The Power of Automation - Useful Tools For Automating
As developers, we’re often tasked with repetitive, time-consuming activities that can sap creativity and productivity. The good news? Many of these tasks can be automated, freeing up your time to focus on solving real problems and building innovative solutions.
Automation is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity in modern software development. Here are 10 tasks every developer should consider automating today:
1. Running Tests and Deployments with CI/CD Pipelines
Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) tools like GitHub Actions, Jenkins, and CircleCI ensure your code is always tested and ready to ship.
Automate:
- Running unit, integration, and end-to-end tests on every commit.
- Building and deploying code to staging or production environments.
- Rolling back changes if a deployment fails.
Why It’s Useful:
Catch bugs early and deploy faster without manual intervention.
2. Code Formatting and Linting
Inconsistent formatting can lead to wasted time during code reviews. Tools like Prettier, ESLint, Black, or clang-format can automatically format your code and catch style violations.
Automate:
- Pre-commit hooks using tools like Husky to enforce style rules.
- Running formatters as part of your CI pipeline.
Why It’s Useful:
Keeps your codebase clean and consistent without debates over tabs vs. spaces.
3. Generating Documentation
Documentation is essential but often neglected. Automation tools can generate and update documentation directly from your code.
Automate:
- Generating API docs with tools like Swagger/OpenAPI or Sphinx.
- Creating diagrams from code using PlantUML or Mermaid.js.
- Auto-generating changelogs from commit messages using tools like conventional-changelog.
Why It’s Useful:
Keeps documentation up to date without extra effort.
4. Managing Dependencies
Keeping dependencies up to date manually can be tedious and error-prone. Tools like Dependabot, Renovate, or poetry lock files make this process seamless.
Automate:
- Detecting outdated dependencies and submitting pull requests with updates.
- Checking for security vulnerabilities in dependencies.
Why It’s Useful:
Ensures your project is secure and avoids technical debt from outdated libraries.
5. Handling Code Reviews
Code reviews are vital but time-consuming. Tools like Reviewable or Gerrit can streamline the process, while automation can handle the mundane parts.
Automate:
- Enforcing code review rules (e.g., required approvals).
- Automatically assigning reviewers based on the area of code affected.
- Rejecting commits that don’t meet specific criteria (e.g., failing tests).
Why It’s Useful:
Focuses reviewer time on logic and architecture, not style or formatting.
6. Generating Mock Data
Manually creating mock data for testing can slow you down. Tools like Faker library (JavaScript, Java, Python), generators in CodeMenu macOS app and Mockaroo website (can also create a fake API when you haven’t created a backend yet) can handle this. You can also use AI like ChatGPT or Claude.
Automate:
- Generating large datasets for load testing.
- Creating realistic mock data for testing APIs or UI components.
Why It’s Useful:
Speeds up testing and helps simulate real-world conditions.
7. Monitoring Application Performance
Manually monitoring app performance and server health is inefficient. Tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and New Relic automate performance tracking.
Automate:
- Setting up alerts for anomalies like high memory usage or slow response times.
- Logging key metrics and generating automated reports.
Why It’s Useful:
Proactively catches issues before users are affected.
8. Handling Repetitive File or Data Operations
Tasks like renaming files, transforming datasets, or migrating data can be automated using scripts or tools.
Automate:
- Batch-renaming files with a script.
- Data transformations using Python, Pandas, or command-line tools like awk.
- Exporting/importing databases with automated backup scripts.
Why It’s Useful:
Eliminates repetitive tasks and reduces human error.
9. Generating Boilerplate Code
Starting a new project or feature often involves writing boilerplate code. Tools like Yeoman, Plop, or cookiecutter can automate this process. You can use a snippets manager like Pieces, Snippety or CodeMenu to store and access them easier.
Automate:
- Generating project scaffolding (e.g., React apps, Express APIs).
- Creating template files for new features or components.
Why It’s Useful:
Saves time and ensures consistency across projects.
10. Security Audits and Code Scanning
Security and code quality should never be an afterthought. Tools like SonarQube, Snyk, or GitHub’s code scanning features can identify issues early.
Automate:
- Scanning code for vulnerabilities during pull requests.
- Running regular security audits on dependencies.
Why It’s Useful:
Prevents vulnerabilities from slipping into production.
Getting Started with Automation
To begin automating, start small. Identify repetitive tasks that slow you down and explore tools that can handle them. Use scripting languages like Python, Bash, or PowerShell for custom tasks, and integrate specialized tools into your workflow. Use AI to write scripts and speed up this process.