5 Things a successful developer knows and you should too

It’s been almost 5 years since we started Cumulations, where we offer software services primarily for Mobile and IoT industry. Personally, 2018 marks the beginning of the 9th year for my own journey as a developer.

At Cumulations we have worked with many developers and have been inspired by their ability to comprehend the problems and their strength in finding the solutions.

Working with many of these successful developers has led us to realize that there are many common aspects among these top-level contributors. I am writing this article outlining and discussing 5 of those common qualities.I believe this could be a guideline of sorts, for all others who are aspiring to shape themselves as better and a successful developer.

1) Knowing the tools (Your language )

When you begin your journey as a Developer, you will go through a phase of understanding and learn the language. After all, Language is how one would address a requirement and codes his solution.

One of the common mistakes that many beginners do, is to jump straight away to address the business problem while they still have to understand many tools and techniques that the language offers.This is similar to attempting driving expedition to the neighboring city when one doesn’t understand the tools for acceleration, clutch.

A Successful developer devotes a dedicated time to study the language through a book or tutorials, which enables them to navigate around language constructs easily. He would be able to choose the right tool for the problem at hand and hence will have a better chance of solving it.

2) Knowing to Focus

Once a developer is a cutout for the task, it is important to avoid the things that distract him. While few developers are comfortable with headphones playing loud music or having Facebook open on their workstation, there are also many who would find these distracting.

By simply mocking the guy at the neighboring desk, many would find it hard to concentrate on the code that they are writing. When developer loses his concentration on the code flow, he would lose to account for scenarios which would prove costly either during testing or in the real world.

Focusing on the work at hand helps especially when the developer is exploring a technical feasibility of a new feature. 

3) Knowing to write Tools for team

In a team, successful developer understands that the cost of repeated tasks and aims at simplifying it for all stakeholders involved.

He understands the benefits of writing tools and automating the trivial tasks thereby increasing the productivity of the team.

Many a time, these tools go to help not just his team but the entire community of developers.

For example, Jack Wharton in the Android community is famous for his contributions to libraries that now many in the world use. He has authored many famous libraries like Butterknife, Pidcat, Timber, RXRelay etc. which many projects around the world are using.    

Tools sometime might also be just documentation which outlines the process or procedures. These documents eventually serve as guidelines to team members who are supposed to implement the procedures.

4) Knowing to Listen

Successful developers keep themselves available in all the circles where their domain of interest is discussed. They will follow like-minded developers and successful coders on social platforms like Twitter and Google+ groups and are well aware of the things happening in their domain. They would subscribe to popular videos or podcasts of the other developers and keep listening to the conversations and their experiences.

In Android, for example, one would listen to podcasts like Fragmented which discusses various aspects of building software in Android. They also interview the other developers with a significant contribution to the community which helps get insights into the ongoing trends.

These conversations eventually will help the successful developer to introduce new tools and services to the team.

5) Knowing the Architecture

Successful developer understands that software development involves accommodating change requests regularly. He will ensure that the platform or service he is working is open to changes by following a suitable architecture.

He not only studies different architectures but also understands their area of suitability.

This ability to code around an architecture helps a successful developer to be agile in not just extending the existing platform but also in accommodating modifications easily.

One more advantage architecture brings is the ease of testing for both Unit testing (by the developer himself) and integration testing (by QA).

Author Bio: Praveena is a Co-Founder of Cumulations Technologies a Bangalore based mobile app development company giving mobile app solutions from past 5 years. He is a hardcore developer and entrepreneur with total experience of 8 years. In his free time, he loves to blog and share his experiences. You can follow Praveena on Twitter.

Related Read:

1) 15 Mistakes To Avoid When Developing An App

2) 9 Quick and Handy tips for Building a Mobile App

3) Mobile App Development Lifecycle- Journey of App from Development to App Store