Full stack developer is one of the most fascinating keyword since last few years. Everyone would like to be a full stack developer considering the scope of growth in software development company. But, before we discuss how to become a full stack developer, lets understand what does it mean.
Usually, a full stack developer is responsible for frontend, backend, architecture and everything in between. A full stack developer conceptualizes the development from all the layers like - client side, browser side, server side, web server, database and finally operating system level. Even though, today’s frameworks are platform independent it is very important to optimize the application based on user behaviour, browser, cloud architecture considering the distributed model, mobility and use case of API.
To understand the whole dynamics of full stack development, we need to analyse the global usability and architecture standards and what it takes to do that engineering and deliver. We will discuss on each components more precisely:
Frontend or client side development is nothing but what user can see in their web browser. All the look and feel that we experience is part of front end development and it consist of HTML, CSS and Javascript. Therefore, to develop and deliver better user experience, need to have an adequate knowledge of HTML, CSS and Javascript. At Nescode, we always prefer and suggest to use framework instead of using legacy approach of using html, css and javascript. Another best side using framework is, learning curve of knowing framework used much better than language.
The reason behind using standard frontend framework like Bootstrap, ReactJs, AngularJS or Vuejs is delivering richer experience in lesser time using industry standard tools. And on top of framework, there should be a build tools like webpack since as developer you would be using several libraries.
Designing and development goes hand in hand and a developer having designing sense and familiar with some of the designing tools is like a cherry on the cake for the organizations. Hence, is evident that a full stack developer should possess some design sense to add a level of creativity within development process knowing some of the basic tools like Photoshop, Inkscape, Pixlr etc.
The backend is nothing but what logic is running behind the picture. If front end is the tip of an iceberg then back end is the remaining iceberg.
Backend development consists of writing and generating code for the project. These codes or pieces of code can be in any of the programming languages including C, C++, Java, Python etc. At Nescode, we work on Python as it is much scalable, readable and user understandable and backbone for artificial intelligence.
Backend development is slightly at the tougher end as compared to the frontend. It demands certain level of expertise from the developers as it involves the coding for the functioning of the various modules of your project. So the developer needs to master at least one of the programming languages for writing as well as debugging the code.
The approach towards mastering backend development should be inline with the scalability factor in mind, reason being any small product development will be achieving the production stage in minimum 1 year of timeline. And product lifecycle for any product should be minimum 10 years. Therefore, if backend code has not been written considering the scalability in mind, further product roadmap will be quite complicated and eventually it will bring huge overhead.
Data plays an important role in the current scenario. Whole world is based on some data or the other. These datas are then turned into an information and used further for utilizing it to make appropriate decisions.
With data being taken the whole market, it becomes necessary to collect this data at a particular place or collector and make it accessible for the right set of people to fetch these datas over a period of time and work on it. It also becomes necessary to handle and manage these datas at any point of time without any ambiguity.
Several Databases are available in the market to be worked upon, MySQL and Oracle being the most famous ones. However there are several other databases available like PostgreSQL, Sybase, SQLite, FoxPro, etc. Developers need to have a through knowledge of Structured Query Language(SQL) to work on or manage any of the databases.
Developers should try to maintain a particular level of accuracy and precision while using any of the databases as each and everything revolves around the powerhouse ‘Data‘. Even a slight negligence may lead to huge discrepancies in the project.
In the journey of being a full stack developer, one needs to consider data as an asset and make it accessible to other platform and Business Intelligence through API. This Means, backend development should be always with REST framework. There are various REST frameworks available, developer should choose it based on the requirement and language they use.
We live in a startup world, where every single day more than 1000s of startups are coming up in India. It is important to possess a wide range of skills proving themselves to be an asset especially in startups where there are limited resources.
In today’s world coding is just not enough, there are various other skills which are required to lead in true sense. Some of those skills are:
A full stack developer in all terms should carry a broader sense of thoughts. This is required as they aren’t restricted to one particular thing which makes it pretty obvious that they would have to think on various parameters and constraints all throughout the development of a product.
Having good communication skills both verbal as well as written is a mandatory factor for full stack developers. This is so because in order to reduce the time consumption and manage time properly they need to communicate and interact with the team on a regular basis all throughout the development process to get even a small piece of work done and to deploy the project.
Since full stack developers are dealing with all domains they should possess great creativity and aesthetic sense especially in the frontend development. Sense of creativity gives the developer to come out of their shell and leverage their own development potentials.
The process of development starts with learning and learning is ultimately an outcome of curiosity. A person learns a lot when he/she carries a curiosity about certain things. When a full stack developer learns better, he develops better.
Since a full stack developer carries the responsibility of self developing any product without any external help and has to coordinate with the team to get the things done, he/she should stick to the working routine and keep a time track. They should manage the time well and distribute it evenly and genuinely paying proper attention to every domain.
As it is said “Rome wasn’t built in a day” , so is applicable to becoming a full stack developer too. No one can become a full fledged full stack developer overnight. Frankly speaking it may even take a decade to gain the expertise. All that can be done is to be sincere in gaining and applying the knowledge and skills for the development.