After a little research, a majority of companies used to conclude over hiring a Full-Stack Developer. The companies used to justify their decisions with a very common phrase, i.e., “Jack of all trades”. With this, we can understand that companies used to prefer hiring Full-Stack Developers over Specialized Developers.

Source: BurstShopify Website

Though it is quite a contrast to what I mentioned a while ago. But, in the Tech Industry, both are true, and both types of developers are in demand based on the companies requirements.

In this case, we are going to discuss the differences between Full-Stack Developers and Specialized Developers. Along with that, the Pros and Cons of Hiring Full-Stack Developers and Specialized Developers.

What is a Full-Stack Developer?

As mentioned above, the companies used to consider Full-Stack Developers as the ‘Jack of all trades.” A Full-Stack Developer is one who can work effectively both on front-end development and back-end development. In general language, a Full-Stack Developer is a person who can single-handedly manage the entire project.

The Full-Stack Developers can build a user-centric website and database while working with clients on the project’s planning phase. A good Full-Stack Developer will effortlessly guide a project and fulfil all the requirements by providing the needed components and skipping the unnecessary component. These developers also have a great command over certain skill sets than the Specialized Developers.

Source: Morioh Website

A Full-Stack Developer has diverse knowledge and skills with moderate working experience in different development domains, such as;

• Front-End Development Skills (Angular.js, ReactJS, and Vue.js).
• Back-End Development SKills (PHP, .NET).
• Databases (MySQL, MongoDB, Firebase).
• UI/UX Designing of the project.
• Markup Languages such as HTML and CSS.
• Testing (TestComplete, Selenium, Postman, etc.).
• Complete Project Architecture, Roadmaps, and Strategic Planning of the project.

Contrary to these responsibilities, many people believe that a Full-Stack Developer doesn’t have to write all the codes required in the project by himself. Most of the time, the developers used to spend their time in designing either the front-end or back-end codes of the site.

For a Full-Stack Developer, writing codes is only the smart part of their huge worklist. It is because of the availability of many customizable libraries, tools, and frameworks. All these systems allow developers to customize and implement it instead of writing the complete codes.

Due to this, having a decent knowledge of implementing the frameworks along with the front-end and back-end tools makes the Full-Stack Developer a great asset to the company. These skills of the developers make companies hire a single Full-Stack Developer instead of a group of Specialized Developers.

A talented and dedicated Full-Stack Developer likely to improve their skills and focus on learning new things. It allows them to continuously enhance their skills and be updated with the evolving technologies in a period of time.

What is a Specialized Developer?

It is very evident with the name; a Specialized Developer is one who is an expert in a particular domain and has enough experience in their expert area. However, having expertise over a single domain doesn’t mean they lack the expertise to build and deliver an application as a Full-Stack Developer does.

Source: eInfochips Website

The Specialized Developers are immersed in profound studying of one or two areas. Based on that learning, they used to work on their part of the project assigned systematically. Hence, the role of each Specialized Developer is assigned to every individual based on their skills and responsibilities.

The expertise of a Specialized Developer over a single domain only means that they can go for a particular subject to a wider extent. The subject could be anything such as interface designing, database designing, entity framework, and domain modeling. Despite having specific expertise and skills, an experienced Specialist Developer has a comprehensive idea about the complete application project.

Those companies that have a huge budget and project are usually used to look for hiring Specialized Developers. They are dedicated to their work and can play their role very effectively to produce good results when the best quality of the final product is required.

Pros and Cons of Hiring Full-Stack Developers

Everything has some pros and cons; likewise, hiring a Full-Stack Developer is quite a typical task for the companies. They not only hire them but also invest their time, energy, and money while hiring them and after the hiring process as well. So, every company needs to learn about the pros and cons of hiring Full-Stack Developer. Or, be aware of when and when no one should be hiring Full-Stack Developers.

Source: Quora Website

Pros:

1. Jack of all Trades: A Full-Stack Developer had quite good skills to perform tasks in all the different stages of software development. Such developers can work effectively over Front-end, Back-end, Code Architecture, QA Testing, and many more. Knowledge of different skills helps a Full-Stack Developer to easily identify the issue and eliminate it quickly.

On the other hand, in the absence of Full-Stack Developer to resolve such development issues, the Specialized Developers need to conduct a meeting to understand the issue. In this way, a small issue also requires a lengthy and time taking procedure to overcome it. Therefore, hiring a Full-Stack Developer is preferred by a number of companies.

2. Cost-Effective: Hiring a single Full-Stack Developer is a feasible option for companies instead of hiring specialized developers for each work. Due to this, companies opt to hire a Full-Stack Developer and reduce the workforce. It ultimately lowers the cost of hiring and is a very cost-effective option for a number of small and medium enterprises, such companies used to hire Full-Stack Developers.

3. Flexibility: A Full-Stack Developer provides a great deal of flexibility and effectiveness to work over both Client-side and Server-side. It helps them to switch between the tasks easily. It also reduces the development time by eliminating misunderstanding among the developers.

4. Quick Learner: The companies used to hire Full-Stack Developers because they are quick learners and can quickly adopt new concepts. Apart from that, they can be easily trained over new concepts when the company requires and don’t want to hire a Specialized Developer for the same.

5. Minimum Meetings or Discussions: A Full-Stack Developer handles every phase of development single-handedly. So, they don’t require a lot of meetings or discussion sessions to take the things ahead. Hence, hire a Full-Stack Developer to minimize the time over meetings or discussions, while increasing time spent on development.

Cons:

1. Risk-Prone Time Management: If several Full-Stack Developers are working on the major parts of the project, then irrational time management risk could arise. It’s because a condition could arise of a high workload with a number of unresolved issues in the development phase. This might raise the risk of a project halt for a while as the developers could get busy in resolving the unresolved issues instead of working on the new tasks.

2. Not Updated with latest Trends & Technologies:  A Full-Stack Developer works on multiple technologies and often loses the grab over new technologies. Evidently, the technologies are evolving rapidly and this makes it difficult for them to keep up with the latest trends, technologies, and tools. In such conditions, the decision of hiring Full-Stack Developers seems invaluable for the company.

3. Responsibility Control: With Full-Stack Developers, there is a problem in allocating or assigning the task to every individual. When they are not aware of their responsibilities, working on a single project becomes halted. Thus, it becomes difficult for developers and the client to analyze the work and look over the progress in a proper manner. It is difficult to define the completeness of the project at any point in time.

4. Jack of all Trades; But Master of None: Just because the Full-Stack Developer works on different fields and possesses various skills doesn’t mean he can solve every issue that arises in the project. Apart from that, if the client likes to incorporate the latest features in their product at the last minute, then a Full-Stack Developer might find it challenging to do so instantly.

5. Average Service: As mentioned above, a Full-Stack Developer being a Jack of all trades, but master of none, is a responsible factor for average service. Lack of an in-depth understanding of the subject can cause hindrances which lead to average service. There are many situations where an expert’s attention or advice is required to provide quality work, and a Full-Stack Developer may lack it.

Pros and Cons of Hiring Specialized Developers

Hiring Specialized Developers can prove to be an asset for the company, only if they made the correct decision and at the correct time. As the companies look for hiring Specialized Developers, then they also need to be aware of the Pros and Cons of hiring them. The company had to be aware of when and when not to hire Specialized Developers.

Source: Codility Website

Pros:

1. Quality of Work Delivery: A company ensures to produce and deliver quality work to its clients. Therefore, they look to hire a Specialized Developer. This ensures the optimum quality of every part and the entire product development. A thoroughly skilled and expert in the specific department works as a guarantee to deliver the superior output from the developers.
2. Stay updated with the latest Trends & Technologies: A Specialized Developer has a specific area to focus on and have the expertise. So, they can easily remain updated with the latest trends and new technologies. On requirement, they can even get learning over the new technology quickly. The Specialized Developer kept eyes over new technologies regularly. They don’t waste their time gaining expertise over it before the market demand changes, and their existing skill becomes unproductive for them and the company.
3. Proper Allocation of Responsibilities/Tasks: The Specialized Developers are aware of their skills and know what they have to do in the project. Therefore, based on their expertise, the allocation or division of tasks becomes easier and quicker for the team. Hence, every individual can focus on their allotted task and dedicate their complete time in delivering quality work in the given time.
4. Easy to Hire: Hiring a Full-Stack Developer is very complicated as compared to hire a Specialized Developer. The wide range of talented pools available in the market provides a great number of options for the company. So, the company can analyze and evaluate the best resource for them.

Cons:

1. High Investment: Hiring Specialized Developers for each development task is quite an expensive investment for the company. Whereas hiring a Full-Stack Developer can save a lot of money. Considering the fact that a single Full-Stack Developer can easily replace two or more Specialized Developers. This contributes to minimizing the investment for the company. Hiring a specialized Front-end and Back-end Developer for Client-side and Server-side will obviously increase the overall development cost as compared to the Full-Stack Development.
2. More Dependency: Evidently, Specialized Developers are not aware of every phase of development. Most of them are not aware of numerous skills and technologies apart from their own expertise area. Therefore, they had to depend on their co-developer and other team members to make progress in the project. This dependency on co-developer affects the progress of the project while slowing the development process which makes it more complicated. Therefore, many companies prefer not to hire a Specialized Developer.

When to Choose a Full-Stack Developer?

1. Small Project Size: When the company has a small and less complex project, they can instantly hire Full-Stack Developers. The Full-Stack Developers are experts in many technologies and can quickly develop an easy project. They can quickly switch over their tasks due to multiple tech-skills while meeting the expectations.
2. Low Project Complexity: Hire a Full-Stack Developer for easy or moderately-complex projects. Most of them are not very expert with highly-complex problem solving but can effectively handle less complex projects. The complex project requires in-depth knowledge where the Full-Stack Developers lack.
3. Project Flexibility: If your project’s requirements are not defined accurately by the client and may also have the possibility of changes in it at frequent intervals, then to hire a Full-Stack Developer would be an intelligent call. The Full-Stack Developer is an apt choice for multitasking and rapid task switching. They can effectively work over multiple platforms and multiple technologies at a time. This fulfils the instant changes in the project.
4. Low Budget: A Full-Stack Developer is very economical as compared to Specialized Developers, especially when the budget is low. For a low budget project, hiring a Full-Stack Developer is an intelligent call. The low budget project won’t allow you to hire multiple Specialized Developers; therefore, one or two Full-Stack Developers can carry out everything effectively.
5. Time Constraints: While having a tight schedule to deliver the project, hiring a Full-Stack Developer would be an intelligent decision. They can use their multiple tech-skills perfectly and quickly switch between the tasks to complete the project in a limited time frame. Compared to Specialized Developers, the Full-Stack Developers are the better choice while meeting the time limitation.

Source: Kody Technolab Website

When to Choose a Specialized Developer?

1. Huge Projects: Specialized Developers are the best and appropriate choice for huge and complex projects. So, when the budget is high and demands a high-quality product, hire Specialized Developers without a second thought. The huge and complex projects can be divided into small tasks and get completed by the Specialized Developers in an organized manner.
2. High Project Complexity: The expertise and in-depth knowledge over a definite technology or tools will lead Specialized Developers to deliver highly complex projects. Their expertise in handling complicated projects doesn’t affect the progress of the project. Hiring Specialized Developers to manage complex projects is highly recommended.
3. Big Budget Project: When the budget of a project is very high, then its complexity will definitely be high as well. It requires a highly-skilled and experienced team of developers to develop the product. Therefore, for high budget projects, hiring Specialized Developers would be the right decision.
4. Project Quality: Maintaining the project’s quality is one of the major and important parameters to be taken care of. Therefore, hiring Specialized Developers makes sure to maintain the quality of the project. Because to maintain the quality, optimum efforts are required from the expert in each department. To maintain the quality of the project, the Specialized Developers will be the right choice.

Overall, we can conclude that hiring Full-Stack Developers is an ideal option for start-ups and small enterprises. Whereas, hiring Specialized Developers is usually preferred by the big industries and is the essential requirement for building complex projects. So, the intelligent decision is required to make while hiring Full-Stack Developer or Specialized Developers. However, both are ideal choices but only in different environments and requirements.

It is better to consult the reputed project development company while deciding to make the selection between the Specialized Developer and Full-Stack Developer. If you are looking for such suggestions or if you have any project ideas to build, then EngineerBabu can instantly provide you with a Full-Stack team as well as Specialized Developers. You can contact us and discuss your business requirements with us. We are here to help you take your business idea ahead and introduce it to the market.

The post Hire Full Stack Developer vs Specialized Developer appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Hiring a full-stack engineer is a game of skills. In today’s IT era, the more skills you have in your stack, the more you are likely to be chosen for big projects. Hiring a full-stack engineer for even smaller projects seems logical in a way to cover all the targets with 1 or 2 full-stack developers. A full-stack developer is a programmer who has the expertise of both ends to offer smooth user experience and this is the reason they are in great demand today and hiring a full-stack engineer is the big trend in the It industry right now.

A full-stack engineer understands the business requirements behind a feature and then takes “full responsibility” on the application. Though hiring a full-stack engineer is not that easy and there are a number of things to be considered before getting a one onboard. Today, hiring a full-stack engineer is of paramount importance because business owners want to get off their technical burden so that they can focus on thriving the business. This is when the true value of the full stack arises.

Before looking at the expert recommendations of hiring a full-stack engineer, let’s take a brief account of What is a full stack developer. In layman’s terms, a full stack web developer is a coder who can work with both front-end and back-end technologies. A full-stack software engineer builds a site or any web application completely by applying techniques and business logic. A full-stack developer gives an overall infrastructure to the software. If you are hiring a full-stack engineer, this is a basic construct that you have to know. A full-stack developer is the one who apprehends the whole full-stack web development process and can weigh in on any stage or tier. As a side note, this kind of full-stack web developer could be very useful to startups.

“You are a computer. If you become front-end you’ll count the likes on social media. If you become back-end you’ll be breathing deep on a mountain. Listen! one life man. Become a Full-stack.”

― Chetan M. Kumbhar

Let us get you through what a full-stack engineer entails and what are the recommendations when you are hiring a full-stack engineer for your next emerging project/application.

1. Good with Git

Git is considered as one of the supreme version control systems which a full-stack engineer has to be good with. While hiring full-stack engineers, it is important to check whether they know how to work with Git and have their profile on Github or not. It is a must-have for all full-stack developers working independently or even in a team to have their profile on Github and the complete knowledge of Git which is an open-source web-based repository hosting service that aids effective management of the changes made to applications, websites, codes, documents, and other information relating to application development.

Recommended Reading: When and Why does your Business needs to Hire Full Stack Developers

Proficiency with GIT allows programmers to keep track of every minor change made to the application codebase. A full-stack developer who uses a version control software discovers a new universe of security, productivity, and organization. Experts recommend checking whether one is good with Git or not before hiring a full-stack engineer. If not, then he is not the one. If he knows how it works, then he would be able to cooperate with other software developers, web developers, and programmers working on the same project successfully.

2. Technical Head

Full-stack developers work in both backend and frontend so being a technical ‘head’ is a must to head the technical part of the project. They should have a comprehensive understanding of the project requirements and cater to the needs more efficiently. For building web applications, one needs to store the data somewhere that can be accessed later. Otherwise, none of it makes sense. For this, you must hire a full stack developer who understands the benefits of memory storage, relational databases.

Full-stack developers need to be capable of making the right decisions, which proves to be effective for the project’s success. Full-stack developers should be proficient to beat the database management with the capability to create, understand, and manipulate the database query.

Recommended Reading: Top 10 Freelance Full Stack Engineers around the World

One more thing that differentiates a good full-stack engineer from others is the skill to differentiate between non-relational and relational database along with the syntax knowledge of XML/ JSON. They often play the role of a captain of the ship who is anchoring the software ship through different paths.

3. Computer Polyglot

A full-stack developer is the one who performs brilliantly, both on the back end and the front-end. And therefore, it is mandatory for a full stack developer to be well-versed in all the computer languages. The developer must know JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, and should be expert in any of the back-end development languages. It is important today to have a command over JavaScript because it is one of the most popular object-oriented scripting languages on the Internet today which is widely used for a scripting language to add behaviors using HTML.

Language is something that grows with time. The same is with computer languages too. In JavaScript too, there are new and better libraries, frameworks, and tools that you have to know. It is the only language that runs natively in the browser, and can also be used on the server-side (i.e., along with Node.js). The Full Stack developer needs to have very in-depth knowledge about the JavaScript framework and its features, such as Angular or React. Since it offers exquisite features such as functions, prototype, higher-order event delegation, and closure to make web pages responsive. Hence, full-stack software engineers should be comfortable with the required technologies which lay the foundation of the web development project.

4. Lender of last resort

Like a central bank that lends money to banks or countries in difficult financial periods when they cannot borrow from anywhere else, Full stack developers provide full-stack web development to clients or companies when they are in technical needs. They are like a solution-finder to any possible situation, the one who can manage and direct smaller teams.

Experts recommend that while Developing an MVP or Commencing a Project, It is good to start with an individual full-stack developer who can begin from scratch and work with all the application components to create excellent web apps. To develop a Minimum Viable Product(MVP), you can easily bet on good full-stack engineers to turn your idea into a fully functional prototype.

One of the many advantages of hiring a full-stack engineer is that they can literally save a lot of your money when the budget is going right. Yes, when you have a tight budget in hand and cannot afford the services of a specialized developer for different roles like frontend and backend, full-stack developers come to your rescue. A full-stack engineer is Worth the cost of at least two developers (1 front-end, 1 back-end dev). You don’t have to pay separately to each front-end and back-end developer, instead of hiring a full-stack developer will suffice your requirements.

5. Web Architect

One important skill to be considered while hiring a full-stack engineer is his ability to see the ‘Big Picture’ because it is not just about seeing how each brick fits into a wall but how that wall supports other parts of the building. A full-stack engineer builds software with the strong walls of code. Like it is a bonus when a civil engineer is also an architect, similarly, a full-stack engineer who also is a web architect is a man to count upon endless IT solutions.

As said before the full-stack developer handles both the sides; the client and the server along with UI design etc. Therefore, he must possess knowledge of HTML, CMS, and JavaScript. For the Front-end, he must be well acquainted with JavaScript frameworks like Angular, React, or Vue.js. or tools such as Grunt, Gulp, and Bower. He needs to get updated on JavaScript libraries like jQuery or Backbone.js. The knowledge of AJAX and front-end CSS frameworks like Foundation or Bootstrap would certainly be an added advantage.

Therefore, the full-stack developer that you look to lead your project technically, must have adequate knowledge and understanding of the business needs besides the technical terms.

6. Jack of all trades, master of one

A full-stack developer is someone who can specialize in developing and maintaining the various aspects of web development that include the client-side, the server-side, and the Dev-Ops as well. As a client, you also need to take care of hiring a full-stack engineer who is competent enough to handle the big picture of the scenario and well-versed in all the three activities.

Recommended Reading: Top 10 Websites to Hire Freelance Full Stack Developers

A full-stack developer needs to have a grasp on a few major technologies. He or she should be well versed in a single language but should know other languages too. However, at the same time, it is important to note that all full-stack developers are not sailing on the same boat. They possess basic knowledge of the stack and specialize in a particular domain of the stack. We can cite the examples of MEAN, LAMP, ROR, and ASP.NET technologies.

Hence, a full stack web developer is a jack of all trades and master of one. A good full stack developer knows everything about full-stack web development to the database to the user interface to user experience. He or she possesses expert command over both back end and front-end languages and technologies.

7. Experienced Player

If you think that the one who is proficient with the above mentioned 6 skills is the Full Stack developer you should hire then you are mistaken. As a client, you must go through the portfolio of a full-stack developer and access his previous works and projects to see his potential. You also need to keep in mind that the full-stack developer you hire is not only talented in creating visually appealing app designs but they should be functional too and run optimally fast. So while hiring a full-stack engineer, go for a serious candidate who has diverse experience on the resume and a portfolio site of his own.

In the end, experience matters, it is all about creating a good product and hiring someone who has worked on relevant projects. Look for someone who has worked on large scale projects with good experience in the industry. An experienced developer must have a good portfolio of previous projects, before hiring, ask him to show the work samples or the website links so that you will have an idea about his skills. It does not mean eliminating inexperienced developers, they are starting in the industry and willing to learn more on the job so you should give them a chance on smaller projects if they have all the other skills. Hiring a productive full stack developer might be a tiring job and it would certainly take some time but remember, in the end, it would be worth it.

“It’s better to wait for a productive programmer to become available than it is to wait for the first available programmer to become productive.”

– Steve McConnell

The more complicated projects, the more skilled full-stack developers you need. Often, new tech projects require more of an investigator and solution-finder kind of developers, rather than of direct action. Recruitment managers know that hiring a good full stack developer could be a challenge. To overcome this challenge, you can hire full-stack developers from EngineerBabu directly. Hiring a Full-Stack Engineer from EngineerBabu ensures that the developer is an expert as well as experienced in delivering world-class products.

The post 7 Expert Recommendations when Hiring a Full Stack Engineer appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.