Worldwide IT spending will exceed $4.5 trillion in 2022, according to Gartner’s IT Spending ForecastOpens a new window . The report also finds that software engineering roles represent one of the fastest-growing job categories across the globe. As IT spending increases, so too will the expectations for these in-demand developers. For example, 60% of developers are releasing code twice as fast as before the pandemic, according to the GitLab DevSecOps SurveyOpens a new window . This means the velocity of code releases is up 25% from before the pandemic began.
The reality is that maintaining quality and performance speeds rides on effective developer workflows. If these workflows are manual, inefficient and dated, they will slow down the entire process, causing logjams and business disruptions. However, modern, digital workflow management that leverages open-source software and balances structure with an agile approach to collaboration can ultimately lead to improved developer productivity and software delivery.
See More: Why Gen Z Is the Future of Citizen Development
Let’s take a look at three best practices for digital workflow management for developers:Â
Enabling Repeatable Workflows
A key issue developers face when creating more interconnected toolsets and streamlined workflows is that weak integrations add to fragmentation. Out-of-the-box integrations often promise seamless workflows, but they typically lack true customization and still force teams to bounce back and forth between tools.Â
Streamlined workflows are repeatable, configurable and pre-built. Flexible, open-source workflow management tools built by and for developers help check every one of these boxes.Â
Even better, some developer collaboration platforms enable teams to create a personalized checklist for their specific technical workflows. These checklists, or runbooks, can be built and applied for various situations (e.g., incident response, product roadmap planning, customer onboarding) and are automatically available to developer teams using the platform.Â
These workflow runbooks are templatized and transparent, providing everyone involved in the software development process visibility and actionable insights.Â
There’s no need to reinvent the wheel and slow down operations. Repeatable workflows are more efficient, allowing developers to spend more time doing what they do best — innovating.Â
Minimizing Downtime and Disruptions
Developer collaboration platforms not only enable repeatable workflows but also often leverage open-source tools and providers. By using open-source tools, developers work in a flexible environment where they can contribute to the source or build customizations alongside it.
Collaboration tools that exist only as services in the cloud can fall victim to outages. Downtime, when a major cloud provider fails, can leave teams scrambling to compensate, cascading to customers and disrupting work and business outcomes. A customizable and installable platform that can be hosted on a cloud of the client’s choice or on-premise gives developer teams more control over management, availability, and scale.
Developers contributing to an open-source project gain a community full of knowledge and expertise outside of their own companies. Teams can learn from each other and help each other build their own individualized security, operations, workflow and permissioning solutions, making them as unique as needed. Leveraging collective knowledge helps find bugs and vulnerabilities before they cause major issues, minimizing downtime and freeing up time to focus on initiatives that drive the business forward.Â
See More: Tech Salaries in 2022: Why the Six Figure Pay Makes Techies Feel Underpaid
Streamlining Documentation
Leveraging digital workflow management tools can also allow teams to reference procedural checklists alongside all project communication. Developers can configure their collaboration platforms to create customized and integrated workspaces that fit specific needs. This unified communication and complete contextual coordination can help balance structured operations and free-flowing conversations.Â
Connected communication and collaboration provide a key advantage: streamlined documentation. Teams can reference canonical resources, always find the information they need for a task and check the backscroll for perspective on previous iterations. Documenting trends, data, and common issues in a centralized platform brings a process to collaboration, creating cohesion, confidence, and accountability.Â
Processes, activities, and tools can all be improved with retrospective and post-mortem reporting. A fully integrated collaboration and digital workflow management platform helps streamline processes for current and future developer initiatives by presenting records in one digestible format. Teams can reference their history, conduct reviews, and iterate to improve continuously over time.
As we all lean more and more into our digital world, software becomes more complex and more critical to maintain at a certain level of functionality. The challenges won’t get easier, but we can create scalable, solid systems to support the development teams tasked with keeping it all afloat while increasing the pace of innovation and adding tangible business value. By leveraging digital workflow management and collaboration platforms custom-built for the way developers work, technical leaders can support their teams in achieving more efficient, streamlined and strategic product development.Â
What steps have you taken to improve your software developer productivity and software delivery? Let us know on FacebookOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , and LinkedInOpens a new window .