Developer productivity trends in 2024
People around the world have already set their resolutions for 2024 and some of them started bringing them to reality. For software development companies developer productivity is one of the most important things to care about. To boost it they follow not only the latest trends but also set internal rules, policies and create company culture that promotes collaboration, leadership, work-life balance, continuous learning and encourages every team member to be the top follower.
Let's see what are the right resolutions to improve developer productivity:
- Spend less time on social media
- Set "busy" status in your corporate messenger if you are working on something important
- Take better notes and keep them at your fingertips
- Set measurable goals
- Make better to-do lists to complete your tasks in time
The above resolutions were for developers who can stick to them to improve their productivity. And what trends should follow managers and team leaders to boost developer productivity? Let's answer this question in this blog post.
However, before we start talking about modern developer productivity trends let's see what kind of productivity challenges software developers face daily:
- Burnout
- Miscommunication
- Unclear goals
- Low awareness
- Bad habits
Trend #1. Communication efficiency
Efficient communication is very important for developers. It helps to get work done quicker, share useful information, follow corporate news and keep the whole team informed. At the same time, it reduces burnout among remote and distributed teams.
Modern market is full of applications for improving developer productivity. They include:
- Task boards
- Corporate messengers
- Scrum boards
- Communication channels
Virola corporate messenger combines collaboration and project management functionality. With Virola corporate messenger your team can take advantage of the following features:
- Private and topic-based chats
- News channels
- Flexible permissions settings
- Voice and video meetings
- Screen sharing and remote control
- Kanban board and issues tracking
In Virola messenger your developers can create tasks with a couple of clicks, convert sent messages to issues, use markdown to format their messages and send code in a readable formatting. Business messengers like Virola are gaining popularity among developers and have proved to be really helpful to improve developer productivity.
Trend #2. Task and time management
Efficient task and time management is as important as effective communication. For task and time management such productivity tools as Jira, Trello and Asana are used among developers. They make life easier by offering various tracking options and an ability to set individual goals, track progress and efficiently communicate regarding specific tasks or issues.
Trend #3. Clean and short code blocks
Clean and short code blocks are not just a modern trend, but it's also a must-follow rule for software development projects. If the code is kept unclean the following issues arise:
- Technical debt
- Confusion and misunderstanding
- Growing cost of development
According to Dave Thomas, OTI CEO and founder, clean code can be read, and enhanced by a developer other than its original author. It has unit and acceptance tests. It has meaningful names. It provides one way rather than many ways for doing one thing. It has minimal dependencies, which are explicitly defined, and provides a clear and minimal API.
Trend #4. Agile methodologies
Agile development methodology is being adopted by many organizations to maximize developer productivity. The agile approach entails managing projects by breaking them down into several sprints. As a result, developers continuously release updates, new features and test them. They see the result of their work and keep themselves motivated to continue working with the same speed and quality or even improve them.
Trend #5. Distraction minimization
Developers often work on complex projects and tasks. Thus, when they are distracted, it's hard to get back on track. For the average person it takes about 15 minutes to regain focus after distraction. However, when it comes to complex tasks, it can take more time and effort. There are several recommendations which may help to minimize distractions and as a result improve developer productivity:
- Use noise cancelling headphones
- Set "busy" network status in corporate messenger
- Organize quiet working and meeting areas
Trend #6. Right productivity tools and automatization
Project management and productivity tools help to keep track of the tasks, let managers and shareholders see the project development success and provide detailed statistics on developer performance. These tools are useful and can be either integrated with collaboration messengers such as Slack or used as part of the functionality provided in such collaboration tools as Virola.
Automatization helps to get rid of repetitive and boring tasks and concentrate on more important things. Such dull tasks have negative impact on developer productivity and reduce their efficiency.
Trend #7. Healthy habits
Fostering healthy habits is good not only for employees but also for business. Regular breaks, gym passes, and healthy food will help to keep a sound mind in a sound body. For those developers who work remotely, various activities to develop healthy habits can be offered as an additional incentive.
Conclusion
Mismanagement is a problem that many organizations face. However, it can not only impact the revenue but also employee productivity. In software development industry various distractions, multitasking, lack of automatization and miscommunication lead to significant decrease of productivity and as a result the overall revenue which directly depends on the software development speed and quality.
There is no need to reinvent the wheel, just follow our recommendations to increase developer productivity, equip your team with the right tools and create a quiet working space.