The decade is already over and the organizations across the world are searching for a way to remain relevant in the market. While the industries that undergo changes slowly are witnessing a paradigm shift in trends, what about the industries that undergo rapid changes? What about the software industry?

This past decade saw a lot of new trends come and go in Software engineering. While there are a ton of trends in software engineering right now, let us look at five trends that are likely to dominate 2020 and influence this year’s global economy.

Microservices

Let’s look at Hunter-gatherers for a minute. They learned to make microlithic tools only after a millennium or so of using monoliths.

So it is not surprising that a similar way of building software tools were conceived only at the beginning of the last decade even though monolithic software applications have been around for at least half a century.

Although building monolithic applications may seem like the obvious choice, they come with some serious business challenges. First off, they are difficult to manage and scale up. They might not be able to keep up with the pace of your interaction with the customers.

Microservices are built keeping in mind the services to customers. If a smaller module sees more customer traffic, you can just scale that up instead of scaling up the entire application. The loosely coupled services also give your organization the flexibility to allocate resources.

Microservices are a giant leap for the software industry just as microliths were for the human society and we believe that it is here to stay.

Progressive Web Applications

In the third quarter of 2018 alone, there were more than 25 billion native mobile app downloads from Google play and Apple’s App Store. Native apps send push notifications, are easy to access, and often work offline. What if we can apply all these features on the web? What can we achieve by doing so?

To begin with, PWAs work in all browsers that use progressive enhancement principles giving them a bigger user base. In addition to being responsive and connectivity independent, PWAs also eliminate the need to learn different languages. With such features, designers are already beginning to see broader user reach and traffic.  There is no doubt that PWAs are going to be a major trend for the foreseeable future.

Design Thinking
Have you heard of the story about the rivalry between NASA and ROSCOSMOS about writing in space? The Russians thought out of the box and used pencils while the Americans invented a space pen. This showcases a common error that all professionals make. We stick to our field and develop a narrow worldview. Whenever we are presented with a problem, we make several assumptions to arrive at a solution. This might hinder progress or simply result in a mediocre product.

Design thinking is a problem-solving approach which urges one to assess the problem and identify the causes of that problem. It urges designers and developers to empathize with the users, define their needs, ideate, create prototypes, and test the solutions.

Software developers always come across various problems and for businesses, user experience is one of the major factors that decide the ROI. Implementing Design Thinking can drastically improve user experience since it gives importance to users while developing a product.

Low Code App Development

Collaboration between business and IT teams can be tricky. What if developers are able to develop applications in a fraction of time and with minimal technical support? Low-code application development platforms can solve their business problems and increase productivity. Since, it employs drag-and-drop components and model driven logic through a graphic user interface; it takes very little time to develop them. Developers with different levels of experience can create applications for various devices and this has convinced organizations like Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce to develop Low Code App Development Platforms.

Organizations can buy these platforms to build innovative, customer friendly and efficient applications to tap the value from new technologies, engage customers and automate processes. Low code app development has the potential to digitally transform companies and create an impact and is definitely a major trend for 2020.

Serverless Cloud Architecture

Think about a world where you don’t have to worry about the infrastructure whenever you develop an application. Maintaining, debugging and monitoring dedicated servers affect your business goals and resources. Serverless cloud computing allows the cloud provider to allocate server space dynamically. Since, the architecture doesn’t warrant pre-purchased server space, you can solely focus on developing your application.

There is lesser need for maintaining backend infrastructure and hence, the need for hiring backend engineers is less. Moreover, it is easy to adopt microservices and SOA principles, allowing customers to receive new features quickly.

With some trends that have already established themselves, and with some only emerging, we think the software industry has a lot to look forward this year. Don’t you agree? Webinar

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