Business IT_ Support

Why you should use Modern Software Development Practices for Your Organization?

Modern software development is about knowing the new tools and libraries as well as using them. Knowing how to create an optimal algorithm is not mandatory. Modern software development is for delivering high-value software in an efficient, measurable way that came up over and over again. Modern software development prioritizes the customer’s experience with a new feature just as highly as the time it took the team to release it. Software teams are now shifting their focus away from the traditional measurements of speed, velocity, and also efficiency in favor of goals around increasing customer satisfaction and quality code. Which we tend to think is the best way to measure success.

Pros of using modern software development into your business-
1.Traditinal testing is out, automated testing is in-
It is an obvious fact that we live in a time where customers expect the innovation they use to be updated continually, and if it’s not, they will replace it. Manual testing has some issues such as- insufficient automated test coverage, additional manual processes, and lack of build/deployment pipeline automation. Using Continuous integration and continuous delivery practices, teams can release quality software frequently and automatically from source code to production. CI/CD is quickly becoming table-stakes to meet ever-increasing customer expectations: 47% of teams ship changes and receive customer feedback faster with a CI/CD solution. Another 57% report fewer bugs or outages by adopting CI/CD solutions.

2. Reduce risk, increase customer satisfaction-
A problem that teams face is the ability to take off new features in safe, incremental and also measurable ways. Near about 75% of software and IT teams face the issues with bugs, defects or delays at the time of release.

However, teams who employ feature flagging are glad they did: 63% report better testing of features or higher quality software. This is largely because most teams traditionally roll out a new feature all at once, to 100% of customers.

Feature flagging allows developer teams to take off a new feature to some of the customers (say 25%) to diffuse risk with problems and bugs, and to measure customer feedback before moving out to the entire customer base. However tempting it may be to turn on a feature to customers all at the same time, the adoption of feature flags reinforces the importance of customer satisfaction.

3. Outcome-driven development: customer outcomes over team outputs-
Outcome-driven development diverts the focus away from velocity and the speed in which a feature is delivered. And it focuses on the customer value a feature creates. Teams looking to adapt an outcome-driven practice should consider software tools that provide real-time build and deployment information, data and analytics around customer adoption, and built in feature flagging.

4. Improved performance and productivity-
We all like a work environment overflowing with high results and productivity also. Modern software practices are not limited to Agile and DevOps. It carries development and productivity to existing work processes and expands upon them. Through version control systems like Git and Mercurial, digital transformation is adapted by customers with performance levels shooting up by 33%!

5. Customer engagement-
Frequency of product releases increases due to modern software development trends. Hence, software development velocity in product development teams also increases. This results that your company engages users more and also interacts with them often.

Increased speed of development means adding new functionalities and also versions to your innovative products. In this way it updates existing platforms and provides an immersive digital experience.

6. Scalable products-
Everyday, new functionalities are being introduced to languages and frameworks, so you can use existing tools and methodologies. Irrespective of you outsource development or do it your own, through modern software development practices, the future of your organization is ensured through Scalable Frameworks, Workflows and also Cloud. These companies ensured that cloud migration happened at the correct time so as to utilize the scalability of cloud computing. Change is constant and the code is rapidly evolving into the future. Think about how Google Chrome and Facebook do multiple releases every day and how version control systems let you see back the previous code and process implementations for review and custom software development.

7. High ROI-
The customer is at the forefront of modern software development practices. A company’s vision rotates on how they deliver solutions for problem. Re-writing existing systems with modern practices results in iterating and also building software faster. This makes it more responsive and effective also for the customer. A more extensive reach is achieved, and target audiences are guided into expecting new releases this way. This ensures a high ROI for businesses and enterprises.

As the day passes new development practices are rises head in the market. Adapt the trends as per your project’s requirements. Adapting to changes is the key to growth. Modern software development practices will surely help you to boost your business.

Computers and information systems are essential parts of every business today. Like accounting and legal, every business needs to invest in technology to compete. Technology is both a cost of doing business, and an opportunity to do more business. Most people I talk with recognize the necessity of having a computer, an email address, and a web site, but still look at the upfront cost more than other issues.

After spending some time working with dozens of businesses, I think it's time to take a step back and look at the big picture of technology in business. Let's take a reporter's view of the topic, and ask the basic questions: who, what, where, why, when, and how much?

For today, we'll keep this short, but each of these questions deserves a more complete article in the future.

Why?
What are the benefits of technology for a business? There are many, but most fall under a few categories:

Reach more potential customers, develop a business relationship with potential customers

Streamline operations, reduce costs, improve efficiency, maximize profit, minimize waste, devote talent to core business instead of overhead

Provide better service to customers

Support better relationships with key partners

Allow customers to better guide the business

The very first question businesses should ask before spending any money or time on technology is, “why am I doing this?” If there is not a core business benefit to be gained, why do it in the first place?

How Much?
Established businesses outside the technology industry typically spend between ½ percent and 10 percent of their annual revenue on technology spending, depending mostly on the industry. Manufacturing and retail are typically at the low end of this range, while finance and health care are typically at the high end.

If you're at the low end of technology spending for your industry, you may be missing out on some key benefits technology can provide. If you're at the high end, you may be spending more than you need to on proprietary solutions, or you may be leading your industry with some strategic investment.

What?
What costs do you need to consider as part of your technology budget? These break down into several categories:

Initial cost—hardware and software, and training

Ongoing cost—maintaining systems, including licenses for proprietary software, hosting, and support

Upgrade cost—cost of upgrades, and expected lifespan of systems/frequency of upgrades

Value proposition—how much employee time will the system save? How much new business could the system generate?

Opportunity cost—how much potential revenue is lost by not implementing a system? What are your competitors doing in this area?

Risk—what are the risks of a particular system? What does it cost to mitigate those risks?

Where?
Should you spend most of your technology budget on infrastructure, hosted applications, custom line-of-business applications, or what? The answer to this depends a lot on your industry, but even more on your specific business. Generally, most businesses spend around half of their technology budget on infrastructure—computers, networking equipment, and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). As the world moves more and more online, and open source software becomes more compelling, there are huge opportunities for savings in these areas, for businesses that can take advantage of them.

When?
There's a fine line between too much and not enough. Spend too much on technology, and it will consume your time and budget, leaving you ill prepared to do anything else on your business. Spend too little and your competition may improve their business to the point that you can't compete.

You need to implement enough technology to see a real benefit, prevent the worst disasters, and not miss out on any major opportunities, while not spending more than you can handle.

Technology has a cost not just in dollars, but also in the time you and your employees need to spend adapting to it. Bite off too big a chunk and technology becomes counter-productive. Nearly always, small, incremental, ongoing chunks are a better way to bring technology into your business than large all-or-nothing systems that promise to do everything right away.

Who?
Finally, you need to decide who to help you implement technology in your business. Will you do it yourself? Do you purchase an off-the shelf product? Do you use free software? Do you hire a programmer to create a custom system? Do you use a hosted system? Do you hire a consultant to help?

Obviously, as an open source consultant, I think the answer is usually hire a good consultant to help you use as much quality free software in your business as possible. Whether or not to use a hosted system depends on your specific business needs. Off-the-shelf proprietary products are quickly becoming the least favorable way to go, but there are still a few niches where there isn't a viable alternative.