Serena used its appearance at the Gartner Application Architecture, Development and Integration conference towards the end of last year to point to what the company gauges to be key trends in the software application development industry. Undertaking a developer survey attendee survey at the event itself, the company says that its estimation of the top application delivery priorities is as follows:
- There is an overwhelming need to deliver applications faster
- There is a broad requirement to reduce app development costs
- There is a general perception of the need to expand the use of Agile
The company says that this is a marked change from what it has been hearing at developer conventions and user group meetings over the last few years. "Speaking to developers and project managers, Serena's Adam Frankl says that reducing costs was consistently listed as the #1 developer priority until recently."
"More software application development professionals identify delivering applications faster as a priority — rather than just cutting costs. As we emerge from the global economic slowdown, innovation and, especially, the speed of innovation are the priority. I can’t think of a time in my 20-year career when there has been a higher profile for software applications, a broader range of available platforms and more data available. So we may be entering the golden age of application development," said Frankl.
Serena's findings come as no major surprise given the company's willingness to extol the virtues of its Orchestrated ALM Whitepaper, which it positions as being a useful route towards learning how you can deliver applications faster, reduce app development costs and expand the use of Agile.
Writing in the company's aforementioned white paper, Serena's David Hurwitz notes that, "With so many apps already in production, it would be tempting to say that app driven innovation is mature, with little room for additional competitive advantage. That would be wrong, as the evolving mix of devices, Internet communications and markets creates a constantly shifting playing field from which new winners and losers regularly emerge. Speed and efficiency are the keys to winning in this world."
