Enterprises are embarking on a fastened route to digital transformation, and as this happens, DevOps has become more crucial than ever. The developer community has scaled quickly, and its presence and growth have been drivers of change within multiple industries. To continue on that growing path and succeed in our increasingly digital-driven world, organizations must embrace the tendencies that will power the future of the digital revolution.

As a developer myself, there are a few key trends that I think will shape our reality in 2022 and upcoming years.

Developers Rule the World: Give Them the Right Experience

Softwares are everywhere, from phones and computers to cars, but they are also in places most would not expect, such as air conditioners or even fridges. Software helps people in their day-to-day activities, and it's used to implement logic to pieces of hardware that would otherwise be useless. It all means one thing: software developers are ruling the world.

Business-wise, developers are the people making processes digital and more effective. Even if they do not always have direct decision-making positions, they heavily influence the technical stacks as well as software and services their company will use.

In 2022, it will become more natural and critical for businesses' growth to include the developers' experience at the top of the funnel. Developers want to be heard, and organizations need to rethink how they approach this "new" persona. Enterprises will need to shift their focus on sales to become one that focuses on people.

Next year will be all about helping the developer community be successful. In fact, it will be critical for the survival of companies today to think about the developer's experience first and include it at every step of the product development lifecycle.

Defining a New Path: The Developer Relation

As the developer community continues to grow and becomes more ingrained in decision making for many organizations, the role of a developer relations (devrel) team or department will be more popular than ever.

In the past few years, the career path of a Developer Advocate emerged, but it is now that its gaining the recognition it deserves. Both the role and department will exponentially explode in and outside of the US coming 2022. In fact, catering to developers will become a competitive advantage as developers continue to increase their influence on what gets used in a company in terms of software, technology, and services. Because they are also usually more vocal when it comes to things they like or what truly works, they bring a bigger, more involved pool of people to connect with.

In addition, Devrel and developer advocates are the perfect bridge between technology and humans: it's all about connecting with people. From marketing to experience and success, we'll see more and more companies either implementing developer programs or experimenting with them in order to grow a community of developers which companies now hope to nurture, grow, and engage with.

Let's Get Ready for the Future of the Dev Community

As we head into the new year, leaders must start investing resources into supporting the DevOps community. Developers will continue to play a vital role within businesses and will drive success in 2022 and beyond.