Supporting programmers to boost innovation

Richard Cudd at Confluent argues that developers must be given time, flexibility and headspace to innovate and create the next great application for employees and customers

 

In September, we celebrated Programmers Day. Started in 2009, the day honours developers and programmers around the world and the role they play in organisations.

 

You may ask why such a day exists. Putting it simply, developers are fundamental to driving any digital organisation forward as they are the ones behind the scenes making innovation happen and developing those critical software solutions. They ensure that computers, technology, and software make the modern world go around and allow businesses to successfully operate in the digital paradigm we now live in.

 

Think about how easy it is to order a taxi via an app or shop online with just a few clicks - it’s the programmers that make that magic happen.

 

With that all in mind, organisations must understand they have a critical responsibility to developers. They need to ensure they provide them with the right environment to work in, giving them the time, flexibility and headspace to innovate and create the next great application for employees and customers.

 

Of course, developers face other challenges including quality assurance, project management and working out how to integrate new technologies into the business world. However, successful software development requires programmers to be clear and focused on the problem they have been set out to solve.

 

The issue for the majority of organisations is that this sort of focus is taken away due to limited infrastructure and resources or even developers having to waste precious time on managing operational day-to-day activity.

 

This challenge is not new. Back in the 1990’s when I was first a developer, I would often spend far too much of my time preparing the environments and infrastructure to run my code rather than solving the actual business problem I was there to work on.

 

Organisations must regularly review their tech stack to provide developers with the right environment to drive true innovation. And critically, implement and invest in platforms and technology that will support programmers, allowing them to focus on building and adding true value to the business.

 

So where do businesses start when reviewing their tech stack?

 

Reviewing legacy systems

Companies should look to invest in removing expensive legacy technologies and replacing these with more modern and efficient solutions. The key here is doubling down and investing in software to automate processes that were otherwise people and effort intensive.

 

This will then allow organisations to free up the programming teams’ capacity because they don’t have to deal with old or the wrong IT infrastructure for today’s business needs. Take low-performance software tools, inefficient data storage architectures or improper networks and connectivity which ultimately bring down productivity and performance.

 

Importantly, by reviewing legacy systems, organisations can also typically see results in enhanced operations, with increased resilience, efficiency and reduced risk. This, in turn, will help drive and protect revenue. 

 

One word of caution when looking at removing legacy technologies. Many probably assume the easiest thing to do is to start from scratch and simply rip and replace technology.

 

However, this can be expensive, complex and no business and enterprise would be able to accommodate any potential downtime. So, organisations need to look to the route of IT modernisation, ensuring they can continuously transform the business over a period of time.

 

Unlocking data

Data is the lifeblood of any organisation and allows employees and leaders to make fast decisions based on real insights. For developers, data infrastructure is even more critical as it is the foundation of knowing where data is stored and organised within a business as well as processing and analysing large amounts of data.

 

The data infrastructure of a business ultimately provides a set of techniques to the programmer for handling the data efficiently. 

 

Again, the challenge for most organisations is that their data infrastructure doesn’t allow data to flow across the business. Instead, data is static and stuck in silos leading it to be inaccurate, incomplete and late, causing huge issues for developers and employees alike. In fact, we recently conducted research and found that 60% of respondents said they have difficulty integrating multiple data sources to get the access to real-time they needed.

 

What businesses need is a new way to handle data. A system that supports them when it comes to collecting a continuous flow of data from across the business, between apps, databases, SaaS layers and cloud providers.

 

They need to consider implementing a data streaming platform and layer which will allow data to move fluidly and link all data points together in real-time, no matter where they reside in an organisation’s IT infrastructure – from the cloud to on-premises environments.

 

John Romero once said: “You might not think that programmers are artists, but programming is an extremely creative profession. It’s logic-based creativity.” And it is clear developers are a fundamental part of today’s organisations as they are the ones that create and drive innovation by designing programmes to make employees’ and customers’ lives easier.

 

What we all must remember is that our responsibility lies in providing the right environment for developers to truly shine.

 

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Richard Cudd is Senior Director, Customer Success Engineering at Confluent

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com