Every tech professional knows the importance of staying on top of the latest industry trends. From DevSecOps to low-code apps, software development trends change as fast as technology itself. To stay current, you not only need to consider the present state of technology, but you must also look ahead.
As successful tech leaders, the members of Forbes Technology Council study both current and forecasted industry trends. Below, they share 16 software development trends they predict will dominate the technology sector in the months ahead.
1. Low-Code/No-Code Platforms
Low-code/no-code will only continue to rise in po[CENSORED]rity. The history of computing is building higher-level abstractions away from the zeroes and ones—from yesterday’s assembly languages and compiled software to today’s modern low-code/no-code solutions. Through these solutions, businesses can move forward in their digital transformation without a technical resource at every step. -
2. Machine Learning Operations
Machine learning operations are needed to advance to at least a modicum of operational excellence. MLOps includes elements such as automated concept-drift detection (i.e., how does production data differ from the data used to train the model), real-time feedback on key model KPIs in production, and pre-built support for continually updating models based on production success and integration
3. User Experience Design
User experience design matters more than ever before. Across every industry, companies are reimagining their customer engagement models to better adjust to the disruption created by the pandemic. User-experience-led software design is critical for redesigning customer-facing products and services in ways that allow companies to retain and recapture business in today’s all-digital environment.
4. DevSecOps
DevSecOps is becoming increasingly concerned about developer access to the entire stack. Broad permissions assigned to developers could lead to mass destruction of the cloud infrastructure either by an insider threat or by accident. As a result, DevSecOps teams are monitoring activity and access to identify permission access and use that to assign the least privileges. - Michael Raggo,
5. Near-Perfect Digital Experiences
In the blink of an eye, providing near-perfect digital experiences went from a novelty to table stakes. As the number of applications skyrockets and cloud infrastructure becomes ubiquitous, front-end development takes center stage. Developers will take on skills and responsibilities that resemble operations to improve efficiency, accelerate remediation and bring massive improvements to the customer experience.
6. Native Mobile-Development Languages
I expect trendy native mobile-development languages (Kotlin, Swift) and programming languages focused on improving product speed, memory safety and parallelism (such as Rust) to have a promising future. This expectation is associated with the growing demands of users for app quality, personalization and speed. .
7. Progressive Web Apps
DevSecOps teams should pay close attention to the growing use of progressive Web apps. Combined with the adoption of advanced low-code technologies, the rapid expansion of PWA usage enables the development of more cross-platform applications. App developers must ensure that security is baked in from the start to ensure timely deployments and updates for customers. - Will LaSala, OneSpan
8. The API Economy
Building a complex API economy to make offline consumer channels like mail and digital out-of-home smarter and faster is dominating the industry and will continue to do so in the months ahead. It’s clear that mail, in particular, still matters to Americans, and digitally transforming the mail workflow will enable companies to leverage an often-overlooked channel of communication. - Leore Avidar, Lob
9. A ‘Shift Left’ Approach To Security And Compliance
To date, security and compliance practices have been mainly reactive, as teams scramble to remediate security issues after creation. By employing a “shift left” approach, developers and security teams work together to proactively identify security issues before cloud resources are deployed. This approach improves developer productivity and stops security and compliance risks before runtime. - Chris DeRamus, DivvyCloud by Rapid7
10. Balanced Development Automation
One trend is the move away from software development automation to balanced development automation, which includes other business teams such as risk, compliance and legal. Now a critical process for every company, software development is evolving from automated tech pipelines to value streams where “cross-functional” means going beyond IT into other parts of the organization as well. - Altaz Valani, Security Compass
16 Software Development Trends That Will Soon Dominate The Tech Industry
Expert Panel®
Forbes Councils Member
Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POST| Membership (fee-based)
Innovation
Closeup of hands typing on a keyboard to input code; software development concept.
GETTY
Every tech professional knows the importance of staying on top of the latest industry trends. From DevSecOps to low-code apps, software development trends change as fast as technology itself. To stay current, you not only need to consider the present state of technology, but you must also look ahead.
As successful tech leaders, the members of Forbes Technology Council study both current and forecasted industry trends. Below, they share 16 software development trends they predict will dominate the technology sector in the months ahead.
1. Low-Code/No-Code Platforms
Low-code/no-code will only continue to rise in po[CENSORED]rity. The history of computing is building higher-level abstractions away from the zeroes and ones—from yesterday’s assembly languages and compiled software to today’s modern low-code/no-code solutions. Through these solutions, businesses can move forward in their digital transformation without a technical resource at every step. - David Karandish, Capacity
2. Machine Learning Operations
Machine learning operations are needed to advance to at least a modicum of operational excellence. MLOps includes elements such as automated concept-drift detection (i.e., how does production data differ from the data used to train the model), real-time feedback on key model KPIs in production, and pre-built support for continually updating models based on production success and integration with AutoML. - Sreenivasan Iyer, Shasta Ventures
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3. User Experience Design
User experience design matters more than ever before. Across every industry, companies are reimagining their customer engagement models to better adjust to the disruption created by the pandemic. User-experience-led software design is critical for redesigning customer-facing products and services in ways that allow companies to retain and recapture business in today’s all-digital environment. - Raj Patil, Orion Innovation
4. DevSecOps
DevSecOps is becoming increasingly concerned about developer access to the entire stack. Broad permissions assigned to developers could lead to mass destruction of the cloud infrastructure either by an insider threat or by accident. As a result, DevSecOps teams are monitoring activity and access to identify permission access and use that to assign the least privileges. - Michael Raggo, CloudKnox
5. Near-Perfect Digital Experiences
In the blink of an eye, providing near-perfect digital experiences went from a novelty to table stakes. As the number of applications skyrockets and cloud infrastructure becomes ubiquitous, front-end development takes center stage. Developers will take on skills and responsibilities that resemble operations to improve efficiency, accelerate remediation and bring massive improvements to the customer experience. - Milin Desai, Sentry.io
6. Native Mobile-Development Languages
I expect trendy native mobile-development languages (Kotlin, Swift) and programming languages focused on improving product speed, memory safety and parallelism (such as Rust) to have a promising future. This expectation is associated with the growing demands of users for app quality, personalization and speed. - Alexey Makarov, Qulix Systems
7. Progressive Web Apps
DevSecOps teams should pay close attention to the growing use of progressive Web apps. Combined with the adoption of advanced low-code technologies, the rapid expansion of PWA usage enables the development of more cross-platform applications. App developers must ensure that security is baked in from the start to ensure timely deployments and updates for customers. - Will LaSala, OneSpan
8. The API Economy
Building a complex API economy to make offline consumer channels like mail and digital out-of-home smarter and faster is dominating the industry and will continue to do so in the months ahead. It’s clear that mail, in particular, still matters to Americans, and digitally transforming the mail workflow will enable companies to leverage an often-overlooked channel of communication. - Leore Avidar, Lob
9. A ‘Shift Left’ Approach To Security And Compliance
To date, security and compliance practices have been mainly reactive, as teams scramble to remediate security issues after creation. By employing a “shift left” approach, developers and security teams work together to proactively identify security issues before cloud resources are deployed. This approach improves developer productivity and stops security and compliance risks before runtime. - Chris DeRamus, DivvyCloud by Rapid7
10. Balanced Development Automation
One trend is the move away from software development automation to balanced development automation, which includes other business teams such as risk, compliance and legal. Now a critical process for every company, software development is evolving from automated tech pipelines to value streams where “cross-functional” means going beyond IT into other parts of the organization as well. - Altaz Valani, Security Compass
11. Vulnerability Disclosure Programs
As DHS BOD 20-01 mandates vulnerability disclosure programs across all U.S. agencies, I expect the trend of “expecting, identifying and mitigating security failure” through VDPs to dominate the back half of 2020. Open-source policy templates like disclose.io have provided free assistance around Election Security VDPs, and implementation of these programs continues to get easier. - Casey Ellis, Bugcrowd
12. Mobile-Responsive Design
I think it’s safe to say that mobile-responsive design is on the rise and will remain that way for years to come. We all use our smartphones for shopping, connecting with friends and reading content online. All of this is dependent on intuitive mobile-friendly design. I suspect we will continue to see more emphasis on mobile development and a decrease in desktop optimization. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster
13. Continuous Integration And Delivery
I predict the rapid adoption of continuous integration and delivery as part of a larger shift towards DevOps so organizations can fail fast and drive rapid digital transformation. CI/CD involves continuous testing to identify and resolve bugs before they lead to downtime and the use of automated pipelines for technology deployments so teams can continuously deliver value to the end customer. - Shiv Sundar, Esper
14. Code-As-A-Service
Code-as-a-service will speed the pace of leveraging platform-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service—and thus cloud computing. CaaS will aid in the ever-growing need for universal development (unlike single platforms such as iOS or Android) and will also provide built-in artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things and blockchain modules, allowing developers easy access to these top in-demand technologies.
15. E-Commerce Cloud Integration
Cloud integration will become a higher priority for e-commerce. Some cloud-based e-commerce platforms have seen that failure to integrate with outside services will mean that business owners will migrate to more suitable storefronts. Users want to have access to as many options as possible to optimize their cloud platforms.
16. Serverless Computing
The serverless computing paradigm as a disruptive architectural approach has become very po[CENSORED]r in recent years. Today it’s one of the fastest-growing cloud services models for software development—models that continue to dominate the industry. This is because it enables rapid application development without the headache of server management, and operations can be scaled up easily. -
Every tech professional knows the importance of staying on top of the latest industry trends. From DevSecOps to low-code apps, software development trends change as fast as technology itself. To stay current, you not only need to consider the present state of technology, but you must also look ahead. As successful tech leaders, the members of Forbes Technology Council study both current and forecasted industry trends. Below, they share 16 software development trends they predict will dominate the technology sector in the months ahead. 1. Low-Code/No-Code Platforms Low-code/no-code will only continue to rise in po[CENSORED]rity. The history of computing is building higher-level abstractions away from the zeroes and ones—from yesterday’s assembly languages and compiled software to today’s modern low-code/no-code solutions. Through these solutions, businesses can move forward in their digital transformation without a technical resource at every step. - 2. Machine Learning Operations Machine learning operations are needed to advance to at least a modicum of operational excellence. MLOps includes elements such as automated concept-drift detection (i.e., how does production data differ from the data used to train the model), real-time feedback on key model KPIs in production, and pre-built support for continually updating models based on production success and integration 3. User Experience Design User experience design matters more than ever before. Across every industry, companies are reimagining their customer engagement models to better adjust to the disruption created by the pandemic. User-experience-led software design is critical for redesigning customer-facing products and services in ways that allow companies to retain and recapture business in today’s all-digital environment. 4. DevSecOps DevSecOps is becoming increasingly concerned about developer access to the entire stack. Broad permissions assigned to developers could lead to mass destruction of the cloud infrastructure either by an insider threat or by accident. As a result, DevSecOps teams are monitoring activity and access to identify permission access and use that to assign the least privileges. - Michael Raggo, 5. Near-Perfect Digital Experiences In the blink of an eye, providing near-perfect digital experiences went from a novelty to table stakes. As the number of applications skyrockets and cloud infrastructure becomes ubiquitous, front-end development takes center stage. Developers will take on skills and responsibilities that resemble operations to improve efficiency, accelerate remediation and bring massive improvements to the customer experience. 6. Native Mobile-Development Languages I expect trendy native mobile-development languages (Kotlin, Swift) and programming languages focused on improving product speed, memory safety and parallelism (such as Rust) to have a promising future. This expectation is associated with the growing demands of users for app quality, personalization and speed. . 7. Progressive Web Apps DevSecOps teams should pay close attention to the growing use of progressive Web apps. Combined with the adoption of advanced low-code technologies, the rapid expansion of PWA usage enables the development of more cross-platform applications. App developers must ensure that security is baked in from the start to ensure timely deployments and updates for customers. - Will LaSala, OneSpan 8. The API Economy Building a complex API economy to make offline consumer channels like mail and digital out-of-home smarter and faster is dominating the industry and will continue to do so in the months ahead. It’s clear that mail, in particular, still matters to Americans, and digitally transforming the mail workflow will enable companies to leverage an often-overlooked channel of communication. - Leore Avidar, Lob 9. A ‘Shift Left’ Approach To Security And Compliance To date, security and compliance practices have been mainly reactive, as teams scramble to remediate security issues after creation. By employing a “shift left” approach, developers and security teams work together to proactively identify security issues before cloud resources are deployed. This approach improves developer productivity and stops security and compliance risks before runtime. - Chris DeRamus, DivvyCloud by Rapid7 10. Balanced Development Automation One trend is the move away from software development automation to balanced development automation, which includes other business teams such as risk, compliance and legal. Now a critical process for every company, software development is evolving from automated tech pipelines to value streams where “cross-functional” means going beyond IT into other parts of the organization as well. - Altaz Valani, Security Compass 16 Software Development Trends That Will Soon Dominate The Tech Industry Expert Panel® Forbes Councils Member Forbes Technology CouncilCOUNCIL POST| Membership (fee-based) Innovation Closeup of hands typing on a keyboard to input code; software development concept. GETTY Every tech professional knows the importance of staying on top of the latest industry trends. From DevSecOps to low-code apps, software development trends change as fast as technology itself. To stay current, you not only need to consider the present state of technology, but you must also look ahead. As successful tech leaders, the members of Forbes Technology Council study both current and forecasted industry trends. Below, they share 16 software development trends they predict will dominate the technology sector in the months ahead. 1. Low-Code/No-Code Platforms Low-code/no-code will only continue to rise in po[CENSORED]rity. The history of computing is building higher-level abstractions away from the zeroes and ones—from yesterday’s assembly languages and compiled software to today’s modern low-code/no-code solutions. Through these solutions, businesses can move forward in their digital transformation without a technical resource at every step. - David Karandish, Capacity 2. Machine Learning Operations Machine learning operations are needed to advance to at least a modicum of operational excellence. MLOps includes elements such as automated concept-drift detection (i.e., how does production data differ from the data used to train the model), real-time feedback on key model KPIs in production, and pre-built support for continually updating models based on production success and integration with AutoML. - Sreenivasan Iyer, Shasta Ventures MORE FROMFORBES ADVISOR Best Travel Insurance Companies ByAmy DaniseEditor Best Covid-19 Travel Insurance Plans ByAmy DaniseEditor Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify? 3. User Experience Design User experience design matters more than ever before. Across every industry, companies are reimagining their customer engagement models to better adjust to the disruption created by the pandemic. User-experience-led software design is critical for redesigning customer-facing products and services in ways that allow companies to retain and recapture business in today’s all-digital environment. - Raj Patil, Orion Innovation 4. DevSecOps DevSecOps is becoming increasingly concerned about developer access to the entire stack. Broad permissions assigned to developers could lead to mass destruction of the cloud infrastructure either by an insider threat or by accident. As a result, DevSecOps teams are monitoring activity and access to identify permission access and use that to assign the least privileges. - Michael Raggo, CloudKnox 5. Near-Perfect Digital Experiences In the blink of an eye, providing near-perfect digital experiences went from a novelty to table stakes. As the number of applications skyrockets and cloud infrastructure becomes ubiquitous, front-end development takes center stage. Developers will take on skills and responsibilities that resemble operations to improve efficiency, accelerate remediation and bring massive improvements to the customer experience. - Milin Desai, Sentry.io 6. Native Mobile-Development Languages I expect trendy native mobile-development languages (Kotlin, Swift) and programming languages focused on improving product speed, memory safety and parallelism (such as Rust) to have a promising future. This expectation is associated with the growing demands of users for app quality, personalization and speed. - Alexey Makarov, Qulix Systems 7. Progressive Web Apps DevSecOps teams should pay close attention to the growing use of progressive Web apps. Combined with the adoption of advanced low-code technologies, the rapid expansion of PWA usage enables the development of more cross-platform applications. App developers must ensure that security is baked in from the start to ensure timely deployments and updates for customers. - Will LaSala, OneSpan 8. The API Economy Building a complex API economy to make offline consumer channels like mail and digital out-of-home smarter and faster is dominating the industry and will continue to do so in the months ahead. It’s clear that mail, in particular, still matters to Americans, and digitally transforming the mail workflow will enable companies to leverage an often-overlooked channel of communication. - Leore Avidar, Lob 9. A ‘Shift Left’ Approach To Security And Compliance To date, security and compliance practices have been mainly reactive, as teams scramble to remediate security issues after creation. By employing a “shift left” approach, developers and security teams work together to proactively identify security issues before cloud resources are deployed. This approach improves developer productivity and stops security and compliance risks before runtime. - Chris DeRamus, DivvyCloud by Rapid7 10. Balanced Development Automation One trend is the move away from software development automation to balanced development automation, which includes other business teams such as risk, compliance and legal. Now a critical process for every company, software development is evolving from automated tech pipelines to value streams where “cross-functional” means going beyond IT into other parts of the organization as well. - Altaz Valani, Security Compass 11. Vulnerability Disclosure Programs As DHS BOD 20-01 mandates vulnerability disclosure programs across all U.S. agencies, I expect the trend of “expecting, identifying and mitigating security failure” through VDPs to dominate the back half of 2020. Open-source policy templates like disclose.io have provided free assistance around Election Security VDPs, and implementation of these programs continues to get easier. - Casey Ellis, Bugcrowd 12. Mobile-Responsive Design I think it’s safe to say that mobile-responsive design is on the rise and will remain that way for years to come. We all use our smartphones for shopping, connecting with friends and reading content online. All of this is dependent on intuitive mobile-friendly design. I suspect we will continue to see more emphasis on mobile development and a decrease in desktop optimization. - Thomas Griffin, OptinMonster 13. Continuous Integration And Delivery I predict the rapid adoption of continuous integration and delivery as part of a larger shift towards DevOps so organizations can fail fast and drive rapid digital transformation. CI/CD involves continuous testing to identify and resolve bugs before they lead to downtime and the use of automated pipelines for technology deployments so teams can continuously deliver value to the end customer. - Shiv Sundar, Esper 14. Code-As-A-Service Code-as-a-service will speed the pace of leveraging platform-as-a-service and infrastructure-as-a-service—and thus cloud computing. CaaS will aid in the ever-growing need for universal development (unlike single platforms such as iOS or Android) and will also provide built-in artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things and blockchain modules, allowing developers easy access to these top in-demand technologies. 15. E-Commerce Cloud Integration Cloud integration will become a higher priority for e-commerce. Some cloud-based e-commerce platforms have seen that failure to integrate with outside services will mean that business owners will migrate to more suitable storefronts. Users want to have access to as many options as possible to optimize their cloud platforms. 16. Serverless Computing The serverless computing paradigm as a disruptive architectural approach has become very po[CENSORED]r in recent years. Today it’s one of the fastest-growing cloud services models for software development—models that continue to dominate the industry. This is because it enables rapid application development without the headache of server management, and operations can be scaled up easily. -
