Developers architect and build the applications that power our modern digital experience. In this role, they know there will always be more data tomorrow than there is today. And not only will there be more data, they know its growth rate will be exponential.
Follow these 3 considerations to get a better understanding of the challenging life of an IT Developer.
CONSIDERATION 1: A Migraine of Options
With the rising expectations of end-users, increasing IT complexity, evolving security and compliance requirements, and the ever-growing demands of the business — developers feel extreme pressure to balance a complex set of equations on (often) compressed timelines.
To complicate things, developers also have a luxury problem of sorts — where too many tools, languages, and frameworks are at their disposal. As a result, not only do developers not have the time to learn how to use new technology — not every technology will satisfy their technical requirements.
For example, developers have innumerate options for data storage — from the traditional (relational) databases of yesteryear to the more modern NoSQL databases of today — but where very few of these data storage technologies can meet all of their needs.
But, developers have too much data, too little time, access to too many (new) tools, and no actual budget. In turn, developers are seeking the one tool that allows them to:
- store significant amounts of data,
- efficiently extract value from this data, and
- use the languages and frameworks that they’re already familiar with.
CONSIDERATION 2: Building the Bridge
Developers work as a bridge between customers and engineering teams. They use customer input and sales information to design or redesign, develop, test, and implement complex software problems and applications. They provide customer technical support and expertise by testing applications and responding to feedback. They perform installations and maintenance and often perform sales presentations and demonstrations. Software developers perform customer analysis to create applications that respond to their needs and provide innovative solutions to common problems. They perform prototyping applications and code reviews to ensure products are satisfactory. They debug, test, code, improve, and redesign tasks, respond to customer issues, provide updated software that solves bug issues, perform customer installations, and work with customer service teams.
CONSIDERATION 3: Types of Developers
Developers can be differentiated and categorized under one or more of the following roles:
- Software developers, individual contributors. People who write code. Their work is purely technical, and they have no management responsibilities.
- Software developers, management. People who write some code (some of the time), design software, and have management responsibilities.
- Quality assurance, individual contributors. People who test software products or write code to test software products have no management responsibilities.
- Quality assurance, management. People who do some testing (sometimes), write code to test software products (some of the time) and have management responsibilities.