What Were the Biggest Software Development Trends of 2016 and What to Expect in 2017?

In the past year, the software development industry continued to advance rapidly, with many emerging languages, frameworks and tools reshaping how we work.

Major Trends

Progressive Web Apps gained momentum in 2016, enabling web applications to work offline and provide native‑like experiences, including home‑screen installation and push notifications.

Chatbots became a hot topic, with platforms and frameworks for building conversational agents that automate customer support and other tasks.

Frontend Framework Consolidation saw a mix of new and existing JavaScript frameworks, but the core capabilities of major frameworks remained comparable, reducing the urgency of choosing a single one.

Cloud adoption accelerated as major providers (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) lowered prices, making cloud infrastructure accessible to small companies and individual developers.

Machine Learning exploded in popularity, highlighted by events such as AlphaGo’s match against Lee Sedol, and is expected to have a larger impact in 2017.

Programming Languages

JavaScript continued to evolve with the upcoming ES2017 standard, bringing async/await support, while tools like Babel enable its use across browsers.

TypeScript 2.1 added async/await support for older browsers and improved type inference, becoming a preferred language for Angular 2 development.

C# 7.0 is slated for 2017, alongside the open‑source Visual Studio Code editor and .NET Core, enabling cross‑platform development.

Python 3.6 is set for release, solidifying its role in automation, web development, machine learning and scientific computing; PyPy offers a JIT‑enabled alternative.

Ruby 2.3 introduced performance improvements and, together with Rails, remains a strong choice for web applications.

PHP 7.1 brings incremental enhancements, continuing to power fast web applications.

Java 9 will add features such as a REPL, HTTP/2 support and new APIs; JVM languages like Kotlin and Scala are also worth exploring.

Swift 3 simplifies iOS and macOS development, with Swift 4 planned for 2017 to improve the language and add server‑side capabilities.

Other notable languages include Crystal, Elixir, Haskell, Clojure, Rust and Go.

Frontend

Two major advances: Web Assembly bytecode and Service Workers , which together enable fast, efficient web apps and support for progressive web apps.

Angular 2 (written in TypeScript) was released and is recommended for 2017.

Vue.js 2.0 combines ideas from Angular, React and Ember, offering a lightweight and fast framework.

Ember provides two‑way data binding, automatic updates and strong backward compatibility.

Aurelia and React (often paired with GraphQL, Relay, Flux, Immutable.js) form a comprehensive stack for experienced developers.

Bootstrap 4 (in Alpha) introduces card components and Flexbox grid.

SASS and LESS remain the most popular CSS preprocessors.

Backend

Node.js continues to evolve, supporting the full ES6 spec and powering fast APIs; notable frameworks include Express, Koa, Next and Nodal.

PHP offers many frameworks such as Laravel, Symfony and Zend Framework 3.

Ruby on Rails 5.0 adds WebSockets and API support; Sinatra 2.0 is also upcoming.

Python frameworks Django 1.10 and Flask provide full‑stack and micro‑service options.

Java frameworks Play and Spark are popular, often used with Scala.

Elixir and its Phoenix framework aim to match Rails performance.

Databases

PostgreSQL 9.5 and 9.6 introduced UPSERT support, improved full‑text search and performance enhancements for large datasets.

MySQL 8.0 (expected 2017) brings major improvements.

CouchDB (and its browser counterpart PouchDB) offer scalable JSON storage with a RESTful API.

Redis remains a fast key‑value store with rich data structures and a forthcoming module system.

Tools

Yarn is a faster, more secure Node.js package manager compatible with npm.

Visual Studio Code and Atom are popular open‑source editors with extensive extensions.

Git remains the dominant version‑control system, with platforms like GitLab, Bitbucket and GitHub.

Electron and NW.js enable desktop applications using web technologies.

Ansible and Docker support DevOps practices, while Linux command‑line skills are increasingly valuable.

Technology

Cloud platforms (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) dominate infrastructure, offering VMs, managed databases and machine‑learning services.

Artificial Intelligence and machine learning are mainstream, with frameworks like TensorFlow and Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit providing open‑source tools and online courses.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) have matured, with platforms such as Oculus Rift, Daydream and Windows Holographic inviting third‑party developers.