Twice a year, Thoughtworks, one of the top global software consultancies, publishes online their Technology Radar, a document which provides an in-depth analysis of currently interesting software development techniques, platforms, tools, and languages & frameworks. The document provides the unique viewpoints of the Thoughtworks Technology Advisory Board (TAB), a group of senior technologists at Thoughtworks dedicated to assisting businesses worldwide in becoming cutting-edge digital companies.

We've explored the 26th edition of the Technology Radar and compiled a short list of the most important techniques and technologies to consider in the future.

Techniques to incorporate in your projects

Adopt: four key metrics

The technologists at Thoughtworks recommend using the four key metrics defined by the DORA research programme to measure software delivery performance: change lead time, deployment frequency, mean time to restore (MTTR), and change fail percentage. According to the Board, the research and its statistical analysis revealed “a clear link between high-delivery performance and these metrics.”

Adopt: single team remote wall

A single team remote wall is a simple technique for reintroducing the team wall virtually. Distributed teams should take this approach because one of the most common complaints companies receive from remote teams is about not having a physical team wall acting as an information radiator.

Source: https://www.thoughtworks.com/de-de/radar

Platforms worth exploring

Trial: GitHub Actions

GitHub Actions has grown significantly in the last year, and while it still has some flaws, it has demonstrated the ability to handle more complex workflows and call other actions in composite actions.

Trial: Azure DevOps

Just like GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps has been growing and providing good results. The technologists at Thoughtworks appreciate its flexibility, which allows them to use the services they want from a variety of providers.

Languages and Frameworks to use and assess

Adopt: SwiftUI

When introduced, SwiftUI was a significant step forward for implementing user interfaces on all types of Apple devices. The technologists at Thoughtworks were particularly impressed with the declarative, code-centric approach and the reactive programming model provided by the Combine framework.

Adopt: Testcontainers

This Java library is a useful default choice for creating a dependable environment for running tests. It Dockerizes common test dependencies and can run custom Dockerfiles as needed. It works well with test frameworks such as JUnit, is adaptable enough to allow users to manage the container lifecycle and advanced networking, and quickly sets up an integrated test environment.

Assess: Java 17

The current Radar issue suggests assessing the long-term support (LTS) version of Java, version 17, and highlights its switch to the new LTS process, as well as its promising new features.

Source: https://www.thoughtworks.com/de-de/radar

Tools to use

Adopt: Tfsec

For Thoughtworks teams, Tfsec has quickly become the default static analysis tool for detecting potential security risks. It is simple to integrate into a CI pipeline and has a growing library of checks against all major cloud providers and platforms.

The methodology used by the TAB

The Technology Radar organises interesting techniques and technologies in software development, called blips, into quadrants and rings. The quadrants represent various types of blips, and the rings show where these blimps should be in the adoption lifecycle.

The semantics of the four rings are as follows:

Adopt: the industry should be adopting these blips, and technologists at Thoughtworks use them when appropriate in their projects. Trial: these blips are worth pursuing. It is important to understand how to develop these capabilities. Enterprises can experiment with these technologies on low-risk projects. Assess: these blips are worth exploring to understand how they will affect your enterprise. Hold: enterprises should exercise caution when utilising these blips.

Source: https://www.thoughtworks.com/de-de/radar

The Technology Radar guides you through the most relevant tech trends for 2022 and shows you what you can expect in your customers' projects tomorrow. If you want to learn more about what to look out for in software development, you can find the full Technology Radar Volume 26 on Thoughtworks’ website.