The future of software: Where do we go from here?
Where do you see the future of software going? What can development companies start to expect? We asked Craig, a technologist, who shared his thoughts on two recent trends:
From Consumer to the Enterprise
Mobile has really grown up. We’ve seen a shift in interest from the consumer marketplace and the explosion of applications that have occurred there to the enterprise, and larger enterprises now having to acknowledge that the success of mobile devices in the consumer world needs to have a similar success inside their large enterprise workforces.
They all know that there’s productivity they can unlock if they can get the right application into the hands of their employees, but it’s still a relatively complex and difficult proposition.
Why? Individuals have preferences of which phone they like — Android VS iOS — users boarder on having a religious commitment to their specific brand of device. Because of this, enterprises realize they have to service all of the different devices and form factors that their employees might bring to the table, but they have to do so in a way that’s fiscally responsible.
This trend is driving a shift in how we build these applications and the amount of focus that cross-platform investments are receiving. Enterprises want to figure out how to make their dollar go as far as possible to achieve the lowest total cost of ownership possible. They’re not looking for the best possible user experience, but they’re searching for one that’s good enough to service the needs of their employees across whatever device they may bring.
How does this impact developers?
As a technologist, we’ve seen increased specialization occurring with engineers focusing on just being a mobile developer or just being a web front-end developer, or just a back-end developer. Even within our own organization, we’re organized that way with those specialties inside our practices.
But, more and more common, you’re not trying to build just a mobile app, or just a fancy web front-end, or just a back-end system, you need all of those things in a solution. And if you have that much specialization going on, it’s hard to find the right mix of talent on the team to be able to build a feature that spans the mobile device, the web and the back end systems. Especially in a small feature team that can only have 6–8 people on it.
So, we’re seeing is an increasing demand for more full stack engineers — people that can do development anywhere in that stack from mobile through web and to back end while having the breadth of skills to be able to do that. And from a technology point of view, that’s more and more possible all the time because there are now more cohesive technology stacks that allow you to build one development language skill set but be able to use that language in all three tiers.
Want more? Watch as Craig and Ryan chat about the future of software:
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Authored by Sarah Rockholt.
