Top Trends to Accelerate Software Development

If we know something for a fact is that software companies are always on the lookout for innovative ways to accelerate development. Businesses usually need to meet strict deadlines and reduce time-to-market to get a competitive advantage. By launching a product or service sooner, a business can start generating revenue and gaining market share before its competitors. This can be especially important in highly competitive industries where the first-mover advantage can be crucial.

Reducing time-to-market can also help a business respond more quickly to changes in the market or customer needs. For example, if there is a sudden demand for a particular product or service, a business that can bring that product or service to market faster will capture more of that demand.

In addition to the competitive advantages, reducing time-to-market can also help a business save money by reducing the time and resources spent on development and testing. By streamlining these processes, a business can bring a product or service to market more efficiently and at a lower cost.

Overall, accelerating software development is an essential strategy for businesses that want to stay competitive and respond effectively to changes in the market. And although attempts to speed things up will likely impact other aspects of product development, certain best practices can help you ensure saving time without sacrificing quality. Here are some tips on how to speed up software development and optimize your overall workflow.

Things that impact software development speed

Many factors can impact the speed of software development. Some of the main factors include:

The complexity of the project: Every developer faces numerous challenges during the working process, and the more complex a project is, the longer it will typically take to develop. This is because there are more components to build and integrate, and more testing and debugging are required.

The skills and experience of the development team: A team with a high level of skill and experience will typically be able to develop software more quickly than a team with less experience.

The tools and technologies being used: Modern, well-supported tools and technologies can help speed up development, as they are more efficient and easier to work with. On the other hand, using outdated or unsupported tools can slow development down.

The availability of resources: Having all the necessary resources, such as hardware, software, and data, readily available can help speed up development. 

The project management approach: An efficient project management approach, such as agile development, can help speed up development by allowing for rapid iteration and flexible response to changes. On the other hand, a slow or inflexible project management approach can slow development down.

The quality of the requirements and design: Having precise, detailed requirements and a well-designed architecture can help speed up development. It reduces the need for rework and helps developers understand what they need to build. 

External factors: Finally, external factors such as external dependencies, external constraints, or external changes can also impact the speed of software development.

How to accelerate software development

Now, let’s get to the 1 million dollar question: How to speed up software development without compromising the product quality and well-being of your developers? Here are some useful trends:

1. Set clear requirements and roadmap  

Like in any business process, a company will achieve much better and faster results if the leading team takes the time to plan carefully every step of the process. With a clear roadmap, the development team can break down the project into smaller, more manageable tasks and allocate resources accordingly. This helps to ensure that the project stays on track and is delivered on time. Plus, if the development team is very clear on the project requirements and goals, and they know exactly what to do and when to do it, it will be more productive. 

Also, setting clear requirements and a roadmap will ensure that the software meets the needs of the end-users or customers. By clearly defining the requirements, the development team can ensure that the software addresses the specific needs of the users and meets their expectations.

By creating a roadmap of the entire project and discussing it with the team before the beginning of the development process, the team can reduce the risk of scope creep, which is the tendency for the scope of a project to increase gradually over time, which can lead to delays and cost overruns. 

2. Automate as much as you can

Although you can’t “automate” software development in the traditional sense of this word, you can still take a lot of work off your shoulders. Companies worldwide are automating as many processes as possible because they have figured out that employees spend a lot of time on repetitive manual tasks. A study by McKinsey and Co. found that 85% of companies have accelerated the digitization of their businesses.

These tasks can become frustrating and even lead to human errors. Automation eliminates that factor and is an important aspect of software development because it can help improve the efficiency, reliability, and speed of the development process.  A company can automate transactions, approvals, and workflows, among other processes, to free employees from manual tasks that only waste time. These include a wide range of tasks; for example, automation can be used to build and deploy code to various environments, such as staging and production. This helps to ensure that code is built and deployed consistently and quickly.

Automation can also be used in testing processes, such as unit tests, integration tests, and end-to-end tests. This can help to catch bugs early on in the development process and ensure that the code is of high quality.

Finally, automation is at the heart of CI/CD, which is a practice that aims to build, test, and deploy code changes continuously. By automating these processes, teams can more easily and quickly deliver user code changes.

Overall, automation can help improve the quality and speed of software development, making it easier for developers to focus on writing high-quality code and delivering value to users.

3. Use a version control system

A version control system (VCS) is a tool that tracks changes to a codebase over time and allows multiple developers to work on the same codebase simultaneously. Some common version control systems include Git, Mercurial, and Subversion.

Using a VCS can accelerate software development in a few ways:

Collaboration: With a VCS, multiple developers can work on the same codebase simultaneously without overwriting each other's changes. This can be especially helpful when working on large projects with a team.

Rollback: If a developer makes a mistake or wants to revert to an earlier code version, they can easily do so with a VCS. This can save time and reduce frustration.

History: A VCS keeps a record of every change made to the codebase, so the team can see who made changes and when. This can be helpful for debugging and understanding how the code has evolved over time.

Branching: With a VCS, developers can create branches of their codebase to experiment with new features or fixes without affecting the main codebase. This can be a quick and easy way to try out new ideas without risking breaking the main codebase.

4. Have a healthy work environment

As important as a clear roadmap, having a healthy work environment is crucial to boost productivity and accelerating software development. There are several ways a healthy work environment can benefit a company’s productivity. For starters, allowing employees to have a healthy work-life balance can help reduce stress and prevent burnout, leading to better overall productivity. When an individual can maintain a healthy balance between their work and personal life, they may experience less stress and be better able to handle the demands of their job. This can lead to improved focus and productivity.

Employees who feel within a healthy work environment may be more satisfied with their job overall, leading to improved motivation and productivity. This can also help improve an individual's mental and physical health and better time management. 

Another great tool to accelerate software development is to encourage healthy and necessary breaks. This can help prevent burnout and give the mind a chance to rest and recharge, leading to better productivity when your developers return to work.

5. Expand your team

Even with an outstanding planning process, It is normal that sometimes the project deadline doesn’t match its scope. A great solution to this problem is adding more talented developers to your team. Finding the right developers to fill highly-technical positions can indeed be challenging. However, you can overcome the tech talent shortage with nearshore software engineers through staff augmentation. 

Nearshore staff augmentation is a flexible solution for businesses that experience regular shifts in demand, where individuals or teams are hired to fill positions or supplement a team on a particular project. Simply put is the use of talent outside your organization to increase the capacity of your company. 

Another great advantage of staff augmentation is the ability it gives to any business to adjust to market changes without losing value. In other words, this scalability component allows companies to generate revenue and grow without being held back by a rigid structure or lack of resources. 

Scalability encompasses all solutions that can be easily modified and scaled up whenever needed. Still, it also refers to the possibility of modifying and updating a company’s existing solutions to help them meet new business challenges. Therefore, having the ability to scale upwards or downwards depending on the demand can help companies to sort out any obstacle by adding strategic resources where they are needed. 

There is no magical fit-for-all solution to accelerate software development and reduce time-to-market instantly. Software development is a complex, interdependent, and multifaceted concept and depends entirely on a company’s team, resources and mission.

The best solution is to think deeply about the company, development processes, people, tools, etc., and build the right model for your team. Don’t forget to plan accordingly to your deliverables, automate as possible, keep a healthy work environment and extend your development team with highly skilled global talent if needed. At Intersog, we can help you by providing you with a flexible nearshore workforce solution of highly skilled tech talent tailored to your company’s needs.