Transformed App Development — Hype versus Reality

The new norms and perspectives

Transformed Application Development

Software development is constantly evolving, thanks to a variety of changes and improvements in the software development lifecycle (SDLC), such as:

• The constantly changing technological landscape
• New consumer and business demands
• Market trends.

Rise of modern programming languages

Programming languages like Python and Java still dominate software development. Languages like Rust, Go, Kotlin, and TypeScript will become mainstream and may replace established languages like C/C++, and Java in most use cases.

Business Analyst can build apps

Traditional business analyst role elicitates requirements from customers/end users and produces consumables/artifacts for UX/functional/technical teams. Now, a business analyst can use his own artifacts as input to build apps. A popular term being used is ‘citizen developer’.

Business Analysts can build the app with easy drag-and-drop UI-driven interfaces provided by low code no code development platforms.

Introduction of business designer

A business designer has the head of a business person, the heart of a designer, and the ability to understand and communicate across the full project/product lifecycle.

Business Analysts are learning and embracing the power of design thinking while designers are devouring business (instead of code).

The increased reliance on digital services and experience has put an increased emphasis on design thinking/UI/UX

Multi-cloud architectures

Allow developers more freedom to mix and match different services from multiple providers to suit their exact needs without being locked into a single platform. Organizations offer tools to manage infrastructure, applications, and networking across cloud providers.

Almost all software is predicted to be using some kind of cloud service in the next half decade. Cloud-native application development would become the standard practice in the future.

The New Norm

Fail Fast

• Experimentation / POC on critical functions
• Roadmapping and defining MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• Agile — Iterative / Incremental

Reduced Time to Market

• API first & Experience API
• Cloud first/native services
• Cross-platform and Hybrid development
• Extensibility / Reusability

Core DNA

• Performance and Security Engineering as standard NFR (non-functional requirement)
• Automation by default
• Everything is Ops — DesignOps, DevOps, DevSecOps, DataOps, MLOps, QOps

Critical Success Factors

• Designs — Domain-Driven, Test-Driven, Behaviour-Driven
• Application Security — Cloud Security, Single Sign On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), Token-based Authentication, Encryption
• Analytics — AI/ML powered — BOTs, Predictive Analytics, Augmented Reality
• Build with No Time — No Code Low Code Platforms, Build Data lakes
• Deployment — CI / CD pipeline, DevSecOps

The new serverless computing paradigm is further evolving by eliminating any infrastructure management requirements and allowing developers to create solutions that can be directly deployed in these serverless environments.

Perspectives of low code development

Perspectives on low-code & no-code software development

Upside

• CRUD operations-driven forms/business workflows development
• Shorten time-to-market
• Reusable Code Library
• Cloud-native
• CI/CD

Downside

• Integration issues, vendor lock-in, limited extensibility, license agreements, the learning curve
• Having a mix of budding low-code (non-programming) developers and senior (programming) developers produced better results

Rapid Development

Hype versus Reality

What’s the Hype

• The low code movement started more than a decade ago. It is the new normal now
• Do everything the agile way
• Allow continuous improvement
• Metaverse is here to stay
• The software world needs specialist no code low code programmers

What’s the reality

• No code platforms are not going to replace traditional development platforms anytime soon
• The software world has enough space for both specialists and generalists
• Being agile is important; be it a process, people or product roadmap
• Automate wherever, whenever needed rather than everywhere
• Old is truly gold — Be aware of the fundamental principles and practices — The Twelve Factors (12factor.net)
• The architect’s role is beyond solution/system design, reviews, and technical debt but helping the development/sprint team on a daily basis

Conclusion

At OSI Digital, we digitally transform customer and user experiences.

Digital Transformation

OSI’s sought-after approach

New Development

• Agile — Iterative / Incremental
• API first & Experience API
• Cloud first approach — Cloud Native services

Digital Transformation

• Start small but strategic — MVP
• Incremental approach
• Phased Rollout

Rapid Product Engineering

• Design thinking/experimentation
• Know your Business IP / Build only Core initially
• Start small but strategic — MVP

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