Having had many successes in attracting top-notch web developers and mobile developers, we find that knowledge of any specific framework, programming language and development platform isn’t nearly as relevant as a developer’s mindset, drive and approach in dealing with hard problems. The one you’d want to work with make problem solving their forte, not a coder.
How can you distinguish the top guns from the expendables? This infographic outlines the defining traits that spell the difference between a good developers and a bad developers:
Mindset
The developers who usually deliver secure and reliable code are the ones who tend to see the worst. A pessimistic mindset drives a developers to consider everything that can possibly go wrong and how it can be dealt with. On the other hand, a developer who feels his code is good enough isn’t likely to inspect his work regularly. A bad developer doesn’t realize that his code could be better.
Another important mindset that is indicative of a good developer is curiosity. A curious developer finds what causes a problem and looks for better ways to solve it. He is also often the most flexible, open to changes and quickly embraces new technologies. This further encourages creative coding.
In contrast, a bad developer is more likely to be stuck in his ways and resists change. The problem is that in this evolving industry, there are no permanent best practices. In fact what worked 2 years ago may be an impediment today. That’s why a developer should always be keen when shown better alternatives.
Approach
Ironically, good developers are lazy in a productive way. They know how to attain quality output with significantly less effort. They build reusable code libraries or reuse existing ones and waste no time doing work that can be automated.
Moreover, good developers avoid future work by writing better code now. They maintain, debug and evolve their code and tenaciously attack hard problems. Even the slightest error such as a typo in a comment gets fixed right away. They are usually the ones who can communicate clearly what they’ve done so far and what they’re going to do next.
Sadly, poor developers are content in simply generating lines of code. Once they complete the tasks, they leave it up to Quality Assurance to find bugs. They also tend to give excuses for broken code. They are likely to be heard saying “That’s weird…”
Engagement
Good developers are the ones who see the big picture. They learn about the overall code structure, the users, the business and the industry and understand how these components interact. This lets them work well with larger and larger projects.
Good developers are forward thinking and stay updated on new technologies. They consider every approach that’s relevant or potentially helpful in developing solutions. They display passion in learning new stuff and mastering every little task.
On the other end, we find the bad developers whose range of vision is confined to the part of the code that they’ve written. They’re usually the ones who have a low level of performance and engagement.
The goal here is to build a community of like-minded developers who constantly learn from experience and strive to do better. When changing times call for new skill sets, good developers don’t become obsolete, they reinvent themselves and thrive.
If you’re looking into creating a team of good developers, we can make it happen for you.