The IT industry is vast and it is changing and evolving every day. It is never an easy task to walk toe-to-toe with ever-changing technology. One might adopt one technology today and tomorrow a different technology may emerge in the industry. So, the IT industry is very complex and dynamic.
Similarly, the software industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. So, software developers have to keep up with emerging trends. But, it is not as easy as it sounds. They are constantly faced with different challenges. So, let’s see some of them.
Challenges Faced by Software Developers
Here are some of the challenges faced by every software developer.
Changing Technology
The technology is changing and evolving at a tremendous rate. Everyday new technology and trends emerge in the market. And these technologies and trends are becoming popular in such a way that every customer wants the products and services to be developed implementing these trends and technology.
It might be easy for a customer to demand a product and a service. But, the one who develops them is a software developer. And software developers must constantly improve their skills and knowledge to keep up with these trends and technology.
The software developers also need to keep updating their systems to improve the software product’s quality. Working in an old system, the software product will lose quality and software developers will not be able to take advantage of the updated system’s features. Therefore, software developers need to keep up with the changing trends and technology to gain a competitive advantage in the market.
So, the software developers face challenges to learn about technology and trends, programming languages, frameworks, and so on.
Solution
A software developer must schedule a time to learn about new programming languages, frameworks, and the latest technology trends. A software developer must be self-responsible to learn new things continuously.
It won’t be a problem for a software developer to spend 1-2 hrs to learn new skills, learn about different coding practices, methodologies, and tools daily. The more you learn, the better your coding skills will be. You will be more productive.
High Competition
One who has unique products and provides better features gains a competitive advantage in the market and survives in the market. The competition between software companies is fierce and due to globalization, the competition has become even fiercer.
The challenges here faced by a software developer is to know about the market demands, constantly bring unique ideas, and quickly launch the software products in the market before competitors launch their products with the same features. Because of high competition, software developers must develop high-quality products at a better price.
Also, software developers need to improve their skills and knowledge and make themselves capable enough to compete in the IT industry. Nowadays, companies are selecting the best and high-skilled developers to set a strong foothold in the market and let everyone know about the company.
Companies like Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, etc. are at the very top of the IT industry. They are the best ones right now. The products they bring in the market becomes an instant hit because these companies are well-known, have a high reputation, and bring unique products.
You need to compete with these giants. Not only them, but you also need to compete with other companies that are emerging in the market lately and are becoming popular.
Solution
A software developer must be aware of the customers and their needs and requirements. He/she must identify the pain points of the customers and he/she should develop software that focuses on solving their problems.
A software developer must know who the competitors are and should develop unique software and the pricing should be affordable and valuable.
Changing Customer Requirements
Customer requirements are constantly changing during the software development phase. Due to unclear understanding, the requirements change. And as long as the technology and trends keep changing, the requirements of customers also keep changing.
Since software products and services are developed for customers, it is very crucial to consider their needs and requirements. And this is where requirements volatility comes. The software developers must be able to update and modify the requirements during the software development life cycle.
One of the biggest challenges faced by a software developer is to add or remove a feature during the software development phase. Sometimes, software developers also have to accept the client’s unrealistic demands.
Changing customer requirements is so challenging that it affects the software developer’s time and efforts. Since a software developer works hard to develop a software product, he/she feels a little irritated and upset for a while if requirements are changed.
Solution
A software developer must communicate regularly with clients to clearly understand their requirements. And, nowadays end-users and clients are also being part of the development team. This helps to know their needs, how they interact with a system. As a result, a software developer develops different ways to make software better than ever.
Involving clients and end-users in the development phase will help a software developer to know about their requirements clearly and develop usable software with a better user experience.
Time Limitations
Working on a tight schedule is one of the challenges faced by software developers. They have to finish a project within the set deadline. Such deadlines could sometimes be stressful for software developers.
Working in such a tight schedule leads to stress and anxiety. Then, they feel irritated over small things. And, their anger is bent towards an innocent person.
Scheduling can be really challenging for a software developer when working with a client from a different time zone. This often creates a problem for a software developer since he/she has to work even at night which hampers the work-life balance of a software developer.
The software developers have to work under a pressure environment and complete the project within the deadlines.
Solution
A software developer must be able to manage their time. He/she should break the tasks into smaller tasks and give time to each task.
A software developer should create a To-Do list and prioritize the tasks. He/she should focus first on high priority tasks. This helps to manage the tasks and time effectively.
Quality
The software products and services developed by software developers should be bugs free and error-free. The software developers have to take numerous test cases into consideration to assure the quality of the software. Sometimes, it might take too much time to test the software.
It can be tough for a software developer sometimes to identify bugs and errors in software which takes a lot of time and effort. The software must be tested rigorously until all the issues are resolved. Until and unless the software is error-free, the software is not considered finished.
The software must pass through every test case to be successful. The software must produce the desired results before it is launched. This prevents additional rework and ensures customer satisfaction. So, the software must be tested in every software development phase.
Solution
A software developer must find the root cause of the issues and focus on resolving the issues. He/she should devise plans and execute them immediately. Test cases should be developed and test the software against the expected results.
A software must review the software regularly. He/she should test the quality in every development phase. He/she should implement the best approach to monitor software quality.
Integration
Another challenge for a software developer is to integrate a third-party app. A software developer must select the best and compatible third-party app to meet customer’s needs, otherwise, a bad one might ruin all your time and efforts.
One might not know whether the third-party app is integrated with hacked code which is well hidden. So, a software developer must be aware of this fact and only select the trusted third-party app.
A software developer must research extensively and test the third-party app before integration whether it provides features that we need and it is compatible or not. A software developer must check whether it is supported by the system and frameworks we are currently working on or implementing on. He/she must check the version of the third-party app whether it is the latest one or not.
Solution
A software developer must be 100 percent sure that the software functions properly and other functionalities aren’t affected after implementing the third-party app. The third-party app must be from a trusted source and it should have permission to access the software.
The upgrade of either the software or third-party app should not affect the software. The software developer should test the software after the update and he/she should make sure that the software runs as expected after the update.
Security
One of the biggest challenges a software developer faces is to secure the software and the data.
Security breaches have increased by 11% since 2018 and 67% since 2014.
A software developer mustn’t leave any stone unturned to make software as secure as possible. The software developer must protect the data of the customer and he/she should take extreme steps to secure the data.
The biggest problem in today’s digital world is hackers. They look for a loophole in software to take advantage and steal the data. So, a software developer must develop secure software. The software developer must always use the latest frameworks, latest and trusted third-party apps, and programming languages that provide high security.
Hackers attack every 39 seconds, on average 2,244 times a day.
Solution
A software developer must protect the software from SQL injection which is one of the common attacks to compromise the system and steal the data. He/she needs to encode every data. He/she should also decide who can access the software and access which features.
A software developer must encrypt the data using the best encryption algorithms. Implementing a logging approach also helps to secure the software.
In Conclusion
It’s never an easy task to develop software. As a customer, it might seem too easy for us but software developers have to face many problems during the software development phase. They have to constantly think about the user experience, security, technology, trends, customer requirements, and so on when developing software.
A software developer must be focused every time when developing software. They have to go out of the box and bring in creative and unique ideas to develop software and make it a success.
We, at Truemark, love getting things done without compromising the quality of software. We have development teams that focus on delivering the best software to the customers. So, if you want to work with us, please feel free to contact us.