Dealing With the Biggest Challenges in the Software Development Landscape
Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash
Recruiting developers has always been an issue for organizations. How are they going to create those profit centers, if they are not able to get people to do the essential work of actually building the software? The Secret Developer has been reading https://www.revealbi.io/whitepapers/reveal-survey-report-top-software-development-challenges-for-2023 and this article explores their take-aways from that white paper.
”The answer to a developer shortage isn’t ChatGPT or GPT3.5 GitHub Copilot. It just isn’t.
I will talk about AI later in this article but the US Labor Department estimates the shortage of software engineers will reach nearly 90 million by 2030.
This article is going to give practical advice about actions we can take to make ”
The Key Challenges in 2023
Keeping pace with innovation in developer tools
Difficulties in third-party integration
Managing workload
Security threats
Project management
Client expectations
Everyone loves a graph, so:
How The Secret Developer thinks we should face the challenges
Changing the job
Development as a career captures a variety of different software-building skills.
We have seen low-code tools help development teams speed through software development, and resources be better utilized. This means AI will only help with these issues, not solve them as developers move from hand-crafting HTML to higher-level tasks.
“If low code is the answer to your coding problem, I don’t want to know the question.
The same applies to ‘AI’ or more accurately LLMs. They can certainly solve simple coding challenges of the type Google might ask you for as a freshman out of college. It does not cover the difficult software development projects The Secret Developer works on.”
Digital transformation to overcome core issues
The whitepaper mentions project management and collaboration challenges that can be overcome through productivity tools. This is a great approach to solving those JIRA issues (and you know the ones that we are talking about).
“Productivity tools? They aren’t good enough to live up to the billing. Has anyone ever used a productivity tool that has actually increased their productivity?”
Dealing with unrealistic client expectations.
Many developers need to deal with unrealistic client expectations. To do so they need to balance quality and speed with the ‘new world’ of remote work.
Balancing quality and speed
Give clear expectations about any work that needs to be brought into the sprint/project
Make clear roadblocks
Work with colleagues to solve for dependencies
Give advantages and disadvantages of ‘rushed’ solutions
Work with colleagues to solve problems using remote working tools
Recognize and advocate for tackling tech debt
Navigating team dynamics and remote work
Cameras on!
Let other people know what you are working on
Celebrate success. Both your own and that of the team
Go to social events
“If anyone thinks The Secret Developer is going to any social events with food and company they hate they have another thing coming.”
Conclusion
Over time we will find out whether AI is the silver bullet for solving the software development shortage and also improving the experience of developers working in the field. Until then we still have low-code tools and new ways to work together through productivity tools. The future is bright!
“The future is bright for ChatGPT certainly. I say that in terms of my colleagues who represent a bunch of code school basics. I think they might be short on future.
As for the rest of us? I think we might have to wait and see.”