Surmounting The Software Development Marathon

Legend has it that upon completion of a complicated aqueduct control system, Roman engineer Sextus Julius Frontinus proudly proclaimed “it works!” Two thousand years later, his noble profession persists—albeit infinitely more complex. Today software binds the digital fabric enabling modern life. And engineers now toil not on stoneworks but rather webworks strung across the cyber sphere.

Progress flows from typing keys not chiseling rock. Yet amidst the coding marathon, familiar barriers arise. Requirements shift; technologies break; deadlines loom. Grit and ingenuity propel projects forward through yet another release. As a celebrated computer scientist once observed, “software is like entropy, it‘s difficult to grasp, weighs nothing, and obeys the second law of thermodynamics; i.e. it always increases.”

In this post we’ll highlight the primary obstacles slowing forward progress and best practices to accelerate through them. Like traversing any grueling course, awareness and preparation serve the weary runner. Let’s dig in on the main challenges software developers face so you can streamline your next sprint!

Adapting to Technology Tectonics

Trying to hit a moving tech target gets exhausting for developers pressed to pump out flawless code. The moment they master some new JavaScript framework or CI/CD pipeline, disruption strikes from the innovative fringe. “The tech world moves at the speed of light while developers move at the speed of people,” jokes Dave Josephsen, senior architect at WayUp. “It‘s important we have some compassion for how long it takes people to catch up.”

Software developers face continually evolving programming languages, frameworks, platforms and tools. (Image credit: FreeCodeCamp)

Let’s quantify the learning load using TIOBE Index data tracking monthly technology popularity. Comparing rankings over the past two years reveals seismic shifts:

Python vaulted 4 spots to displace venerable Java as the #1 programming language
TypeScript surged 7 places to reach top 10 status
Mainstay languages like PHP, C++ and Visual Basic slid down the charts

Elsewhere new frameworks also jostle the developer toolbox. Hot newcomer Remix threatens status quo React. Astro challenges traditional Next.js. And competing approaches to app modernization like Cloud Native, Low Code and No Code splinter decisions.

Bewildering choices exhaust practitioners struggling to skill up on what matters. With over 929,000 open computing jobs today in the US alone, most teams lack cycles to chase curiosity. Technical debt also hampers adapting aging legacy apps despite outdated approaches accruing 20-25% maintenance overhead annually.

Experts advise judiciously evaluating options then standardizing around anosmic few. “Every new technology has a ramp up cost which includes developing a talent base and organizational proficiency that can leverage its benefits,” notes Forrester VP J.P. Gownder. “Move fast, but in measurably-adopted directions to maximize that investment.”

Adaptation Strategies

Rotate pilot teams exploring emerging technologies to contain risk
Standardize core stacks to consolidate proficiency while plugging gaps with cloud services
Budget skills development time into every initiative involving new capabilities
Prioritize talent retaining existing capabilities as a counterbalance to acquiring new ones

Preventing Requirements Whiplash

Ask any project manager what gives them nightmares. Odds are they answer “ever-changing requirements.” Stakeholders routinely alter specifications during development despite initial sign-offs. Such changes inject delays, errors and cost overruns compounding by 30% per year ignored.

Rapid shifts trace back to mismatched expectations, poor communication and lack of customer collaboration. They also increasingly stem from businesses pivoting operations in response to tumultuous market events. Sitecore MVP Peter Prochazka observes, "Flexibility has emerged as one of the most critical software attributes enabling enterprises to adapt quickly.” Unfortunately overly-flexible requirements undermine quality by stretching developers thin reacting vs. systematically implementing.

Changing requirements frequently incur overruns and oversights (Image Credit: Ken Soh at Kensodev)

Data quantifies the havoc requirements churn wrecks on budgets and schedules:

Teams waste 15-20 hours weekly on unplanned work from late-stage changes
Progress drops over 40% when developers swap tasks constantly reacting to edits vs. focused sprints
70% of projects exceed initial time estimates; 50% blow through budgets

The remedy lies in change control processes ensuring tweaks undergo rigorously managed, minimized disruption. This helps development maintain alignment on business objectives without whiplashing between conflicting demands.

Requirements Management Tips

Timebox changes into defined windows to reduce context switching
Assign change managers as single intake funnel for all modification requests
Implement maturity models ensuring system readiness before locking down scopes
Automate impact analysis using dependency mapping to preview effects of proposed adjustments

Smoothing System Integrations

Connecting disparate applications poses one of software’s thorniest challenges. Enterprises often merge dozens of acquired businesses bringing together fragmented systems hastily. Integrating the resulting hairballs requires reconciling data formats, security models, APIs and conflicting semantics across domains.

Such complexity explodes project timelines. A study by software giant Atlassian determined integrations inflate delivery effort by a staggering 41% on average. Yet postponing integration until late backfires even worse. Last minute discoveries requiring deep architecture changes then debilitate teams.

Industry thought leader Martin Fowler advocates architects favor building knowledge over architectural astronautics. ”Focus integration effort on the most critical touchpoints where systems interconnect,” Fowler advises. “Perfect understanding there pays for itself in lower downstream costs. Also defer less utilized linkages avoiding upfront guesswork as needs solidify.”

Integration challenges arise from incompatible systems, data and interfaces. (Image Credit: AltexSoft)

The data substantiates besides inflating workloads, poor integrations risk enterprise data integrity:

33% of organizations report losing data passing across systems
Nearly 50% spend over 30% of project time reconciling semantic conflicts
60% later rework integrations to fix performance issues

Using messaging queues, data replication and caching reduces touchpoint strains. Well documented canonical formats also smooth interchanges. Above all, allotting adequate timelines and testing to account for inherent connectivity challenges prevents costlier delays down the road.

Integration Best Practices

Define a scalable messaging architecture for reliable asynchronous communications
Model end-to-end workflows early uncovering disconnects between systems
Stick to canonical data formats with clearly defined semantics
Build in fault tolerance expecting unreliable connections

Securing Applications through Depth

Between surging reports of ransomware, data breaches and crippling outages, cyber risk now dominates enterprise worries. “Bad actors know exactly how to exploit common oversights by bombarding apps relentlessly probing for holes,” warns Gartner Research VP Peter Firstbrook. “The increasing sophistication of attacks means security must become developers primary consideration rather than an afterthought.”

Yet per another recent Gartner global end user survey, 61% of organizations admit software security remains under-prioritized during coding compared to speed to market. That laxity translates into prime vulnerabilities once releases enter production.

Software flaws play root cause in over 70% of security incidents (Image Credit: Synopsys 2021 Open Source Security Risk Analysis Report)

Numbers further confirm coverage gaps:

70% of apps contain at least one high severity vulnerability
Average 100+ vulnerabilities detected per codebase
Just 11% of security leaders express high application security confidence

Instilling discipline throughout the development lifecycle offers the surest protection rather than just pen testing upon release. Leading analysts concur prioritizing secure design practices, threat modeling, extensive dynamic analysis and runtime monitoring establishes resilience against both immediate threats and emerging attack vectors.

Application Security Best Practices

Integrate security tools seamlessly into development workflows flagging vulnerabilities in real-time
Embrace DevSecOps culture through collective responsibility for extruding risks
Adopt platform approach with hardened frameworks and authenticated connections
Architect minimal trust granting least privilege access across microservices

Designing High Performance In

Slow software doesn’t just frustrate users. It disadvantages businesses through lost sales, wasted resources and reputation damage. 53% of mobile users expect pages to load in under 3 seconds before abandoning them per Google research. For every additional second delay, Amazon measured 1% fewer shoppers completing orders accounting for $1.6B in lost revenue annually.

Driving speed means optimizing application architecture minimizing chokepoints from the start. High performing designs employ techniques like distributed services, performant data access patterns and horizontal scaling. Technologies like load balancing and caching then maximize throughput across infrastructure.

Of course not all optimizations carry equal impact. As computing pioneer Donald Knuth famously cautioned, “premature optimizations are evil.” Over-engineering low value aspects squanders effort better spent enhancing end user experiences that directly influence outcomes.

Load testing tool adoption rose nearly 30% during pandemic indicating shift left on performance engineering (Image Credit: DZone)

Industry research affirms well-architected foundations avoid expensive future tuning:

Re-architecting delivers order of magnitude bigger speedups than code tweaks
Shifting performance testing left finds issues proactively reducing defects up to 25%
On average 40% of app features go unused indicating unnecessary optimization bloat

While end optimization itself remains endless, organizations maximize returns by focusing on customer-impacting capabilities, engineering resilience and confirming performance empirically under actual expected workloads.

Performance Engineering Principles

Assess against metrics reflecting user satisfaction and business value
Simulate real-world usage early uncovering true liabilities vs. synthetic bottlenecks
Adopt platform services leveraging proven infrastructure without reinventing wheels
Automate optimizations applying heuristics dynamically not manually

Keeping Legacy Cost Overruns In Check

Amidst steeper demands on IT to digitally transform business, clunky legacy systems stuck on mainframes increasingly hinder agility. Inflexible architectures chained to outdated platformsrequire constant maintenance competing for resources better invested modernizing via cloud migration.

Research pegs global mainframe connectivity costs averaging $2M annually per organization. Worse still, amounts rise between 15-20% yearly as complex custom integrations calcify. Excess expenditures then deplete innovation budgets while forcing companies to remain shackled to solutions ill-fitting current needs.

Forrester VP J.P Gownder observes, “too many firms paint themselves into architecture corners unable to pivot directions quickly at scale.” Breaking legacy gridlock demands stopgap measures buying runway for longer term replatforming he says. “Use aggressive integration automation in the interim, but plan needed migrations in digestible chunks.”

Legacy apps commonly obstruct business agility per recent Astadia survey (Image Credit: Astadia)

Quantifying the burden legacy exacts on velocity, Ernst & Young analysis determined:

Legacy apps require 3x more effort enhancing due to intricacies
63% of staff hours go purely into maintenancing legacy complexity
75% experience weekly failures and problematic latency

While modernizing complex workloads resides outside easy fixes, DevOps automation relieves some stresses. More importantly embracing modular architecture transitions big bang rewrites into iterative replatforming reducing risk. This further allows moving proprietary legacy into open hybrid models benefiting from portable cloud infrastructure upon which next generation solutions take shape.

Legacy Modernization Principles

Automate integration bindings to limit touch requirements and bypass limitations
Decompose monoliths over time via incremental refactoring into containers and cloud
Provision fresh data pipelines ensuring analytics keeps pace with changing reporting needs
Embrace coexistence not replacement given legitimate legacy use cases

Key Takeaways

For better and worse, encountering impediments remains intrinsic to creative technical pursuits advancing technology forward into uncharted frontiers. “Obstacles distill learning essential towards maturing innovations from early phases wild with challenges through disciplined solutions,” says Jean-Louis Gassée longtime industry executive and commentator. “Try viewing hurdles placed as tests ensuring your ideas prove sound when you clear them.”

In that spirit, hopefully the journey through common software development obstacles outlined above provides ideas towards identifying, quantifying and addressing recurring challenges in your environment. The most successful development organizations acknowledge impediments as inevitable taxes calibrating processes, resources and response plans accordingly. They bake reasonable contingency into plans, budget and timelines accepting unforeseen issues will emerge. And they intentionally prepare staff through training plus post-action reviews to accumulate experience tackling classes of problems likely repeating.

With awareness comes agency. Now get out there, anticipate those obstacles and leap them like the true software champion you are! The meta machine is rooting for you.