What are Decembers good for? Yes, they are about summarizing in the last years and building priorities for the upcoming one.
In this article, we will get a glimpse into how the software development world is going to look like in the next year and what you should include in your New Year resolutions and plans.
No matter how fast the niche develops and changes, we were able to find 8 software development market trends that will be hot and thriving in 2021. Moreover, we will take a look at the most popular development technologies and the most attractive niches for software developers. Let’s jump straight into it!
Software Development Trends Of the Upcoming Year
The Most Popular Development Technologies
HackerRank, a virtual meeting spot of developers from all around the world, has launched the largest survey on developers’ skills. More than 100,000 programmers from 162 countries took part in the research and that is what the international community has to say:
JavaScript is one of the most required languages in software development. Around 53% of hiring managers believe it to be one of the most important languages. HRs are also looking for fluent speakers of Python (49,5%) and Java (44,1%).
An interesting tendency is to be observed: hiring managers may not require any specific language but rather look for a fitting person. It is not as visible globally (14,3%) but one in five managers in the Americas is likely to be language agnostic.
The situation with the top frameworks is more dynamic, compared to languages. Angular JS, React, and Spring is still top-3. However, ExpressJS, ASP have lost their positions while Django went up. Indeed, with the rise of AI (we will tackle this later) and a consequent rise of Python, Django is becoming more and more widely used.
One more important indicator that is shaping the next year’s software development is what languages developers want to learn. This gives us an idea of what technologies are needed in projects, or can provide higher wages. According to the HackerRank report, the main languages developers want to learn are Go, Python, and Kotlin, and frameworks – React, AngularJS, and Django.
Niches Where Software Development is Thriving
COVID-19 did have an impact on the software development distribution in the niches. Obviously, there are niches that were put in the spotlight due to the pandemic, such as healthcare, education technology, e-commerce, fintech, cybersecurity, and others. We observed growth in demand in these niches and consequently their rapid progress in software development.
Since it looks like that the pandemic will not be over as soon as 2020 ends, these niches will still be in great need of new software. Moreover, many of us got so used to the benefits of edTech and e-commerce that the trend may stay here forever.
Cloud Technologies
Cloud technologies are yet another niche that rose significantly during the pandemic. In fact, 59% of enterprises expect to exceed their cloud usage plans.
First of all, as many companies are crashing under the restrictions, they try to save as much as possible and reduce their costs. Cloud computing is a perfect opportunity to do so.
Secondly, it is easier to work with clouds from the home office where you can not discuss the changes in a room or gain access to corporate laptops.
Therefore, it seems like the cloud is here to stay and continue to develop in 2021.
Human Augmentation, AR, and Mixed Reality
Since AR and mixed reality are actively used for remote training, healthcare, gaming, and human augmentation enhance human abilities by combining medicine and technology, it is obvious that these technologies will be developing given all the circumstances of the past year.
The approximate pace of the global mixed reality market growth is 73.2% per year in the next few years. And as always, bigger investments and more new projects appearing in the niche means more rapid tech progress and faster implementation of innovations.
IoT – A Trend of 2021 and Further
The Internet of Things may not be seen as the latest thing anymore but a part of our reality. The rapid growth of IoT has become so natural. Consequently, in 2021 it will be still thriving, and even more life-changing projects are to be expected.
Considering that humanity is still likely to stay at home after 2020, tech companies will come up with new ways to make not leaving the house more pleasurable. Software developers will be in much need of the projects’ realization.
AI Follows IoT
IoT is based on AI. Therefore, the niche will be as rapidly growing as the previous one.
Yet, it may face even a bigger boost. AI is widely used in offices to prevent gatherings, detect asymptomatic COVID-19 infected, and automate processes that require big human teams. AI also helps retailers to understand how customers adapt to stay-at-home policies and may predict and, by doing so, prevent other pandemics.
The Rise of Native Applications
Nowadays businesses that operate in high competitive niches have to provide the best experience for their users in order to stay commercially viable. That is why native applications design specifically for each platform become a trend. They help to achieve the high usability and functionality of the app.
That being said, the iOS and Android developers will be in demand in 2021 too.
PWAs as a Solution
Native apps are amazing but this flawlessness of their costs quite a lot. Companies who can not afford a native app will switch to PWAs that provide nearly as good an experience for a reasonable price.
PWAs (Progressive Web Apps) are web apps which is a fundamental difference from native apps on iOS and Android. But they allow achieving almost the same qualities as native apps in terms of speed, user experience, security, and so on.
Software Development Outsourcing is a Trend
It is official now: remote working is no worse than one in the office. While companies have more knowledge of how to work remotely and manage teams as well, they are less resistant to hire offshore developers and freelancers.
Usually, this allows them to choose from a bigger talent pool and even save money by hiring from offshore regions.
Low-Code and No-Code Development
It is obvious that during the crisis year businesses are trying to decrease their costs as much as possible and reduce staff members to do so. Therefore, they may not have money for a whole development team and will gladly use the opportunity to develop a needed app without knowledge of coding.
Therefore low-code or no-code solutions that make it possible to create websites or mobile apps for non-tech people are getting so popular. The approximate annual growth during the next 4 years is expected to be more than 28%.
Paradoxically, the growth of no-code solutions will increase the need for software engineers that develop these projects, especially as these tools are predicted to be more complex.
Conclusion
IT industry trends of 2021 predict further development of such technology like AR, IoT, AI, and others. In an attempt to reduce costs, companies will go for no-coding platforms, clouds, and PWAs. COVID-winners are dictating the trends of native apps development and distribution of software development among niches.
The pandemic pretty much controls software development trends but gives an opportunity to grow for much-needed niches as AI and human augmentation.
Source: Software Development Trends of 2021
The post What are the Software Development Trends of 2021? appeared first on NASSCOM Community |The Official Community of Indian IT Industry.
