Software Development: Not Written Here Is New Norm

So long, source code

Bernard Cole, EETimes
6/16/2015 00:43 AM EDT

The new norm in the world of computing is code reuse, much of it proprietary third party or open source. Due to pressures of the market to produce software as fast as possible and at a low cost, many programmers are not doing what even a few years ago would be normal: writing their own original source code.

The pressure to instead use software developed elsewhere is intense. According to a survey of developers in 2014 by Venture Development Corp., the size of embedded code base alone is increasing at roughly three times the rate of the number of embedded software developers being hired. Where the number of software engineers available is expected to rise 9.6 percent through 2016, the expected code base growth is estimated to grow by 18.6 percent over the same period. Overall, embedded developers included in VDC’s 2014 survey said 51.1 percent of their project budgets were spent on software, versus 41.8 percent in 2012. Equally telling, respondents indicated that 51 percent of the end product value in 2014 was produced by the software versus 35.8 percent in 2012.

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