to foster new skills.

Scaling out with low-code solutions

New business demands forced developers to embed new solutions that allow companies to operate in a different way. Low-code tools tend to be on the top of such solutions today, and professional developers tend to adopt them more often than before. It enables the teams to provide the others with the reusable components, so developers are able to adapt and leverage them in their work.

The latest statistics show that low code solutions might turn into the key tools for business software development.

Continuing to build, grow and learn

The pandemic after-effect will last: it has already left its trace in the tech industry. Current trends and needs will remain, and the new ones will most likely appear in the near future to keep changing the market and supporting businesses and communities.