Ever wondered what it’s like to be behind the scenes in developing websites? Who is behind all those fantastic websites that we use every single day? What is their daily routine? Find out what it’s like to be in the shoes of a web developer…
I have been a web developer at Matrix Internet since 2011. The last four years gave me just enough time to achieve the long-sought nirvana of acceptance of the otherwise so much obvious fact that routine days do not necessarily look tidy on the surface and they do not consist solely of well-structured sequences of actions precisely planned beforehand. My old childish vision of hiding in a dark cave with my jobs every day and taking an uninterrupted one-man trip deep into a single-threaded intense working zone is not admitted to the modern vibrant world of today and the future. Garage projects are no longer a viable way of excellence in a world where prompt actions, respectful dialogue and lively interaction with a fellow team of experts are the most effective drivers of a successful project. From my grown-up perspective, teamwork is the key to achieving a software product one can be proud of and participate in the evolution of.
It takes a young geek some time to suppress initial perplexity, glide over a phase of denial, lay down the stress ball and finally realize that in order to achieve a feeling of a sound and productive day, you don’t just plan, you adapt.
The ability to quickly adapt to an ever-changing daily schedule is an essential skill of a web developer. On the web, industry timelines are usually shockingly tight and clients’ expectations are high. In order to avoid having to call state mental services to action, a web developer needs to learn to administer a healthy backlog and prevent it from growing into a blood-thirsty beast.
The biggest personal obstacle on my way to gaining supremacy over my foxy backlog was my inherent tendency to focus on the most exciting project in the stack and to procrastinate smaller tasks. Battling with such an innate desire has been won by learning to juggle and to identify the most optimal way through a day.
“I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job… Because, he will find an easy way to do it.”
Bill Gates
It is natural that the broader a technical field a web developer has, the easier it is for him to deal with technical issues. In the IT industry, there is never a single best way to deal with a problem and of course, with the width of one’s field of vision, options and ideas grow like mushrooms after rain. In order to give our clients the most valuable and helpful feedback, it is simply not enough just to have the typical web developer’s base skillset of HTML, server-side scripting language of choice and Javascript. You need to be able to see patterns and faded signs of ways through a minefield of possible consequences of your own actions, some of which will inevitably take a temporary detour outside of the skill set of a typical web developer, or at least outside of the comfort zone.
“True intuitive expertise is learned from prolonged experience with good feedback on mistakes.”
Daniel Kahneman
Generally speaking, most IT guys seem to belong to a different kind of species than the typical Homo sapiens. I imagine that the most productive ideal web developer would be a lonely lucifugous introvert hidden in the darkest end of his cave. He’d be connected to the matrix by a network cable and have an endless supply of snacks, caffeine (or whatever else is the preferred poison) and a feed of well-defined tasks set in stone. In the real world though such a setup is clearly not realistic nor is it the most effective way to develop cutting-edge exciting projects. Long gone are the old days when a developer locked himself out from the outside world with his ideas and didn’t come out until all the caffeine in the house has been converted to a working prototype of a project. The modern age is vibrant and competitive and as such it requires people from different fields of expertise to brainstorm and project their different professional views into a plan. The modern web developer abandons his cavemen tendencies and reaches out for active interaction.
In the real world in order to come up with the best solutions to the constantly evolving ideas of clients, close proximity and lively dialogue need to be maintained. It is extremely beneficial for a project if a client becomes an active member of the team. Once a web developer, a man with ideas and solutions, has the option to quickly consult a client, a man with a vision, this results in a combination that is literally priceless in comparison to a vague project description. Instead of “leaving it in the capable hands of the developer”.
“Walking on water and developing software from a specification are easy if both are frozen.”
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