ReactJS

REACT NEWS : Update in Redux-Observable, GraphQL, Mobile Centre, TC39, Webpack, React Fiber, and More

Published Oct 28, 2019

Updated Feb 14, 2023

6 min read

This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date. Some content may be relevant but please refer to the relevant official documentation or available resources for the latest information.

Developers such as Samer Buna, Parashuram N, Neehar Venugopal, Cameron Westland, and Jay Phelps recently discussed with our team new developments in JavaScript.

The videos featured will give you an idea of what’s been going on with GraphQL, Redux-Observable, React Fiber, the TC39 Import Proposal, and an introduction to the new term “Extensible React”.

GraphQL and ReactJS

Samer Buna on The Value of GraphQL, GraphQL Subscriptions, ReactJS

Samer Buna speaks about GraphQL and gives us an idea about how great it is to work with the query language and how perfectly matched it is for React. The language describes exact data requirements very clearly and optimizes the process of data communication between front-end applications and the server. Overall, it a better language and replacement for than the REST API.

Samer also introduces GraphQL subscriptions which offer real-time communication, Samer also talks about emerging applications which allow for the retrieval of immediate graphical API from the cloud. If an individual is looking to cloud host their data, there are now applications that can be used to define models and get the immediate graphical API required. This development removes entry barriers to beginner developers as they no longer have to write complete server applications to use GraphQL for their front-end applications, instead, they can simply generate an API in the cloud.

React proves itself to be a great framework to work with as it is both specialized and flexible. Unlike Angular or Ember, it doesn’t have ready-made design decisions or offer complete solutions that may limit developers from experimentation.

Samer recommends that once developers become confident with the ins and outs of React, that next steps should be to explore Node. He reasons that because React’s ecosystem and a lot of the new tools are node-based, React developers can gain a lot of power in knowledge by understanding the tools within the community.

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Mobile Centre, Browser Performance, and Tools for React Fiber from Microsoft

Parashuram N describes working on Mobile Centre, browser performance, and tools for React Fiber at Microsoft

At Microsoft, Parashuram N works on a number of projects as the program manager. One example includes the Visual Studio Code (VS Code) extension made for React, which allows authors to debug applications right from their VS Code. Experiments are being done to open up the possibility of testing reactive applications on the cloud.

Mobile Centre is another project that came from Microsoft. It is a system that runs alongside VS Code so individuals can choose whether they want to use one over the other or combine the two. Mobile Centre lets developers pick the Github repositories they want to work with, these are then signed, built, tested on the cloud, and distributed to end users.

Being a web developer comes with a many perks, one of which is having the ability to bring about change to users immediately. There is no lag in the process to present alterations or new features, and JavaScript fatigue is usually not an issue. Individuals who deploy code, are able to continuously do so without setbacks. Development practices and technologies such as LiveReload, Hot Module Replacement, and Browser Sync also make web creation easier to manage. All of these benefits are unique to the web development world, and are reasons why React fits so well with the web.

Although apps are really native and web-specific, moving into react native in the mobile development space is fairly easy to do. Reason being, ideas can be deployed instantly to customers using things like Code Push, and a number of tools such as the time travel debugging feature in ChakraCore are made available to help with the process.

Many performance-related projects have also emerged, such as browser-perf which enables automation of web performance or monitoring systems; and tv monster application which tracks the performance of React.js library. The app automatically collects performance data for all frameworks and all versions of react. It runs on Chrome and a number of mobile browsers. What makes these tests different from React’s existing performance tests, is that they are from a browser’s perspective, as opposed to JavaScript specific.

Parashuram also discusses the philosophy at Microsoft, RxJS, and building dev tools for Redux Observable on VS Code.

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The TC39 Import Proposal and Webpack 2

TC39 Import Proposal, Webpack 2, and the React Community in the East with Neehar Venugopal

In current times, Neehar’s primary focus as a software engineer is to provide a solution to developers that would help make building apps more efficient. He is one of the authors behind the import-proposal, which helps authors ship less code and emphasize the important ones to optimize performance (especially in mobile).

Import proposal is available in Webpack 2 and is in stage 3 proposal of TC39, meaning it hasn’t made an appearance in browsers. However, individuals do agree that it works so it will be implemented very shortly.

The commencement of import-proposal was inspired by talks about mobile for CSS and mobile for UI/UX. Seeing as mobile for javascript was yet to be discussed, but mobile app speed and performance needed to be improved, the topic finally began to surface. The question of “how can I send just the minimum amount of javascript required to show user what’s on the screen” emerged. Dynamic import was also introduced so lazy loading and code splitting could happen in webpack.

Neehar also talks about the React community in the East. Although far away, developers in this area still feel very much included in the community due to the great involvement of all developers, diversity, and communication between team members. Something that could be improved however in the West, however, is greater focus in performance. Unlike VueJS, React is not as widely adopted because of the performance issues.

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Extensible React

Cameron Westland presents “Extensible React”

Cameron Westland is a software architect at Autodesk, currently working on a new web version that runs on React. The term “Extensible React” is introduced and can be defined as “a declarative approach to creating pluggable web apps”.

Extensibility is often used in applications. However, when it comes to building applications that are extensible there isn’t much conversation. Cameron and his team at Autodesk strive to spark greater discussion on this topic by giving answers to questions like “If an individual has a toolbar and wants to add an icon to the toolbar using an extension, how would he/she go about doing so if the application is built in React?”. One example of a solution includes the email client known as Annihilus. It is built in React, offers extensions, and allows individuals to add custom parts to their nightless email client.

One of the greatest things about React, is the effect it has on the ecosystem beyond its own community. For instance, before React, a lot of UI frameworks were holistic. They followed conventions and weren’t component-oriented. After React, a number of frameworks began adapting and rewriting their applications to be more similar to React. This ripple effect will surely be seen with the new changes in React Fiber. In addition to this, the React community is also one that is open-minded and encouraging. There is no one person who decides what React is going to be or should be. It has a strong team dynamic, and a lot of the ideas developed by framework authors are driven by the community.

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Redux-Observable and React Fiber

Jay Phelps on Redux-Observable, React Fiber, and ReactJS

The React community is described to be one of the most open communities out there when it comes to accepting new ideas. It brought about radical rethinking and was even assumed to be an antipattern at the time. React was able to rethink how things were done and create new best practices. These new norms have since been shared and adopted by other frameworks like Angular and Ember.

Jay discusses a few open source projects that are taking the lead in the React ecosystem. These include redux-observable, React Fiber, and Jest.

Jay shares the vision of redux-observable, or RxJs, is a middleware for composing or canceling async side effects using Epic as co-author of this library. Jay and Ben Lesh were inspired by other ideas in the community such as redux-thunk and redux-saga.

Jay shares his perspective on React Fiber and how developers can look forward to the ability to prioritize certain elements, such as inputs or animations, in their rendering.

Jest is a unit testing framework creates snapshots or code for a simple testing system. This is an example of a project, like React, that was originally not accepted but has scince been reinvented and is now successful. Today, Jest is emulated in other testing frameworks because it’s been so helpful.

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Don’t miss your chance to be more involved with the community by contributing! You can find the React library here.

This Dot is a consultancy dedicated to guiding companies through their modernization and digital transformation journeys. Specializing in replatforming, modernizing, and launching new initiatives, we stand out by taking true ownership of your engineering projects.

We love helping teams with projects that have missed their deadlines or helping keep your strategic digital initiatives on course. Check out our case studies and our clients that trust us with their engineering.

3 Web Performance Concepts that Will Help Start a Conversation Around Performance

In 2021, This Dot Labs released PerfBuddy, the free online platform for testing web and mobile based sites. With the release of this tool, it was our sincere hope to simplify the conversation around web performance, helping team leaders develop easy to understand metrics that they can use to advocate for further investment into their various web technologies. But we also realize that many new to web development, or who work in software but not as developers, might need more clarification on some of the basic key terms to help them engage more actively in conversations surrounding web development. Below, I’ve defined three of the top terms in web performance to help readers better ascertain your site’s performance, and play an active role in refining their technologies to provide the best experience for their customers. First Contentful Paint Time (FCP) FCP, or First Contentful Paint Time, is a critical metric that measures the time that users must wait in order for a page to load its first visible element. For some sites, this could be the entire page. However, for others, the FCP time might measure the seconds between a user navigating to a site, and any responsive element, such as a loading bar, appearing in front of them. This is not a measurement of backend nor even frontend script loading speed, but a metric that affords development teams the ability to infer the quality of their site’s initial UX. According to metrics published by Akamai in 2018, sites are liable to lose nearly half of their visitors if their page takes more than three seconds to load. In fact, just a single second of load time delay can result in a 7% decrease in sales conversions for eCommerce platforms. This is especially true when considering mobile users, whose likelihood of leaving a page increases 90% when made to wait 5 seconds for a page to load And as more eCommerce shoppers turn to using their mobile devices- with 53% of users accessing shopping sites via mobile platforms on 2019’s Cyber Monday, representing a 40% YOY increase- teams need to be acutely aware of their cross platform performance with respect to FCP. Time to First Byte (TTFB) Not to be confused with FCP, TTFB, or Time to First Byte, refers to the amount of time that the browser waits in order to receive initial data from its server. In order for a site to display any information, a browser must make dozens, if not more, data requests. Issues related either to the quality of the host, site functionality, or complexity can all contribute to a site’s latency, or the amount of time it takes for data to be passed between the server and the browser. Of course, reducing site latency will improve user experience by decreasing FCP, and generally increasing browsing speed. However, ensuring low TTFB will also boost your SEO by making your site more quickly crawlable by leading search engines. Page Weight As developers add features and functionality to support more advanced user experience, web pages get heavier. As of 2020, the average desktop webpage weighs 2080 KB, up from an average of 1532 KB in 2017, with the weight of mobile web pages slightly lower, but still seeing a near 40% increase in size when compared to stats from just four years ago. eCommerce websites need to maintain acute awareness of their page weight, and ensure that their latency is not overly impacted by it, due to the tendency for shopping sites to be especially complex, supporting large catalogs of products along with other features to promote customer engagement. And as this era of advanced digital transformation continues to expand, eCommerce sites must develop strategies to meet market expectations for performance without over burdening their sites with heavy plugins and functionalities. Finding Your Path to Performance It starts with equipping yourself with the right tools to test your site’s speed and weight. There are countless platforms used for testing sites, however, there are only a handful that are capable of unlocking the insight that you need to support your most critical websites. Though PerfBuddy is a great place to start in order to identify potential roadblocks, it cannot do the work of actually improving site performance. By leveraging testing platforms such as Lighthouse, and continuously improving your performance metrics with assets such as DevTools, and strategies like Google’s PRPL, eCommerce retailers can ensure that their sites meet user expectations and promote their most critical business objectives. Need help? Contact This Dot Labs to learn more about how developing the tools and strategies to ensure optimal site performance can support scalable growth as you continue refining user experience!...

Feb 9, 2022

4 mins

JavaScriptWeb PerformanceGeneral

State of Headless CMS Wrap-up

We recently hosted State of Headless CMS where we were joined by some very talented people to talk about a growing ecosystem. There are a lot of problems that a headless CMS can solve when it comes to indie development, and even small restaurants and shops. Before we dive into the key points of the event, I'll give you a brief introduction to the hosts and panelists. Hosts - Jesse @jtomchak - Keionne @KeionneD Panelists - Kapehe - Senior DevRel, sanity.io - @kapehe_ok - Daniel Madalitso Phiri - DevRel, Strapi - @malgamves - Samuel Snopko - Head of Developer Relations, Storyblok - @samuelsnopko - Stefan Judis - Dev Rel, Contentful - @stefanjudis - Arisa Fukuzaki - Dev Rel Engineer, Storyblok - @arisa_dev There were a lot of great discussions during this event which is why I want to suggest that you head on over and watch The State of Headless CMS on Youtube to hear all of the great discussions. Who is a headless CMS for? Headless CMSs give developers the ability to use a CMS without being restricted to using the CMS platform itself. It's like using Wordpress, without having to actually use Wordpress itself. This enables developers to build more customized solutions for their clients. Some questions to ponder - What are some Headless CMS technologies that you're excited about? - How do we help the little shop manage their content? - What problems does Headless CMS solve for you? We want to give a huge shout out to our hosts and panelists for participating in the State of Headless CMS event....

Feb 8, 2022

2 mins

General

Introduction to Vercel’s Flags SDK

Introduction to Vercel’s Flags SDK In this blog, we will dig into Vercel’s Flags SDK. We'll explore how it works, highlight its key capabilities, and discuss best practices to get the most out of it. You'll also understand why you might prefer this tool over other feature flag solutions out there. And, despite its strong integration with Next.js, this SDK isn't limited to just one framework—it's fully compatible with React and SvelteKit. We'll use Next.js for examples, but feel free to follow along with the framework of your choice. Why should I use it? You might wonder, "Why should I care about yet another feature flag library?" Unlike some other solutions, Vercel's Flags SDK offers unique, practical features. It offers simplicity, flexibility, and smart patterns to help you manage feature flags quickly and efficiently. It’s simple Let's start with a basic example: ` This might look simple — and it is! — but it showcases some important features. Notice how easily we can define and call our flag without repeatedly passing context or configuration. Many other SDKs require passing the flag's name and context every single time you check a flag, like this: ` This can become tedious and error-prone, as you might accidentally use different contexts throughout your app. With the Flags SDK, you define everything once upfront, keeping things consistent across your entire application. By "context", I mean the data needed to evaluate the flag, like user details or environment settings. We'll get into more detail shortly. It’s flexible Vercel’s Flags SDK is also flexible. You can integrate it with other popular feature flag providers like LaunchDarkly or Statsig using built-in adapters. And if the provider you want to use isn’t supported yet, you can easily create your own custom adapter. While we'll use Next.js for demonstration, remember that the SDK works just as well with React or SvelteKit. Latency solutions Feature flags require definitions and context evaluations to determine their values — imagine checking conditions like, "Is the user ID equal to 12?" Typically, these evaluations involve fetching necessary information from a server, which can introduce latency. These evaluations happen through two primary functions: identify and decide. The identify function gathers the context needed for evaluation, and this context is then passed as an argument named entities to the decide function. Let's revisit our earlier example to see this clearly: ` You could add a custom evaluation context when reading a feature flag, but it’s not the best practice, and it’s not usually recommended. Using Edge Config When loading our flags, normally, these definitions and evaluation contexts get bootstrapped by making a network request and then opening a web socket listening to changes on the server. The problem is that if you do this in Serverless Functions with a short lifespan, you would need to bootstrap the definitions not just once but multiple times, which could cause latency issues. To handle latency efficiently, especially in short-lived Serverless Functions, you can use Edge Config. Edge Config stores flag definitions at the Edge, allowing super-fast retrieval via Edge Middleware or Serverless Functions, significantly reducing latency. Cookies For more complex contexts requiring network requests, avoid doing these requests directly in Edge Middleware or CDNs, as this can drastically increase latency. Edge Middleware and CDNs are fast because they avoid making network requests to the origin server. Depending on the end user’s location, accessing a distant origin can introduce significant latency. For example, a user in Tokyo might need to connect to a server in the US before the page can load. Instead, a good pattern that the Flags SDK offers us to avoid this is cookies. You could use cookies to store context data. The browser automatically sends cookies with each request in a standard format, providing consistent (no matter if you are in Edge Middleware, App Router or Page Router), low-latency access to evaluation context data: ` You can also encrypt or sign cookies for additional security from the client side. Dedupe Dedupe helps you cache function results to prevent redundant evaluations. If multiple flags rely on a common context method, like checking a user's region, Dedupe ensures the method executes only once per runtime, regardless of how many times it's invoked. Additionally, similar to cookies, the Flags SDK standardizes headers, allowing easy access to them. Let's illustrate this with the following example: ` Server-side patterns for static pages You can use feature flags on the client side, but that will lead to unnecessary loaders/skeletons or layout shifts, which are never that great. Of course, it brings benefits, like static rendering. To maintain static rendering benefits while using server-side flags, the SDK provides a method called precompute. Precompute Precompute lets you decide which page version to display based on feature flags and then we can cache that page to statically render it. You can precompute flag combinations in Middleware or Route Handlers: ` Next, inside a middleware (or route handler), we will precompute these flags and create static pages per each combination of them. ` The user will never notice this because, as we use “rewrite”, they will only see the original URL. Now, on our page, we “invoke” our flags, sending the code from the params: ` By sending our code, we are not really invoking the flag again but getting the value right away. Our middleware is deciding which variation of our pages to display to the user. Finally, after rendering our page, we can enable Incremental Static Regeneration (ISR). ISR allows us to cache the page and serve it statically for subsequent user requests: ` Using precompute is particularly beneficial when enabling ISR for pages that depend on flags whose values cannot be determined at build time. Headers, geo, etc., we can’t know their value at build, so we use precompute() so the Edge can evaluate it on the fly. In these cases, we rely on Middleware to dynamically determine the flag values, generate the HTML content once, and then cache it. At build time, we simply create an initial HTML shell. Generate Permutations If we prefer to generate static pages at build-time instead of runtime, we can use the generatePermutations function from the Flags SDK. This method enables us to pre-generate static pages with different combinations of flags at build time. It's especially useful when the flag values are known beforehand. For example, scenarios involving A/B testing and a marketing site with a single on/off banner flag are ideal use cases. ` ` Conclusion Vercel’s Flags SDK stands out as a powerful yet straightforward solution for managing feature flags efficiently. With its ease of use, remarkable flexibility, and effective patterns for reducing latency, this SDK streamlines the development process and enhances your app’s performance. Whether you're building a Next.js, React, or SvelteKit application, the Flags SDK provides intuitive tools that keep your application consistent, responsive, and maintainable. Give it a try, and see firsthand how it can simplify your feature management workflow!...

May 23, 2025

5 mins

Vercel

Docusign Momentum 2025 From A Developer’s Perspective

*What if your contract details stuck in PDFs could ultimately become the secret sauce of your business automation workflows?* In a world drowning in PDFs and paperwork, I never thought I’d get goosebumps about agreements – until I attended Docusign Momentum 2025. I went in expecting talks about e-signatures; I left realizing the big push and emphasis with many enterprise-level organizations will be around Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM). It is positioned to transform how we build business software, so let’s talk about it. As Director of Technology at This Dot Labs, I had a front-row seat to all the exciting announcements at Docusign Momentum. Our team also had a booth there showing off the 6 Docusign extension apps This Dot Labs has released this year. We met 1-on-1 with a lot of companies and leaders to discuss the exciting promise of IAM. What can your company accomplish with IAM? Is it really worth it for you to start adopting IAM?? Let’s dive in and find out. After his keynote, I met up with Robert Chatwani, President of Docusign and he said this > “At Docusign, we truly believe that the power of a great platform is that you won’t be able to exactly predict what can be built on top of it,and builders and developers are at the heart of driving this type of innovation. Now with AI, we have entered what I believe is a renaissance era for new ideas and business models, all powered by developers.” Docusign’s annual conference in NYC was an eye-opener: agreements are no longer just documents to sign and shelve, but dynamic data hubs driving key processes. Here’s my take on what I learned, why it matters, and why developers should pay attention. From E-Signatures to Intelligent Agreements – A New Era Walking into Momentum 2025, you could feel the excitement. Docusign’s CEO and product team set the tone in the keynote: “Agreements make the world go round, but for too long they’ve been stuck in inboxes and PDFs, creating drag on your business.” Their message was clear – Docusign is moving from a product to a platform. In other words, the company that pioneered e-signatures now aims to turn static contracts into live, integrated assets that propel your business forward. I saw this vision click when I chatted with an attendee from a major financial services firm. His team manages millions of forms a year – loan applications, account forms, you name it. He admitted they were still “just scanning and storing PDFs” and struggled to imagine how IAM could help. We discussed how much value was trapped in those documents (what Docusign calls the “Agreement Trap” of disconnected processes). By the end of our coffee, the lightbulb was on: with the right platform, those forms could be automatically routed, data-extracted, and trigger workflows in other systems – no more black hole of PDFs. His problem wasn’t unique; many organizations have critical data buried in agreements, and they’re waking up to the idea that it doesn’t have to be this way. What Exactly is Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM)? So what is Docusign’s Intelligent Agreement Management? In essence, IAM is an AI-powered platform that connects every part of the agreement lifecycle. It’s not a single product, but a collection of services and tools working in concert. Docusign IAM helps transform agreement data into insights and actions, accelerate contract cycles, and boost productivity across departments. The goal is to address the inefficiencies in how agreements are created, signed, and managed – those inefficiencies that cost businesses time and money. At Momentum, Docusign showcased the core components of IAM: - Docusign Navigator link: A smart repository to centrally store, search, and analyze agreements. It uses AI to convert your signed documents (which are basically large chunks of text) into structured, queryable data. Instead of manually digging through contracts for a specific clause, you can search across all agreements in seconds. Navigator gives you a clear picture of your organization’s contractual relationships and obligations (think of it as Google for your contracts). Bonus: it comes with out-of-the-box dashboards for things like renewal dates, so you can spot risks and opportunities at a glance. - Docusign Maestro link: A no-code workflow engine to automate agreement workflows from start to finish. Maestro lets you design customizable workflows that orchestrate Docusign tasks and integrate with third-party apps – all without writing code. For example, you could have a workflow for new vendor onboarding: once a vendor contract is signed, Maestro could automatically notify your procurement team, create a task in your project tracker, and update a record in your ERP system. At the conference, they demoed how Maestro can streamline processes like employee onboarding and compliance checks through simple drag-and-drop steps or archiving PDFs of signed agreements into Google Drive or Dropbox. - Docusign Iris (AI Engine) link: The brains of the operation. Iris is the new AI engine powering all of IAM’s “smarts” – from reading documents to extracting data and making recommendations. It’s behind features like automatic field extraction, AI-assisted contract review, intelligent search, and even document summarization. In the keynote, we saw examples of Iris in action: identify key terms (e.g. payment terms or renewal clauses) across a stack of contracts, or instantly generate a summary of a lengthy agreement. These capabilities aren’t just gimmicks; as one Docusign executive put it, they’re “signals of a new way of working with agreements”. Iris essentially gives your agreement workflow a brain – it can understand the content of agreements and help you act on it. - Docusign App Center link: A hub to connect the tools of your trade into Docusign. App Center is like an app store for integrations – it lets you plug in other software (project management, CRM, HR systems, etc.) directly into your Maestro workflows. This is huge for developers (and frankly, anyone tired of building one-off integrations). Instead of treating Docusign as an isolated e-signature tool, App Center makes it a platform you can extend. I’ll dive more into this in the next section, since it’s close to my heart – my team helped build some of these integrations! In short, IAM ties together the stages of an agreement (create → sign → store → manage) and supercharges each with automation and AI. It’s modular, too – you can adopt the pieces you need. Docusign essentially unbundled the agreement process into building blocks that developers and admins can mix-and-match. The future of agreements, as Docusign envisions it, is a world where organizations *“seamlessly add, subtract, and rearrange modular solutions to meet ever-changing needs”* on a single trusted platform. The App Center and Real-World Integrations (Yes, We Built Those!) One of the most exciting parts of Momentum 2025 for me was seeing the Docusign App Center come alive. As someone who works on integrations, I was practically grinning during the App Center demos. Docusign highlighted several partner-built apps that snap into IAM, and I’m proud to say This Dot Labs built six of them – including integrations for Monday.com, Slack, Jira, Asana, Airtable, and Mailchimp. Why are these integrations a big deal? Because developers often spend countless hours wiring up systems that need to talk to each other. With App Center, a lot of that heavy lifting is already done. You can install an app with a few clicks and configure data flows in minutes instead of coding for months. In fact, a study found it takes the average org 12 months to develop a custom workflow via APIs, whereas with Docusign’s platform you can do it via configuration almost immediately. That’s a game-changer for time-to-value. At our This Dot Labs booth, I spoke with many developers who were intrigued by these possibilities. For example, we showed how our Docusign Slack Extension lets teams send Slack messages and notifications when agreements are sent and signed.. If a sales contract gets signed, the Slack app can automatically post a notification in your channel and even attach the signed PDF – no more emailing attachments around. People loved seeing how easily Docusign and Slack now talk to each other using this extension. Another popular one was our Monday.com app. With it, as soon as an agreement is signed, you can trigger actions in Monday – like assigning onboarding tasks for a new client or employee. Essentially, signing the document kicks off the next steps automatically. These integrations showcase why IAM is not just about Docusign’s own features, but about an ecosystem. App Center already includes connectors for popular platforms like Salesforce, HubSpot, Workday, ServiceNow, and more. The apps we built for Monday, Slack, Jira, etc., extend that ecosystem. Each app means one less custom integration a developer has to build from scratch. And if an app you need doesn’t exist yet – well, that’s an opportunity. (Shameless plug: we’re happy to help build it!) The key takeaway here is that Docusign is positioning itself as a foundational layer in the enterprise software stack. Your agreement workflow can now natively include things like project management updates, CRM entries, notifications, and data syncs. As a developer, I find that pretty powerful. It’s a shift from thinking of Docusign as a single SaaS tool to thinking of it as a platform that glues processes together. Not Just Another Contract Tool – Why IAM Matters for Business After absorbing all the Momentum keynotes and sessions, one thing is clear: IAM is not “just another contract management tool.” It’s aiming to be the platform that automates critical business processes which happen to revolve around agreements. The use cases discussed were not theoretical – they were tangible scenarios every developer or IT lead will recognize: - Procurement Automation: We heard how companies are using IAM to streamline procurement. Imagine a purchase order process where a procurement request triggers an agreement that goes out for e-signature, and once signed, all relevant systems update instantly. One speaker described connecting Docusign with their ERP so that vendor contracts and purchase orders are generated and tracked automatically. This reduces the back-and-forth with legal and ensures nothing falls through the cracks. It’s easy to see the developer opportunity: instead of coding a complex procurement approval system from scratch, you can leverage Docusign’s workflow + integration hooks to handle it. Docusign IAM is designed to connect to systems like CRM, HR, and ERP so that agreements flow into the same stream of data. For developers, that means using pre-built connectors and APIs rather than reinventing them. - Faster Employee Onboarding: Onboarding a new hire or client typically involves a flurry of forms and tasks – offer letters or contracts to sign, NDAs, setup of accounts, etc. We saw how IAM can accelerate onboarding by combining e-signature with automated task generation. For instance, the moment a new hire signs their offer letter, Maestro could trigger an onboarding workflow: provisioning the employee in systems, scheduling orientation, and creating tasks in tools like Asana or Monday. All those steps get kicked off by the signed agreement. Docusign Maestro’s integration capabilities shine here – it can tie into HR systems or project management apps to carry the baton forward. The result is a smoother day-one experience for the new hire and less manual coordination for IT and HR. As developers, we can appreciate how this modular approach saves us from writing yet another “onboarding script”; we configure the workflow, and IAM handles the rest. - Reducing Contract Auto-Renewal Risk: If your company manages a lot of recurring contracts (think vendor services, subscriptions, leases), missing a renewal deadline can be costly. One real-world story shared at Momentum was about using IAM to prevent unwanted auto-renewals. With traditional tracking (spreadsheets or calendar reminders), it’s easy to forget a termination notice and end up locked into a contract for another year. Docusign’s solution: let the AI engine (Iris) handle it. It can scan your repository, surface any renewal or termination dates, and proactively remind stakeholders – or even kick off a non-renewal workflow if desired. As the Bringing Intelligence to Obligation Management session highlighted, “Missed renewal windows lead to unwanted auto-renewals or lost revenue… A forgotten termination deadline locks a company into an unneeded service for another costly term.” With IAM, those pitfalls are avoidable. The system can automatically flag and assign tasks well before a deadline hits. For developers, this means we can deliver risk-reduction features without building a custom date-tracking system – the platform’s AI and notification framework has us covered. These examples all connect to a bigger point: agreements are often the linchpin of larger business processes (buying something, hiring someone, renewing a service). By making agreements “intelligent,” Docusign IAM is essentially automating chunks of those processes. This translates to real outcomes – faster cycle times, fewer errors, and less risk. From a technical perspective, it means we developers have a powerful ally: we can offload a lot of workflow logic to the IAM platform. Why code it from scratch if a combination of Docusign + a few integration apps can do it? Why Developers Should Care about IAM (Big Time) If you’re a software developer or architect building solutions for business teams, you might be thinking: This sounds cool, but is it relevant to me? Let me put it this way – after Momentum 2025, I’m convinced that ignoring IAM would be a mistake for anyone in enterprise software. Here’s why: - Faster time-to-value for your clients or stakeholders: Business teams are always pressuring IT to deliver solutions faster. With IAM, you have ready-made components to accelerate projects. Need to implement a contract approval workflow? Use Maestro, not months of coding. Need to integrate Docusign with an internal system? Check App Center for an app or use their APIs with far less glue code. Docusign’s own research shows that connecting systems via App Center and Maestro can cut development time dramatically (from ~12 months of custom dev to mere weeks or less). For us developers, that means we can deliver results sooner, which definitely wins points with the business. - Fewer custom builds (and less maintenance): Let’s face it – maintaining custom scripts or one-off integrations is not fun. Every time a SaaS API changes or a new requirement comes in, you’re back in the code. IAM’s approach offers more reuse and configuration instead of raw code. The platform is doing the hard work of staying updated (for example, when Slack or Salesforce change something in their API, Docusign’s connector app will handle it). By leveraging these pre-built connectors and templates, you write less custom code, which means fewer bugs and lower maintenance overhead. You can focus your coding effort on the unique parts of your product, not the boilerplate integration logic. - Reusable and modular workflows: I love designing systems as Lego blocks – and IAM encourages that. You can build a workflow once and reuse it across multiple projects or clients with slight tweaks. For instance, an approval workflow for sales contracts might be 90% similar to one for procurement contracts – with IAM, you can reuse that blueprint. The fact that everything is on one platform also means these workflows can talk to each other or be combined. This modularity is a developer’s dream because it leads to cleaner architecture. Docusign explicitly touts this modular approach, noting that organizations can easily rearrange solutions on the fly to meet new needs. It’s like having a library of proven patterns to draw from. - AI enhancements with minimal effort: Adding AI into your apps can be daunting if you have to build or train models yourself. IAM essentially gives you AI-as-a-service for agreements. Need to extract key data from 1,000 contracts? Iris can do that out-of-the-box. Want to implement a risk scoring for contracts? The AI can flag unusual terms or deviations. As a developer, being able to call an API or trigger a function that returns “these are the 5 clauses to look at” is incredibly powerful – you’re injecting intelligence without needing a data science team. It means you can offer more value in your applications (and impress those end-users!) by simply tapping into IAM’s AI features. Ultimately, Docusign IAM empowers developers to build more with less code. It’s about higher-level building blocks. This doesn’t replace our jobs – it makes our jobs more focused on the interesting problems. I’d rather spend time designing a great user experience or tackling a complex business rule than coding yet another Docusign-to-Slack integration. IAM is taking care of the plumbing and adding a layer of smarts on top. Don’t Underestimate Agreement Intelligence – Your Call to Action Momentum 2025 left me with a clear call to action: embrace agreement intelligence. If you’re a developer or tech leader, it’s time to explore what Docusign IAM can do for your projects. This isn’t just hype from a conference – it’s a real shift in how we can deliver solutions. Here are a few ways to get started: - Browse the IAM App Center – Take a look at the growing list of apps in the Docusign App Center. You might find that integration you’ve been meaning to build is already available (or one very close to it). Installing an app is trivial, and you can configure it to fit your workflow. This is the low-hanging fruit to immediately add value to your existing Docusign processes. If you have Docusign eSignature or CLM in your stack, App Center is where you extend it. - Think about integrations that could unlock value – Consider the systems in your organization that aren’t talking to each other. Is there a manual step where someone re-enters data from a contract into another system? Maybe an approval that’s done via email and could be automated? Those are prime candidates for an IAM solution. For example, if Legal and Sales use different tools, an integration through IAM can bridge them, ensuring no agreement data falls through the cracks. Map out your agreement process end-to-end and identify gaps – chances are, IAM has a feature to fill them. - Experiment with Maestro and the API – If you’re technical, spin up a trial of Docusign IAM. Try creating a Maestro workflow for a simple use case, or use the Docusign API/SDKs to trigger some AI analysis on a document. Seeing it in action will spark ideas. I was amazed how quickly I could set up a workflow with conditions and parallel steps – things that would take significant coding time if I did them manually. The barrier to entry for adding complex logic has gotten a lot lower. - Stay informed and involved – Docusign’s developer community and IAM documentation are growing. Momentum may be over, but the “agreement intelligence” movement is just getting started. Keep an eye on upcoming features (they hinted at even more AI-assisted tools coming soon). Engage with the community forums or join Docusign’s IAM webinars. And if you’re building something cool with IAM, consider sharing your story – the community benefits from hearing real use cases. My final thought: don’t underestimate the impact that agreement intelligence can have in modern workflows. We spend so much effort optimizing various parts of our business, yet often overlook the humble agreement – the contracts, forms, and documents that initiate or seal every deal. Docusign IAM is shining a spotlight on these and saying, “Here is untapped gold. Let’s mine it.” As developers, we have an opportunity (and now the tools) to lead that charge. I’m incredibly excited about this new chapter. After seeing what Docusign has built, I’m convinced that intelligent agreements can be a foundational layer for digital transformation. It’s not just about getting documents signed faster; it’s about connecting dots and automating workflows in ways we couldn’t before. As I reflect on Momentum 2025, I’m inspired and already coding with new ideas in mind. I encourage you to do the same – check out IAM, play with the App Center, and imagine what you could build when your agreements start working intelligently for you. The future of agreements is here, and it’s time for us developers to take full advantage of it. Ready to explore? Head to the Docusign App Center and IAM documentation and see how you can turn your agreements into engines of growth. Trust me – the next time you attend Momentum, you might just have your own success story to share. Happy building!...

Apr 29, 2025

14 mins

Software Engineering

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