What Makes a Perfect Software Developer?

Software development has existed for decades now. It has evolved from primitive to advanced concepts over the years. Moreover, it is no longer restricted to one or two languages. There are numerous languages and frameworks available now to make the work of software developers easy and less time-consuming. Consequently, you will find millions of software developers globally, if you want to outsource your software development process.

The variety in availability often confuses businesses on which one to choose for their project. If you look at the websites of software development service providers, you find all of them promising! Does that mean any software developer can develop successful and productive software? 

As we all know, the answer to the above question is, “No”! 

Irrespective of the availability of the best tools, technologies, languages, frameworks, etc., the most important component of software development is the human component, i.e., the software developer. Only the best developers are capable of selecting the right tools, technologies, and resources, and channelizing them for developing software that beats the competition. For example, only an experienced AngularJS developer can precisely tell whether AngularJS is suitable for your requirements. 

The right software development company will guide you on the best frameworks and languages for your needs. This makes it further essential for businesses to identify the right development company for their projects. 

Ingredients of the Perfect Recipe

When it comes to software development, there are many, and not just one, parameters for perfection. It is difficult, though not impossible, to find a software development company that is a blend of all these parameters. Moreover, it is believed that with time, experience, learning, and practice, perfection can be acquired as software development is a technical field. But, what determines the perfect software developer?

As we know, software development is a vast field with so many programming languages, frameworks, tools, etc. Can a software developer master one, the best tool, or the best language and be perfect? No!

As such there is no one-size-fits-all solution to identifying the best programming language or framework for software development. All languages have advantages and limitations, that make them suitable or unfit for certain project requirements. Moreover, there is variety in so many aspects of software development and it poses challenges for the developers. 

So, how do developers cope with the variety? 

The best software development companies hire developers with expertise in different languages and frameworks. Most experienced developers also practice various frameworks and languages to make sure they understand the intricacies of each. This helps them select the best language or framework that matches their project requirements. 

Skills - Expertise

So many languages and frameworks are available for software developers. This variety makes it difficult for developers to learn or master everything in software development. Most developers try to master some specific languages or frameworks. In the process, they confine themselves to one or two languages or frameworks. This, however, helps them practice more and more in the same domains and master these domains perfectly. This is the reason you specifically go for experienced .NET developers if your project is based on the .NET platform.

The variety of languages and frameworks also becomes limiting for developers who want to keep the flexibility of taking any project with any language or framework. No developer can learn all the available frameworks and languages and master them equally well. For example, some expert PHP developers may not be as good with Java or Python also because they have spent a lot of time and effort exclusively on mastering PHP. 

Another challenge that affects even the expert developers is the fast-changing technology market. These technologies upgrade fast and even experts must keep learning to match their new versions with advanced features. Trends also shift very rapidly and the technology widely used today can easily be replaced by another newbie. Thus, developers have to work very hard to learn new skills and keep themselves up-to-date in this highly demanding field.  

Experience

The experience of developers increases with new projects. However, it can’t be absolutely counted in the number of years that they have worked in this field. The reason is simple! Technologies advance at a high pace and are often replaced by the new and trending. So, the prior experience with some technology may no longer help. Experience helps cope with the change, as developers become more receptive to learning new skills and trying different tools and technologies. 

This is not all; even experienced developers must keep themselves aware of the latest tools, technologies, and best practices in software development. However, we must remember that the experience with one specific framework won’t help. They need to explore the most trending frameworks as there is a high possibility of some old frameworks being unable to meet market demands and getting outdated. For example, a Laravel developer must never restrict himself to Laravel. He should try other PHP frameworks to keep up with the market needs. 

So, what do we mean by an experienced developer? Well, when it comes to technology, the experience and expertise are counted more qualitatively. A developer good at programming can generally catch up with new languages irrespective of their differences. With experience, they learn to identify the similarities and differences in languages and frameworks and use them to their advantage.

The experience with a selected few languages is not enough to decide whether a particular library or framework is suitable for your project. Libraries and frameworks are also specific to languages, so understanding of JavaScript, though essential for determining an expert ReactJS developer, doesn’t automatically give experience with selecting frameworks for other languages.

Awareness - Latest Tools, Technologies, Trends, Best Practices

No matter how much expertise you have in software development, or, how long you have been doing this work, it is not enough for successful software development. It is essential that developers are aware of the latest software development tools and technologies, and what’s happening in the market. 

Age-old techniques don’t work in software development and they must catch up with the latest trends. At times, it requires experimenting with what’s trending and, when one fails, trying something else that performs better for your needs. I am sure you now understand that software development is full of challenges, due to the rapidly changing market too.

Suggested Reading: Are You Prepared for the Challenges in Software Development?

Let’s say a developer is conversant with the latest tools and technologies. Does that mean he can implement any project successfully? As we all know, knowledge is tested through effective implementation. And in software development too, we can't keep wasting time on trying new ways of doing something better. So, most developers also prefer using the best practices in the market that avoid all the efforts of experimentation and vulnerability to failure. 

Best Practices in Software Development

As we are convinced that integrating best practices in software development is crucial to a successful project. Here we must also be aware of these best practices. 

Agile Methodology

The future of technology is agility! The top programming languages and frameworks provide support for agile methodology so the developers can easily adopt this concept for streamlined and flexible development. For example, you will find the top Java developers using agile methodology as it has seamlessly integrated into the best practices now. 

Suggested Reading: Key Software Development Methodologies Everyone Should Know

Test-Driven Development

Test-driven development is a very crucial part of software development. In test-driven development, errors, shortcomings, and vulnerabilities are taken care of at all stages of development. The next stage starts only after all is well in the previous stage. This way quality is guaranteed. Moreover, it also ensures that the developers do not take things lightly in the early stages believing that these will be handled by the testing teams and reviewers later. 

In the absence of test-driven development, a lot of time is wasted on developing software and reworking it after it fails in the market. Without test-driven development, software development is very costly too, as mistakes are not prevented as they occur. Later on, it becomes very cumbersome to debug, identify the weaknesses, and correct them. As developers, don’t we all know how difficult it is to recode an existing code, compared to coding from scratch?

Security

Security is essential to every successful software. No matter how good your product is, if it is vulnerable to security threats, users will not use it. Software lacking security spoils the reputation of the developers. Integrating security practices since the inception of software development is the key to success in software development. So, developers choose the frameworks, languages, tools, and techniques, based on how configured these are for secured end results in software development. 

Wrapping Up!

Let’s summarize what it needs to be the best software developer! 

A perfect software developer is characterized by knowledge of trends, technologies, the latest frameworks, languages, and best practices in software development. 

A Ruby on Rails developer may not be an equally good Python developer, as a developer he must understand the differences and pros and cons of both. With the knowledge of varied concepts, an expert software developer is capable of selecting the best tools or language for the project requirements. 

The best practices in software development change, and very rapidly, as the outcomes of these are evaluated based on changing market needs, So, one should be willing to change, unlearn, and learn again, with an open mindset of accepting that when it comes to technology, change is the norm. And that is what makes a perfect software developer!