How to explain modern software development in plain English

What is software development? A key to competitive advantage. Here’s how to explain today’s development realities, including why cloud services and containers are key to developer velocity.

Some principles of software development – also known as programming – don’t ever really change.

• Programming is problem-solving. 
• Programming is communication, albeit with a machine. 
• Programming is what makes that machine – and millions of others – usable to the masses. 
• Programming is imperfect, always a work in progress. 
• Programming is work.

Preface the longstanding term with the word “modern,” however – as in, modern programming or modern software development – and you are in fact saying that things have changed. It might suggest there could be pre-modern and even ancient phases of software development as if we’re talking about art history instead of computers and software.

The term “modern software development,” in particular, gets thrown around with semi-regularity. It’s indeed used to convey that the speaker (or writer) is referring to software that is being built and operated today as opposed to at some unspecified point in the past. While some core principles might not waver, much of today’s software is being built differently – and more quickly – than in the past.

Developers are breaking things into smaller pieces, for example – the applications you or I use on our phones and laptops every day might actually be composed of many smaller applications, even if that’s not visible to the untrained eye.

How To Retain QA Software Testers in 2022

The Covid-19 pandemic propelled governments, economies and communities across the globe into a state of uncertainty. While adapting to this disruption has come at a big cost for businesses, employees and consumers, the effects of the pandemic weren't disadvantageous for every sector.

In fact, the pandemic has given IT professionals a lot of leverage. With the dramatic increase in employees working remotely, the pandemic has led to the creation of more job opportunities for developers, business analysts, quality assurance testers and data scientists. Before Covid-19, IT experts had to look for jobs close to their home, but they can now seek employment in a different state, country or continent. Because they can access new markets, IT professionals today have more bargaining chips when negotiating job contracts.

But unlocking new employment opportunities has also caused attrition for many organizations since IT professionals are now less likely to worry about job stability. Frequent staff turnover isn't costly only from a recruitment perspective, it affects brand loyalty and drains funds in the wake of knowledge loss.  

So, what can organizations do to offset attrition and keep QA testers on payroll in today's job market? 

Break monotony and provide more challenging tasks.

Most QA testing professionals, especially the top-performing ones, dislike coming to work where all they do is go around in circles, performing tasks that they have outgrown. Unless they feel challenged to solve problems and flex their creative muscle, they're unlikely to stick around. This is why management needs to create opportunities that engage their employees in accordance with their seniority status and creative capacity. 

Train your staff.

This is an extension of the previous item because it underscores the importance of providing QA testing professionals with enough engagement to feel motivated. Additional training opportunities not only teach your employees important new skills that add value to your company, they send a signal that management cares about its staff.

QA Myths: Debunking Three Common Misconceptions About Testing And Quality Assurance Metrics

I felt compelled to write the following article due to a division of opinion that has risen between several professionals within the quality assurance (QA) community and me on the importance of metrics in testing.

After 23 years in the QA industry, I concluded that measuring how efficient a team is in getting tasks done is crucial in driving cost calculations, team size allocations, future budget allocations and other important decisions. But many testing professionals see these factors as outgrowths of micromanagement rather than outcomes of output measurement. In fact, some voices in the testing community believe that putting productivity metrics around testing cases is useless altogether. In this piece, I’m going to dismantle this school of thought by debunking several myths aimed at discrediting the use of metrics in QA testing.

Digital Transformation Services Trends to Follow in 2022

Digital transformation integrates the business areas to deliver fundamental value to the customers. Digital transformation services open doors for developing business models for several products and creating deliverable value for clients to make profits. The ongoing transformation in technology during the 2020s had multiple facets for businesses.

Content Was The Biggest Cybersecurity Oversight Of 2021

At the outset of 2022, there is more reason to worry about cybersecurity threats than usual. Not only are threat actors evolving, but the post-pandemic economy has ushered in new trends that are changing the cyber landscape for the worse. 

Tired Of Failing At Digital Transformation?

As we all know, the last two years have brought about change on multiple fronts that will have both long-term positive and negative effects. One such change can be seen in the rapid pace at which companies have adopted digital transformation. This pace has had a significant impact on companies of all sizes. Having run a company for ten-plus years that focuses on delivering emerging technology solutions to companies, I’ve seen my share of early adopters, laggards and everything in between. The pandemic forced all of us to adopt new technologies, whether we were prepared or not.

3 Ways In Which Machine Learning Streamlines Corporate Restructuring

 

The criticality of getting corporate restructuring right is hard to overstate. As you may know, restructuring is normally carried out when an organization is not in the best financial health. A complete overhaul of existing working methods and the overall structure of an organization to avoid financial crises and stabilize business performance necessitates the proper extraction and use of data and resources. Corporate restructuring involves adhering to a robust business strategy while carrying out SWOT analysis, creating new strategies for the future, adding and eliminating operations and resources depending on financial requirements and launching a new brand language, if necessary, to turn the fortunes of a failing business around.