Survival of the Fastest: Why Speed is Crucial in Software Development

TL;DR

The evolution of technology has led to the digitization of business operations, and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the process. To stay competitive, companies must quickly build and release software applications that meet the changing needs of customers and the market. Speed, flexibility, and agility have become essential, and software development must focus on these aspects. Agile methods, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), and microservices architecture are the latest technologies and methods used to create software quickly without compromising on quality.?

Background

When I was a kid, around 1993, the world was very different. When I wanted to open a bank account, my dad drove me to the nearest branch with all the necessary paperwork. After that, we got a number for the line and waited a while before we could talk to a bank officer. Then he will give us many forms to fill out, sign here and there, put down a deposit, and wait a few days until they give me the book and ATM cards.

Today, if we want to open a new bank account, we can do it from the comfort of our homes. All we must do is take out our smartphone, take a picture of our ID and a selfie, and our account is ready to use in seconds.

Technology has changed a lot. The rise of smartphones, which have become essential for communication, entertainment, and work, is one of the most significant changes. When the iPhone came out in 2007, it was a big deal. It changed the mobile industry and made smartphones a common part of everyday life. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have come a long way. With the development of cloud computing, powerful computing resources are now easier to access. This lets businesses and individuals use huge amounts of data to make better decisions and work more efficiently.?

A 2021 McKinsey Global Survey found that the COVID-19 pandemic sped up the digitization of business operations. In response to the crisis, 85% of business leaders said their companies had sped up the process, leading to a strong demand for faster software development. As companies quickly moved to digital platforms and services, the need to develop, deploy, and maintain software applications grew. In today's fast-paced business world, if a company wants to stay competitive and relevant, it must be able to quickly build and release software applications that meet the changing needs of its customers and the market. We must focus on speed, flexibility, and agility, which have become essential for businesses to keep up with the pace of change and stay competitive.?

Speed in software development means how quickly software is designed, built, tested, and used. It looks at how well the software development life cycle (SDLC) steps work together, such as planning, designing, implementing, testing, and maintaining. Speed in software development is often a crucial part of a project's success, as it can affect how long it takes to get a product to market, how well resources are used, and how much the project costs overall.

It's important to remember that speed shouldn't come at the expense of quality, one of the biggest risks of rushing through development is that bugs and mistakes are more likely to happen. When developers are working under tight deadlines or must cut corners to save time, they may miss important steps in the development process or overlook potential problems. They may not have time to test and secure the software as well as they should. This leaves the software open to attacks and breaches.?

To solve this problem, we need to use the fastest and most effective way to make software, such as Agile methods, continuous delivery, and microservice architecture. These methods allow software applications to be built and used in weeks or even days instead of months or years. This lets companies respond quickly to changing market conditions and customer needs while keeping the quality and usability of their products high.

Let's talk more about those methods:

Agile Methods

Agile methods like Scrum or Kanban can help streamline processes and shorten the time needed to build something. One of the best things about Agile methods is that they are made to be flexible and easy to change. Traditional methods of project management are based on a rigid plan. Agile methods, on the other hand, allow teams to change their approach as they go. This means that the team can quickly change direction and develop a new plan if something isn't working, or problems pop up. This flexibility can help teams stay on track and ensure the project is done on time and within budget.?

Another benefit of Agile methods is that they put a lot of emphasis on working together and talking to each other. In Scrum, for example, the team has daily "stand-up" meetings where they talk about how things are going, identify problems, and plan what they will do that day. This level of communication ensures everyone is on the same page and that any problems or roadblocks are dealt with quickly.

Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD)

Automating the testing and deployment process can help ensure that software is delivered quickly and without any mistakes. Traditional software testing and deployment are handled manually, which takes a lot of time, is prone to mistakes, and can cause product delivery to be delayed.?

But by automating the testing and deployment process, developers can test the code and send it to production quickly and easily. This leads to faster delivery times and a smoother process overall. Automated testing tools can help find and fix bugs early in development, saving time and money in the long run.?

By automating the process, CI/CD Pipeline can ensure that software is continuously integrated, tested, and sent to the production environment quickly and efficiently. This method reduces the chance of mistakes and delays, improves the quality of the software, and lets teams keep getting better at what they do.

Microservices

In 2011, a group of software architects at Netflix began trying out what they called "microservices," a new way to build software. They wanted to make an application that could be used by many people and could be updated often without going down. They broke their app into small, separate services that could be deployed and scaled independently. Because Netflix's microservices architecture worked so well, it is used by many companies today to build large, complex apps that can be scaled up quickly and updated often without any downtime.

Based on Sam Newman's book "Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems," microservices architecture promotes modularity for software development. Modularity is the idea that a software system should be broken up into smaller, independent parts that can be built, tested, deployed, and maintained independently. In a microservices architecture, modularity means breaking a monolithic application into smaller, more focused services that each do a specific business function. This can help reduce technical debt, which makes it easier to fix, update, and improve the software in the future.

In the next part, we will discuss implementing these 3 methods to build applications using Google Cloud. Stay tuned.