What is The Future of Software Development? Will Software Engineers Become Undemandable? Not in This Lifetime

Software development is one of the most lucrative businesses, which has undergone numerous changes over the last few years. Due to Covid19, many companies have modified their web and app development processes to meet the fast-changing market’s needs. And owing to the latest cryptocurrency boom, blockchain technologies have become highly sought after. So what does the future hold for the world of software development? Quite a lot.

The Growing Trends in Software Development

Laziness is the mother of progress, and currently, the technologies and tools that can facilitate the implementation of different processes and activities are on the rise. Most of them are already extensively used by companies and software engineers all across the globe:

• Microservice orchestration
• REST API Design
• Immutable infrastructure
• AI
• Deep learning
• Blockchain
• Cloud centralization
• Reactive programming
• CI/CD

As you see, these new software technologies vary massively, but they all have one thing in common – they help industries to create “cleaner” and easier-to-maintain applications. Nowadays, many companies already use the above-mentioned technological advancements to facilitate the whole process (NVIDIA is a bright example – the company actively utilizes AI, deep learning, and API technologies to create special chipsets that are capable of facilitating autonomous driving vehicles). What about the nearest future? Here’s what experts predict:

1. The upcoming years will make smaller apps more popular. It means that developers will try to pack as many features as possible into a tiny package.
2. Physical hardware will disappear thanks to cloud storage services.
3. Use of AI will continue to grow in all fields.
4. Blockchain technology will improve.
5. Innovative and interactive UI will be released.

With that, low-code/no-code platforms will thrive within smaller companies that lack the budget to hire a team of professional developers to create fully-functional applications. One of the latest developments that prove that no-coding methods are becoming popular is App Sheet acquired by Google to bring no-code capabilities into the Google cloud. Many organizations are also going to gravitate towards automated software development. Bots that perform multiple tasks are already quite popular now, yet the trend will rise more massively within the next few years. Last but not least, AI (e.g. GPT-3) will continue to learn how to write code itself, meaning the users just need to describe what they want to build, and the AI will automatically create the system for them. This is quite an interesting branch of AI that seems to be very useful in the nearest future. So, here comes the question – What does that mean for the future of software engineering jobs? Will AI and low-code/no-code technologies replace software developers in the future?

The Future of Software Developers

Not surprisingly, these recent tech shakeups have made software engineers worry that there will be a shortage of software developer posts and that the demand for them will go down in the future. In reality, these massive shifts occurring in the IT world won’t seriously influence software development. Instead, they may bring some extra benefits:

• As more and more companies now embrace automation, more specialists who can develop the code to make AI possible are needed.
• Speaking about the emergence of no-code and low-code platforms, they shouldn’t make software nervous but should be considered an “extra assistant,” helping them solve small problems and leaving more time for innovation. Ultimately, no-code and low-code platforms will never replace the creativity and problem-solving capabilities inherent to software engineers.

So, the future for devs looks bright, and the recent surveys prove that. According to research by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there will be a 22% increase in software developer jobs by 2030. And considering the fact that the average growth rate for all professions (both tech and non-tech) is just 8%, it’s easy to conclude that new openings for software developers will appear far faster than any other profession.

What Specialists Will Be the Most Demandable?

According to the fresh 2022 Indeed survey, we can see what jobs are likely to stay at the peak of glory. Here is the list of the 10 highest-paying and highest-demandable software jobs:

1. IT security specialist

Average salary: $65,793 per year / Currently, there are more than 1,900 job openings.

2. System Engineer

Average salary: $101,451 per year / Currently, there are more than 58,000 job openings.

3. Full stack developer

Average salary: $102,244 per year / Currently, there are more than 20,000 job openings.

4. Development operations engineer

Average salary: $117,739 per year/ Currently, there are nearly 24,000 job openings.

5. Technical program manager

Average salary:$119,219 per year / Currently, there are more than 60,500 job openings.

6. Data warehouse architect

Average salary: $119,556 per year/ Currently, there are more than 2,000 job openings.

7. Cloud engineer

Average salary: $120,740 per year/ Currently, there are more than 101,500 job openings.

8. Mobile developer

Average salary: $123,764 per year / Currently, there are nearly 20,000 job openings.

9. Software engineer

Average salary: $127,169 per year/ Currently, there are more than 158,000 job openings.

10. Software architect

Average salary: $133,130 per year/ Currently, there are nearly 30,000 job openings. As you see, most of these job offerings are somehow connected with Java. Today, more than 80,000 active job listings on Indeed require Java as a hard skill, making Java a lucrative knowledge to have under your belt. The short answer is everywhere. It’s used for Web-based applications, Android applications, Embedded systems, ‍Cloud-based applications, IoT applications, gaming applications, Software tools, big data, video games, and so on. Java remains one of the most popular programming languages ever used by software developers and is now #1 in CodingDojo's list of 2022's top programming languages. And not only this year. According to the TIOBE Index data for the last 20 years, Java has always been among the three most in-demand programming languages. More precisely, it’s currently used by 9 million software developers because of its versatility, security, and simplicity of use.

What Are the Key Aspects that Make Java so Special Back in the Day?

The key advantage of Java is that it’s a high-level computer programming language that enforces the concept of WORA (write once run anywhere), thus, eliminating programming dependencies. Java is like a jack of all trades among the programming languages because of its extensive applicability in diverse environments. Plus, it has some attractive “subdivisions” for specific needs. For example, Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) is a go-to platform for running enterprise applications owing to its cost-effectiveness, ease of maintenance and scalability. Java FX is a popular platform for creating desktop GUI applications. Java is nearly limitless and can cover any need. Java is very learner-friendly. Its straightforward syntax and wide variety of in-depth online tutorials might make it the easiest high-level programming language to learn. From this, it’s easy to see why many coders choose Java as their first language. Another strong point of Java is that it boasts a rich selection of Intelligent IDEs that integrate many software development tools into a GUI. The IDEs include IntelliJ, NetBeans, and Eclipse. By the way, rich APIs and abundant libraries are also among the perks of Java. One more standout feature of Java is backward compatibility, which means software created in older Java versions can run on newer JVMs without hiccups. Speaking about upgrades, Java has a regular release cycle. More precisely, new Java versions are released every six months, letting Java devs test new platform features and benefit from performance enhancements. Besides the six-month release cycle, Java gets a long-term support release every three years. It’s worth mentioning that these regular upgrades were achieved not without the help of Oracle Corporation. In 2010, Oracle Corp acquired Sun Microsystems, the patron of Java, and began doing its best to improve the language. Today, it’s Oracle that launches regular Java updates. And in the near future, Oracle will help Java surpass its counterparts by a significant margin. Finally, Java is the language with the strongest community worldwide. Java has a very helpful, vibrant, resourceful, and encouraging community that isn’t limited to online help forums (as it’s often the case with many other languages).

Final Verdict

Surely, the software engineering industry is rapidly changing, and some of these changes may leave developers wondering: How long will they be in demand? The short answer is: for a very long time. Is the future of software development doomed? No, not in this lifetime. The future of software development is still progressive, which means software development is quite a promising career, especially if we’re talking about Java specialists. Looking at the job market for Java developers today, it’s easy to conclude that Java has no signs of becoming obsolete in the near future, which means Java devs continue to be high-demandable. So, if you enjoy coding and are willing to learn Java, you have all the chances to make a great career out of it.