There have been a lot of projected software development trends for 2022. Those trends are seen developing in various areas and industries. We see for example the continuous development and application of the latest software solutions in social media marketing strategies, e-commerce, fintech, healthcare, transportation, and even in supply chain networks. The ongoing pandemic has also contributed to the acceleration of digital transformation in a lot of businesses across industries: some of these involve adopting the latest software solutions, some involve proprietary technologies, some are preparing for further development and so are adjusting their stance for flexible growth. While there is optimism, there remains, however, some skepticism regarding those trends.
Software development trends
To help make sense of the latest trends in software development, Steve Andriole, a business technology professor at Villanova University, demystified the 2022 trends in his Forbes contributed article. He asks, for example, whether Gartner’s new neologisms, that is, the new creative naming of its 2022 top strategic technology trends are just renaming of the old ones or, perhaps, mere aspirations.
Data, security, privacy, the cloud, apps, automation, AI, seamless experience: these are the areas that frequently come up in discussions about acquiring or developing business software solutions. These have also figured recently in each year’s listings of latest software trends. Now, for Androile, these can be grouped into three baskets: automation, infrastructure, and applications.
Automation
Gartner’s 2022 trend of “Decision Intelligence,” according to Androile, is just “a homage to analytics.” He pointed out that this began around more than two decades ago. What we are seeing, though, are continuous developments of the same concept with the idea of pushing further the limits of what could be achieved through automation. Thus, also trending are “hyperautomation,” “autonomic systems,” and AI developed through engineering or the generative kind.
Infrastructure
“Data has always been essential to operational and strategic effectiveness.”
There may be the trend of highlighting the importance of “reducing data management efforts” through coining “data fabrics.” However, the continuous aim is to make data available everywhere. Whether at the business level, economy, or country, there is a need for a data infrastructure to provide a basis in forming strategic decisions and cost-effective directions.
Now, since, such a digital infrastructure is open for use in analysis, it is also open to data sharing, consumption, and misuse. Thus, there is also the trend of developing an effective “cybersecurity mesh” to protect the data fabric. Gartner defines it as “a flexible, composable architecture that integrates widely distributed and disparate security services.” For Androile, this remains, thus far, an aspiration. The takeaway regarding this, then, is that there is always a need to strengthen cybersecurity if we continue to harness data, to make them always available for operational and strategic effectiveness.
Closely linked to data and the aspiration of a cybersecurity mesh is the trend of privacy-enhancing computation. Androile points out that “many business models only work when there’s no privacy.” Thus, we continue to worry. Although there are continuous developments in privacy enhancements, there remains a continued vigilance and skepticism both at the level of the market and that of businesses. If your business is concerned about data privacy, make sure to check the details to ensure there are no loopholes. Third-party vendors may interest you with an urgency to avail of data privacy enhancements or cloud-native platforms, but there is nothing wrong with you being thorough.
Applications
Androile also observes the integration of old architectures, for each of their continued use, to an API culture of “composable” applications. For Gartner, a composable business means creating an organization made from interchangeable building blocks. Such an organization operates on four principles: more speed through discovery, greater agility through modularity, better leadership through orchestration, and resilience through autonomy.
Basically, an API (application programming interface) is a set of functions or protocols that allows applications to access data and interact with external software components, microservices, or operating systems. Well, basically, so that two applications can talk to each other, such as when you want to check for game results without having to leave a social media app.
The latest trend is about the movement towards composable applications. Composable, here, also means scalable, connected, and powered by machine learning. What we can expect, then, with the new applications is that they are developed with the idea of being composable. This means that we can expect them to be more competent, have better functionality, and are designed for a greater purpose.
Now, with that purpose in mind, we come to Gartner’s top technology trend for 2022: “Total Experience” (TX). Total Experience is a combination of multi-experience (MX), customer experience (CX), employee experience (EX), and user experience (UX). For early adopters, this would greatly differentiate a business from its competitors. “The goal here is to improve the overall experience, breaking down siloes while integrating with employees, customers, and users.”
Takeaway
Overall, Androile sees “cautious optimism” as the real trend. Also, as mentioned earlier, there’s nothing with being thorough. As long as it’s not just for the sake of being an early adopter that you would jump into the latest trends immediately, then you’re good. Again, these are software development trends. They are trends, i.e., they could mean they are dynamic. They are developments, i.e., they are not done yet. There is still room for growth, for improvement, for integration of new ideas, and the fun thing is you can collaborate. Then, perhaps, you can have built dedicated software solutions specific for your business, or can come up with proprietary software solutions or future-proof technologies.
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