The biggest software development challenge in 2024 will be incorporating AI into the development process, according to a new report.

The Reveal survey of 585 software developers and IT professionals from Infragistics shows 40.7 percent name this as the top challenge followed by high workload (29.6 percent) and increased customer demands (29.2 percent).

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This week IBM, along with charitable partner United Nations Human Rights, and program affiliate the Linux Foundation, launches its 2024 Call for Code Global Challenge with the aim of encouraging developers to use generative AI technology to create solutions that improve equitable access to resources and opportunities for historically underserved and vulnerable people.

Participants will have access to a trial version of watsonx, IBM's AI and data platform with AI Assistants, as well as IBM Cloud technology and developer-friendly training and resources to help teams develop their solutions.

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When OpenTelemetry was first released in 2019, there was a good deal of excitement about the prospect of a single standard set of telemetry data for the entire modern software stack.

OpenTelemetry set out to make robust, portable telemetry a built-in feature of cloud-native software, and give developers and platform engineers a common mental model for all the telemetry types.

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The fear of software developers losing their jobs to AI is a concern for many people in the industry, but are these fears really justified?

Mike Loukides, VP of emerging tech content at O'Reilly Media, believes that AI can enhance the developer role rather than replace it. We spoke to him to find out how, with the right tools and training, the endpoint of this AI revolution won't lead to unemployment, but rather to better software.

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As with many other areas this year, software development has been greatly influenced by the rise in AI. But that's not the only area where things are changing.

Here’s what some industry experts think the development sector has in store for 2024.

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The use of AI tools for mobile app development and testing is growing, and developers and testers are keen to further expand the use of these tools, according to a new report.

The study from Kobiton finds 60 of respondents say they are currently using generative AI tools in their QA cycles to update scripts or code, 55 percent are using these tools to analyze test results, and 47 percent are using them to generate test scripts.

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In Software Architect, veteran enterprise and solution architect Michael Bell delivers a hands-on playbook of best practices for aspiring and practicing software architects, seeking to improve their software design, integration, communication, presentation, and knowledge acquisition skills.

The book explores the career enablement, career planning, self-training, and self-improvement topics you’ll need to increase your ability to offer powerful and effective business and technological solutions.

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A new global study of over 1,600 software testers reveals that 78 percent have already adopted some form of AI to improve productivity.

The report from LambdaTest also shows companies are working to respond to the need for greater software reliability with 72 percent of organizations involving testers in 'sprint' planning sessions, signaling a substantial shift towards software quality being considered earlier in the software development lifecycle.

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Despite difficult economic conditions, software development and quality assurance skills remain a priority for businesses, according to a new study.

Research from the Qt Group looks at the number of vacancies for 'software development', 'software testing', 'software engineering', and 'quality assurance' positions at 30 tech companies which have made the most redundancies this year.

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Mozilla has announced the availability of a limited number of browser extensions for the Android version of its Firefox web browser. The news comes several weeks after the company advised extension developers of the imminent launch of "support for an open ecosystem of extensions" for Firefox on Android.

Now testers who are running the Beta or Nightly builds of Firefox Android are being invited to try out dozens of extensions. At the moment, this is low-key launch as Mozilla is seeking feedback so the system can be tweaked and optimized ahead of a full launch further down the line.

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Having recently reaffirmed its commitment to PowerShell and Windows Terminal, Microsoft has shown that it is good to its word. The company has released new versions of Windows Terminal, and for those who like to play it safe, there is Windows Terminal v1.18.2681.0 which includes various new features such as the ability to pull tabs out of Terminal windows.

But for those who prefer to live on the edge, Windows Terminal Preview v1.19.2682.0 is a much more exciting release. The development team warns users to buckle up as this "might be a little more Preview than you've come to expect". And there is indeed an awful lot to explore in this preview channel version, including the fact that Windows Terminal is now able to browse the internet!

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According to 800 developer (DevOps) and application security (SecOps) leaders surveyed, 97 percent are using GenAI technology today, with 74 percent saying they feel pressured to use it despite identified security risks.

The research from software supply chain management company Sonatype shows 45 percent of SecOps leads have already implemented generative AI into the software development process, compared to only 31 percent for DevOps.

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Mozilla has issued a notice to developers, saying that it is preparing to launch support for an open ecosystem of extensions on Firefox for Android.

Pointing out that the move will make Firefox the only major Android browser to support such an ecosystem for extensions, Mozilla says everything sound be in place before the end of the year. The change means that it should not be long before Firefox users with Android handsets are able to use more than just the handful of extensions that are currently available.

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Microsoft has updated the free virtual machines it makes available for download as Windows 11 development environments.

In addition to Windows 11, the virtual machines also include various other developer-centric tools such as Visual Studio 2022 Community Edition and Ubuntu pre-installed in Windows Subsystem for Linux 2. In a nod to the fact that people work with different virtualization platforms, Microsoft has produced VMWare, Hyper-V (Gen2), VirtualBox and Parallels versions of the free VMs.

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Building products quickly to meet customer needs is more important than ever, especially as customer expectations continue to evolve. According to a recent study from Zendesk, 70 percent of consumers spend more with companies that offer fluid, personalized, and seamless customer experiences. For IT leaders, it’s not sufficient to focus on building things as required, their first focus needs to be on building the right thing. This means establishing a customer-centric product development process that supports discovering what customers really need and bringing a valuable product to market that meets their needs.

The most effective way to bring customer-centric products to market is to develop them incrementally and iteratively, with experimentation to discover how to best fulfill customer needs and with fast feedback to improve the quality of the product.

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