BANGALORE, INDIA: Presenting a perspective on the key trends in software development for 2009 by John Andrews, CEO, EDC.

Skills developers should need in 2009:
In addition to standard programming skills, there is an increasing need for proficiency in the use of dynamic languages and programming skills associated with web development.

Certifications and training hot in 2009 for software developers:
Developers are highly educated, with 95 percent of them having a college degree, but yet the majority say their technical skills acquisition is either self taught or learned on the job. This is due to the speed at which technology changes and the subsequent rapid adoption of new skills either on the job or through self-taught means.

Our current research indicates that  just 2.4 percent of developers report having received vendor certification.

Top ten trends in software development for 2009:
There are several trends visible. These are:

1) Cloud Computing
2) Virtualization
3) SaaS
4) SOA
5) OSS use/development.
6) Mobile development
7) Web 2.0 and beyond
8) Agile development
9) Web API's for e-commerce, etc.
10) Dynamic language use

Adoption of open source in 2009:
All regions continue to experience increased adoption of Linux and other open source software and this trend will continue into 2009.

Indian software developer community in 2009:
While the Indian developer community will feel some on the impact of the global economic downturn it will be much less. The developer population is expected to increase in 2009 by at least 12 percent or more.

Additionally we see these patterns continuing in 2009:
* Indian developers are well-educated; nearly 88 percent of them have college degrees, and over 40 percent have masters or doctoral degrees. Still, the rapid pace of change within the software technology industry dictates continuing education and training, and nearly half report having acquired most of their technical skills on the job or through teaching themselves. This kind of training becomes a necessity when technologies change as quickly as they do in the computer industry.

* Developers are extremely influential when it comes to virtually any corporate technology purchase. While 89 percent either identify needs or authorize purchase of development tools, more than 65 percent report that their influence extends to company computers, and 56 percent of respondents influence the purchase of office software.

Indeed, developers make or influence the purchase of a broad variety of technologies across the enterprise, including Web servers, hardware components and wireless devices. Annually, half of Indian developers report their companies spend over 100,000 rupees on tools and related software.

* Most Indian developers primarily use commercial software for tools, servers or middleware. Just over 10 percent never use commercial products, a small sliver of the population. Shareware and freeware are used by between 69 percent and 76 percent of developers, and approximately 76 percent of respondents use Open Source software at least some of the time. The most used licensing structure is the enterprise site licenses.