CrazyLeaf Editorial Each year that goes by, it seems, a new skill becomes hot in the web development field. A few years ago it was Ruby on Rails developers. Then it was Node.js developers. Now web developers are so demanded that front-end web developer salary can reach $100,000 in some locations. So how do you build a web development team if just a single JavaScript developer costs you six figures or more?
The Need For Website Developers
The reality is that while developer salaries may be high, they simply reflect the growing importance of having a great technical team. According to the State of Software Development at Startups in 2017 survey, hiring developers is among the “biggest challenges in software development”. To see if it’s worth hiring developers in this competitive environment, you need to determine which skills you need.
What Does A Web Developer Do?
First, what is a web developer? How do you know if hiring one for your team is right? Techopedia defines a web developer as a “kind of programmer who specializes in the development of applications relating to the World Wide Web or distributed network applications”. If you need a website or other application to run on the World Wide Web, chances are, you will need a web design company that can do the work for you. In some cases, you should hire web developers directly.
Does Your Company Need Web Developers?
In the past, only technology companies bothered hiring developers. These days, it’s most companies that need a global presence. Such companies need to interact with staff or clients via the internet is inevitable.
While very small companies can rely on third-party platforms for all communications, bigger companies have unique needs regarding internet technology. As a result, companies with their focus in fields as diverse as food service, fashion and finance are increasingly all bidding for web developer talent.
The result is that web developer jobs have never been as plentiful as they are now. With so many openings, qualified developers can be hard to come by.
The challenge, however, is worth the cost. Hiring great developers pays for itself. Talented developers can come up with unique ideas to enhance your web platforms and apps.
Why You Need To Build A Team Of Specialists
As you go about structuring an effective web development team, you will need professionals with different skills. Beyond front-end developers, you will also need design skill, testing skill and project management, among other skills.
Deep expertise in a skill such as a web design cannot be acquired overnight. Specialists exist in all these skills, Their career dedication to one single area of expertise makes them the best professionals at what they do.
Web Design Professionals
Web design professionals create the visual mockups and designs that define the user interface of websites, apps and other user-facing software. Web designer salary tends to be somewhat less than web developer salary. In the United States, for example, web designers average $59,989 annually, according to Glassdoor.
You can find web designers on design portfolio websites like Dribbble or Behance. Necessary qualifications include web design experience. You will also want to assess the designer’s knowledge of specific technologies like HTML, CSS, PhotoShop, Illustrator and other design tools.
Front-End Developer
A front-end developer is an essential part of an effective web development team. Having one or more competent front-end engineers helps make your websites responsive and appealing. Some of these highly skilled professionals can double as designers as well. However, you should really be looking to hire front end talent that can focus on coding and leave the design work to your designers.
When it comes to coding skills, JavaScript is almost a must for this role. Some teams require CoffeeScript, Elm or Typescript as well, depending on their coding style. As far as frameworks on the front-end, here are some of the best: Backbone, React.js, or Vue.js.
Back-End Developer
Back-end development is also known as server-side programming. The professionals that work on the server side handle important aspects of your web applications, including
- Authentication
- Encryption
- Database Integration
- Real-time messaging systems
- Developing APIs that can interact with other apps
Server-side development demands knowledge of a suitable programming language in depth, depending on your technology stack.
Popular languages for back-end include Python, Ruby, JavaScript (with Node.js), Java, and PHP. The developer should be skilled with back-end web frameworks such as Express for Node.js, Ruby on Rails or Python’s Django web framework.
You should also ensure that your back-end developers are skilled in all phases of the software development lifecycle. This includes software design, database design, development and automated testing.
Full-Stack Website Developers
A new breed of developers has appeared on the scene in the last five years. These are the full stack developers. They know how to code both the front-end and back-end of a web application.
This is a hard skill set to master so full stack developers tend to be among the more experienced professionals. It can take anywhere from 3-5 years for a developer to acquire enough experience to transition to a full-stack development position.
Depending on your budget, you might also need to hire dedicated software testing professionals, for ensuring the quality of software.
Working With A Remote Web Design Company
Given the expertise needed in assembling and managing a web development team, it might be easier to hire a web development company. These companies, often working remotely, can handle the process of developing web apps from beginning to end.
Advantages of Working With A Remote Team
One of the great advantages of working with a remote web design company is that the cost is often much lower than hiring developers locally. In addition, the company helps with management of developers and designers. This frees up time you would otherwise spend on managing the individual developers. Hiring a team with great management is important because it saves your time. Such time savings provide greater cost savings to your business. Tools available in the market-place help you collaborate with your remote team.
Best Tools For Remote Working In Web Development
As the culture of remote work has exploded, a plethora of new tools has arisen. These enable instantaneous communication, collaboration and sharing of work artifacts.
- Slack – remote teams use Slack to chat in real-time. Slack has replaced email for many remote teams, including nimble startups that need quick communication.
- Skype – now a part of Microsoft, Skype has continued to be an in-demand video calling app. It enables remote teams to communicate via chat, voice and video
- Gitter – a chat app made specifically for developers and coding organizations, Gitter is popular in the open source community. There are channels for popular Github-hosted projects where you can find help on topics like React, Vue.js and other in-demand technologies.
- WeChat – a cross-over app for personal and professional communication. The app is especially popular in Asia
- Git – the leading version control system, Git is indispensable for managing your code between multiple releases and iterations
- Mercurial – another popular version control system, Mercurial is great for a distributed team of developers to collaborate on a shared codebase.
- GitHub – the leading source code online repository, GitHub enables organizations to host their code. Users pay a fee to host private code repositories.
- Bitbucket – another popular code hosting service, Bitbucket allows private repositories for free
- GitLab – an all-in-one source code hosting service and continuous integration platform. GitLab has advanced code collaboration tools.
- Asana – a task and team management platform
- Trello – a platform to manage coding assignments and other tasks for a remote team.
- BaseCamp – project management app popular with software teams and other distributed working teams
Take Charge Of Your Web Development Success
Software is a uniquely human creation. The product your team develops depends greatly on the quality of the human talent you deploy at each stage of the development process. As a result, you need to search for the very best developers and designers to make your project a success.
Loading…