Companies are continuously seeking new ways to improve their processes without compromising the high quality expected by their customers. The IT industry has an advantage over other sectors in this regard; automation.
IT professionals have the potential to increase the efficiency of other sectors through the automation of processes. While some in the industry may be concerned about the impact this could have on employment, it is important to recognize that humans and machines can coexist. Automation does not necessarily equate to less need for human labor, and there are opportunities for both to work together.
Software developers are beginning to experience the effects of automation and AI in their sector. As further changes are implemented, AI and automation are proving to be beneficial to human engineers in all stages of the software development process, from project planning to quality assurance and testing. Automation is improving the industry as a whole.
How Much of Software Construction Can We Automate?
The role of a software developer has significantly changed in the last decade and is set to continue to evolve in the upcoming years. It is evident that software will not replace people programmers in the near future. Instead, automation and artificial intelligence have been instrumental in assisting developers to tackle a variety of challenges throughout the software development process.
In today’s software development processes, the build process is commonly conducted during deployment and distributed version control software is often utilised. Automation may be beneficial here by increasing the speed and enabling containerisation of the procedures involved. Consequently, developers can easily access the latest version of a software product through the version control software and running the build script.
Deploying to production settings can be optimized by utilizing a basic procedure with minimal manual input to reduce the risk of human error and accelerate the process. Many of the most advanced programmes also extensively utilize external resources such as libraries, application programming interfaces, frameworks, microservices, etc. These components may complicate deployment; however, automation can be utilized to create a consistent setting.
The testing phase of the development process is an ideal opportunity for automation. Quality assurance and user experience are both heavily reliant on rigorous testing. When conducted by humans, prolonged working times can be tiring and result in errors. Automated testing, therefore, can speed up time-to-market and help identify more bugs.
In the near future, developers may also expect to see automation implemented in the following areas:
- AI for automation is set to become a key resource for programmers aiming to reduce the time required to code and create top-notch code. The use of autocomplete techniques during the development process is likely to be supported by AI-driven automation software, thus improving productivity and accuracy when coding.
- Automating quality evaluation has the potential to greatly reduce the time and resources required for manual quality assurance testing. By enabling programmers to run tests on their code quickly and efficiently, the entire development process is improved, as defects can be identified and rectified much faster, thus reducing the time needed for completion.
- Automation can help generate code for testing quickly and accurately. This can be a useful tool for developers when faced with complex data sets, allowing them to create comprehensive tests quickly and efficiently. Automation can generate code based on inputs from a wide range of sources, providing a comprehensive approach to testing.
- Exploring the potential of virtual characters can have numerous benefits. Utilising “digital twins” allows robots to replicate the behaviour of human testers, responding to environmental triggers in accordance with set requirements and specifications. This technology simplifies the implementation of test-first ideas and enables version control to be used from the outset to ensure quality coding. Consequently, testing is no longer necessary.
Where Will Development Automation Be in the Next Decade?
Automated approaches are often favored by developers when there are clear, repeatable steps involved. Monotonous work can be extremely taxing and can lead to burnout, which can be a source of contention. By entrusting such tasks to computers, programmers can focus their energy on finding more efficient ways to improve their products and projects.
It is safe to say that human developers will continue to be essential for the development of new software. Those in roles that once depended on human intelligence are still required to oversee, generate, analyze and guide progress, despite the increased reliance on machinery.
It is essential to remember that the aim of automation is not to replace human labour or take away people’s jobs. Automation is about helping people to complete time-consuming and labour-intensive tasks that may not be cost-effective to do manually. Machines have the potential to improve people’s lives and allow them to focus on more important tasks.
People will always need to be involved in software development, both to ensure the accuracy of the work produced by automated tools and to identify the potential uses of these technologies. Even if software developers move into managerial and leadership roles, they will still need to direct automated systems on what tasks to perform. They will simply shift from being an employee to a manager.
Software engineers should consider incorporating automation into their roles, as this can help to streamline processes and provide more time to focus on the more creative elements of their profession.
