Long back, there was a time when engineering an application just require web developers and designers, and the application was built! As time passed, things changed and today, front-end developers, back-end developers, UI/ UX engineers and different types of programmers are separately needed for the app development.
With the advancement of technology, very often, new SDKs, OS, library, framework, programming languages, process and pretty more emerge. This will continue..
It demands developers to update themselves with new technology and every new release that's related to the development. But, does the developer need to master these different technologies, languages or tools.
Yes, they do!
According to the stack overflow survey, "30% of developers consider themselves as full stack developers when they were asked to identify their occupation."
You might be wondering, what the full stack developers are. Let's understand what it is.
Full stack developers are the rare breed of developers who posses great knowledge and expertise of working on the myriad of technologies from back-end to front-end.
Even, if they are back-end developers, this specialization helps them better understand what the front-end developers are doing, instead of going nuts. It enables developers to work collaboratively in a sound environment. This is the reason, organizations now prefer full stack development.
Here are the following Full stack developers' skill sets that may create difference:
Server, network, and hosting environment:
Having expertise in back-end development requires full stack developers to adept at programming in different languages like- Ruby, Java, Python, etc. Besides, they must understand basic server-side scripting and provide dynamic responses to the clients.
Database:
Full stack developer must beat the database management beast with the ability to understand, create, manipulate and query the database. Also, they must be capable enough to differentiate between relational and non-relational databases alongside knowing the syntax of XML / JSON.
Front-end:
The full stack developers must have proficiency in front-end coding and development in more languages like- HTML, JavaScript, and Java to define the best user experience and create responsive web designs.
User interface and user experience:
Being fluent in programming languages and framework does not finish the work of full stack front end developers as they create the code behind the user interface. A strong grasp over CSS and HTML let them create excellent web designs that result in garnering maximum user attention.
Customer and business needs understanding:
Having mile wide knowledge into the development is not the only responsibility that developers would have. They need to understand client requirements, create technical specifications and architecture documents, manage project timeline and know about working methodology.
Epilogue
After knowing the skill sets of full stack developers, don't think they are any magical wizards because alone a developer himself cannot fit into the multiple shoes and hop among multiple tasks.
Instead, they have a good understanding of complete web app development and can better comprehend from requirement gathering to back-end development to front-end development. The range of technical skills and vast knowledge would come with years of working experience.
Full stack development is the best choice to build your new website, as you will get the developers at your end who are familiar and have acquired the knowledge of all stacks.
So, what's next? Let's get the ball roll over!