Use The Right Tools For The Job
Choosing the right tool for a project can sometimes be easy. For example, when driving a nail, the obvious choice would be a hammer, or when cutting a piece of board at a particular angle, a saw would be the best tool in the box. I think one of the biggest differences between a beginner and an experienced developer is knowing which tool or technologies are right for the job.
Coding everything from scratch, excluding even the mundane things, can be extremely time-consuming and often lead to time being spent reinventing the wheel, time which would have better been spent implementing new features or tightening up the code base.
Part of a developer’s job is to figure out the best tool to use in building a client’s website or application in the most efficient way possible. After all, in the majority of cases, a client who just wants a website to showcase their work and increase their brand awareness does not care what language a developer uses to build that website. All they really care about is the end result. That their website or application is completed, on time with no errors, and is easy to use.
Using a tool that’s not well suited for the task at hand could result in serious compromises in performance and utility. Not to mention you could end up wasting 30 hours building out a custom backend with <insert-framework-here> that needs to be deployed in this particular way on that type of server. When in reality you could have just used an already-built CMS and be done with the project in a few hours.
So here’s a quick checklist of the various aspects you should be concerned with before choosing the right framework or tool.
1. Users
Products should be built for their users. So take into consideration who will be using your system and how they will be using it. What product do you want to build and how can you create the best user experience?
2. Type of Application
Decide what type of website or application you’re developing. A tech stack is a toolset for creating a web application. So you need to fully understand what you’re planning to build in order to pick the appropriate tools. You should find a toolset that provides unique advantages for your website or application.
3. Business Goals
It is important to be specific about the details of the business. Does the client want a simple CMS to put out content and make money from ads? Are they using a subscription model? Do they want an e-commerce store and will they be the only one who is going to be adding products? Very important factors in deciding which tools to use.
4. Time to Market
Time to market (TTM) is extremely important when choosing a tech stack for startups and for small businesses. The faster you develop and release your application, the more ahead of competitors you’ll be. Moreover, the less time development requires, the cheaper the development cost.
5. Hosting Requirements
As web developers, we may be inclined to build applications on cutting-edge platforms but the need and budget of the client come first. It may be out of the budget to get a dedicated host to place our applications on, but settling with a shared host is sometimes all you need.
6. Ease of Installation
Ease of installation plays a very important role when choosing a technology. Regardless of the features, a technology can pose quite a problem if one has to run through a number of steps just to get it installed and working. Choose a tool that lets you get up and running as rapidly as possible.
7. Security
Security should never be neglected. Depending on the kind of data you work with, security could even be the most important factor. Determine why you need to secure something before deciding how to secure it.
8. Testing
I am one of those developers who swear by testing. One of the benefits of testing is that it allows you to write code in confidence. It’s much easier to refactor and add new features knowing you have a test suit behind all the code you’ve written. Tools that allow you to easily and quickly write tests are a definite plus.
9. Scaling
The average web developer doesn’t have to worry about the scalability of a particular technology. If someone asks you to lay off a tool pointing out scaling problems, disregard them. Technology is rarely the reason for the scaling issue. Sure, you could optimize the code a little bit but often the brunt of the scaling issue lies elsewhere.
10. Documentation
A technology’s documentation is often key to its success. Look for a technology that has thorough documentation with plenty of examples of how to use it.
11. The Community
Even with proper documentation, you are eventually going to run into errors and you are going to have to ask the community behind the technology for help. Choose one which has a friendly community that helps new developers understand it.
To Sum It All Up
We looked at all the aspects you should consider before choosing a tool or technology for your project. We looked at everything from mapping out whether it’d suit our purposes to security and the time taken to develop and launch. As you can see, selecting the right tech stack is a real challenge, but the core idea that should guide you is as follows: choose the tools and technologies according to your project. You should always be realistic and take all pros and cons into account. The wrong choice of a technology stack may end in financial losses. So if you aren’t experienced in web development you can always ask the web developer community. Remember, no tool, framework, or language is best, it only depends on your purpose. It depends on what you or your client are trying to achieve.
Happy coding!