I had the opportunity to delve into the world of future software development by discussing it with renowned developer and DX legend Shawn Wang. Together, we envision a future where developers ship quality code at lightspeed and software development becomes seamless and efficient.
How will developers build software in the future?
Today's cloud-based tools and workflows point to an emerging vision of instantaneous coding, testing, and deployment.
An interconnected ecosystem will empower developers to ship quality code at lightspeed.
Code in Motion, Constantly
The last thing that hasn't been moved to the cloud is your Dev environment. For some reason, you must git clone things down. For some reason, your Python environment needs to be exactly correct or you cannot run your projects. That seems very outdated compared to everything else that we do that is already cloud-based.
Shawn Wang (@swyx)
Static local environments will become obsolete. The development will happen in a continuous, live environment connected to the entire cloud toolchain.
The moment code is written, it will flow to the next stage. Sophisticated AI will run unit tests, identify errors, and perform code reviews in real-time.
Rather than waiting for builds and deployments, developers will gain immediate feedback about how new code impacts the rest of the application. AI assistants will also suggest improvements.
This constant coding motion will enable Comprehensive Test Driven Development at a massive scale. The software will be perpetually kept in an integrated, working state.
Seamless CI/CD Embedded
Standardized platforms will provide infinite, autoscaling, project environments. As developers check in code, preconfigured CI/CD pipelines will kick into action automatically.
Testing and release processes that take hours today will happen in seconds. Deployments will roll out incrementally across regions, requiring no manual oversight.
Developers will simply focus on the code. The surrounding CI/CD processes will become an invisible given – as reliable as electricity.
Knock Down Barriers, Boost Velocity
One of the reasons why people hesitate to adopt cloud environments is that they don't have full ownership of the environment.
Shawn Wang (@swyx)
When constraints of the local environment disappear, developer productivity will skyrocket. Engineering organizations will refocus their energy on creating business value rather than fighting tooling fires.
Developers will be able to instantly collaborate across geographic boundaries in a shared persistent environment that provides infinite scale.
Software delivery lifecycles will compress from months to days or hours. The concept of “production deploys” may even disappear, as code continuously flows to users.
The Crystal Ball is Cloudy
Developer environments should be like cattle, not pets.
Shawn Wang (@swyx)
The future of development is a world of rapid experimentation and feedback. While the details are still taking shape, the overarching vision is clear - a cloud-powered toolchain that empowers developers to build quality software at warp speed wherever they are.
The building blocks are already falling into place today. Forward-leaning teams are embracing cloud tools and collaborative workflows. This shift is laying the foundation for the next generation of software development.
