Software Development Since 1997: What Has Changed | Digital Marmalade                               [Skip to main content](#main-content)   ![](https://www.digitalmarmalade.co.uk/pagebuilder/945/download/content_id)

Last month we wrote about [what hasn't changed in software since 1997](../../../news/software-development-since-1997-what-hasnt-changed). The core things that have outlasted every tool and trend we've worked through. This is the other half. Almost everything around those basics looks completely different now. Digital Marmalade has built software products since 1997, working with clients including The Telegraph, the NHS and King's College London. That's a long enough run to see real change.

The pace of delivery
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In the late 1990s, moving from brief to launch in six months was fast. Today a good team can ship something working in weeks, then improve it in days. This changes how a project runs. Clients don't need to commit to a fixed plan upfront, because changing course mid-build costs much less than it once did. Mistakes get caught earlier. User feedback shapes a product while it can still be acted on.

What the cloud made possible
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In 1997, scaling a platform meant buying more servers. That was slow and expensive, and had to be planned months ahead. Cloud hosting changed this. A product today can handle ten users or ten million on the same setup, growing when it needs to. For platforms like [AquaPassport](../../../case-studies/sport-passport/multi-sport-skills-learning-and-assessment-platform), which has grown to over 100,000 active users, that kind of flexibility isn't a luxury. It's what makes the product work at all.

Accessibility as a real discipline
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In the early web, few teams made accessibility a priority. Today it's a legal requirement and a core part of how good software is designed. The European Accessibility Act brought real regulation for digital products. A product built well for a disabled user almost always works better for everyone. Getting this right from the start is also far cheaper than adding it later.

AI in the process
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The newest shift is still unfolding. AI tools have changed how quickly developers can write, check and fix code. This isn't about replacing developers. The judgment and understanding that make a product good are still human work. But the gap between an idea and a working prototype has shrunk, and that changes what's worth exploring early on.

What to ask a potential partner
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Software practices vary a lot between agencies. Some teams have genuinely updated how they work - using cloud tools, automated testing, accessibility-first design and AI in their day-to-day process. Others are running roughly the same approach they used ten years ago. When choosing a partner, ask how they build, not just what they've built. [Take a look at how we work](../../../services), or see it applied across different kinds of projects in our [case studies](../../../case-studies).

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