In this article, we talk about the tech changes accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic; the most intriguing software development 2022 trends and about the predictions, ideas and opportunities of the following year.

Thanks to digital transformation, almost every business needs improvement or extension of their existing software. The software encodes what companies do, how they manage different tasks, and their services to their users. That means one thing – software development has become a strategic function for all.

The COVID-19 pandemic only speeded up the inevitable tech changes as companies needed innovative solutions and broad support from IT experts. 2022 will be focused on developing ways to quickly deliver digital capabilities and create dynamic and anticipatory experience for customers.

Focus on event-driven architecture

As Gartner states:

“Event-driven architecture (EDA) is a design paradigm in which a software component executes in response to receiving one or more event notifications.”

Gartner Glossary

Information Technology Terms

As a software pattern or model that enables an organisation to detect events or crucial business moments (e.g. web site visits, transactions), EDA helps to act on them in real-time or near-real-time. The Forrester Research “Predictions 2022: Software Development” report shows that at least one-third of enterprises will focus on EDA in 2022. The same publication revealed that in 2020, 12% of global developers said their organisations were concentrated in EDA.

In 2021 the number grew to 20% and is predicted to reach 35% in the following year as more IT companies want to place a significant emphasis on EDA. As API management extends beyond REST to include EDA, leading API management vendors will adapt their products to have more event management capabilities with AsyncAPI support.

Consolidated DevOps tools & analytics

As Forrester report shows, 50% of enterprise development teams will shift to consolidated DevOps toolchains and pipelines. These new DevOps systems will be hosted, becoming platform-as-a-service. It will help teams automate whole development cycles.

Another interesting idea comes from Google’s DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) team. Their research shows that technology organisation performance is closely linked to business outcomes. Companies with brilliantly performing engineering organisations are twice as likely to fulfil their organisational challenges and achieve a 50% higher growth rate over three years. Software development teams will have to ensure their processes and tools are as polished as possible to deliver new functionality quickly and reliably without developers burning out.

Developer productivity is becoming an area that will get increased attention. More and more companies plan funding to build developer analytics platforms to highlight bottlenecks.

IoB to boost personalisation

Software trends, for the last few years, have been heading towards personalisation, particularly with the ​​Internet of Behaviour (IoB). Simply, IoB is the extension of the Internet of Things (IoT) and helps track and analyse users’ behaviour patterns, interests or preferences when they interact with apps and different devices. Sounds interesting? The data gathered via IoB (BI, Big Data, CDPs, etc.) is incredibly useful to create a personalised UX.

Gartner predicts that 40% of the global population will have their behaviours tracked by 2023. We can observe the examples of IoB in social media in the form of personalised video feeds based on users’ reactions (YouTube) or ads displayed to increase users’ engagement (Facebook).

Low-code development

Simplification has been a popular trend in software engineering for a few years. No wonder why low-code development gains the upper hand over the software industry. Businesses have increased their adoption of low code applications to build applications faster, improve their competitive edge, and continue integrating digital technologies to transform the business.

Choosing low-code development means developing products without applying well-known coding. Instead, specialists will take advantage of configuration and graphical user interface. Such environments have the incredible potential of implementing ideas into digital products without the advanced development skills required.

Remote work and cloud services

Since 2020, remote work has become a new normal for many specialists. Managing different company tasks should happen in good conditions; thus, cloud services develop rapidly and gain popularity worldwide. According to Gartner, spending on public cloud services will reach $396 billion in 2021 and grow 21.7% to $482 billion in 2022. By 2026, public cloud spending will exceed 45% of all enterprise IT spending, up from less than 17% in 2021.

Microsoft and Amazon have both been working hard on addressing the most significant challenges. In August 2021, Microsoft released GitHub Codespaces to general availability. GitHub Codespaces offers full development environments that can be accessed using just a web browser that can start in seconds. The service allows technology teams who store their code in Microsoft’s GitHub service to fully develop using their Visual Studio Code editor in the cloud. 2022 will be the year of increased adoption of cloud technologies.

Software outsourcing gains popularity

Finding the right software experts outside the company instead of establishing an in-house team becomes an optimal move for many businesses. As Deloitte shows in “How much disruption? Deloitte Global Outsourcing Survey 2020” 770% of respondents claimed that cost reduction is a major reason to outsource.

For example collaborating with an IT partner is a great way to fulfil software development needs without being burdened by salaries and IT costs. An IT partner offers expertise and support on many different levels thus it is easier to find the right talents without paying for the whole in-house recruitment process.

To learn more about software development outsourcing, check Future Processing’s guide.

2022 will keep us busy

The world seems to have changed forever since March 2020, especially in the tech industry. Businesses are more willing to go digital; IT companies are outdoing each other to offer software that meets the needs, and brand new tech solutions are here to make developers’ work more efficient. Specialists around the globe are ready for new challenges and opportunities in the new year. 2022, we are coming!