Hey, guys! Have you ever asked yourself questions: “What top skills should a professional developer possess? What is the difference between good and great developers?”
Sometimes the line between them may seem rather thin, but afraid not, in this article you will get the points and traits of good and great developers that will drive you to the right decision.
But keep in mind that a good or great developer should not possess all the skills, listed below because it’s a rare occasion but believe me if your developer has at least several of them that means you’re lucky and found a perfect match.
In addition, you will find here the general traits of a good and great types developer. Moreover, the values of a company that it must possess to get and keep a good/great developer can be found here.
Now, let’s started!
Good developers
1.Communication skills
All good developers have well-developed communication skills. For sure, there is a strong bond between development and communication. Without second wouldn’t be the first as well as the business itself. From my point of view, good communication skill includes the ability to talk and negotiate either with a team or with clients.
They can discuss any issue and make a profit from it. It means also, the readiness to find and grasp the needed information quickly and just in the nick of time, ask the right questions and work in a coherent and permanent matter with a clear understanding of the tasks, problems, and the vision of the future results.
For sure, when developers have good communication skills, they make their own suggestions, solutions and generate ideas. They are really interested in work and the benefits that it brings.
They integrate into any team smoothly, cooperate well and this, in turn, makes any team stronger and results better.
2.Ability to learn
This is a really important skill or better to say the quality. If you are looking for a developer or a programmer, no doubt, this is one of the most essential traits that the candidate must have.
That a well-known fact that more we learn, more able to solve different issues we become. We become smarter and more experienced at all.
All great people have a passion for learning new things and a good developer as well as a great one has a constant hunger of knowledge.
They learn new things, technologies and if they don’t know something they just google it or will not hesitate to ask others.
In general, such people find all resources and do everything in order to find a solution to the issue they have and achieve a result.
3.Time management
The third important skill is time management. This is the capability to organize and maintain the working space, provide proper planning of the work and projects, meet the right decisions on an appropriate workload and deadlines. This trait is the key either to an effective developer or any type of specialist, don’t you agree?
When they calculate their time and know how much time each task or issue will take they make a proper planning of their work, they will bring you just marvelous results and this makes them amazing.
4.Expertise
I’d recommend you to consider the expertise of a developer in technologies. Good developers are usually well-acquainted with different development methods as, for instance, Agile development. They have a solid knowledge as well as good or even excellent technical skills.
It is also remarkable that good developers usually write a clean and understandable code that everyone can understand when needed.
Good developers know almost all the pitfalls of the work and always ready to get to the work.
5.Final result and end-user
Very good developers always think about the end-user. They think about things and features that will help to work and make a product easier, more beautiful and effective at the same time, so the user will be happy to manage it.
And here is the place where the real magic is going on. Good developers create their products from the position of the user. They try to imagine them in the user’s shoes and push themselves to make more effective and creative decisions.
The special excitement when a developer starts solving the user’s problems before the product is even out. In this case, as a rule, you have a great benefit, you get both a loyal customer and an amazing product.
6.Positivity
How about positivity, eh? Is it essential for a developer? I guess it is. Positivity, as I consider, brings determination, dire of motivation and what is also important – inspiration.
When a developer does care about his/her work or the project when he/she has the fire in the eyes to create something really awesome and puts the heart and soul in the work it leads to the enormously great results.
Furthermore, such an attitude motivates others to work harder. So, this is how you can get the real monsters of the development in the company.
We have talked a little about good developers, now, let’s move to the great ones.
Great developers
Surely, great developers are rare-air birds, they are strong game-changers and these very things make them highly valuable.
They possess all the skills that good developers have, in addition, they can far more.
These guys breathe code, eat code, drink code. What do I mean? They have an enormous obsession with their job and it makes them learn more, gain more experience at any possible occasion.
They are the real giants of their craft and with the skills they have, every product or app, or project they create becomes a true masterpiece.
But, now let’s take a short look at the traits the differentiate a good developer from a great one.
1.Obsession for development
Yes, good developers are passionate to improve themselves too but the great ones are truly obsessed with learning and gaining experience, everywhere they can.
2.Intuition
Great developers have such a level of understanding of algorithms and software architecture that they can do the work using just intuition. They can find bugs, feel the problems and their location and find the solution to them just intuitively.
But don’t forget that this intuition is based on the constant improvement of the skills, solid knowledge and wide experience. This is how the can identify everything that required in a project at the first look at it.
3.Wider experience
Their field of expertise is far wider than in usual good developers. They are able to discuss and manage financial, communicational, technical and other issues. And of course, they will always find the rightest solution.
4.No supervision
The best thing, as I find, here is the great developers don’t need any supervision and control. They know what to do, they know their responsibilities and work nice and fair.
They work great either in teams or alone. The great developers take their job seriously and do everything as best as possible.
5.Leadership and mentoring
When such people work in a team, believe me, guys, it’s miraculous. They are true leaders and other developers get so much inspiration and motivation just by looking with them. Great developers lead others to really great results and what is also rather valuable they share their experience with pleasure and tech teammates and that, in turn, brings a permanent benefit.
By the way, if you need a good or even great developer, please, refer to our company AVA codes and we will be happy to help you with that.
Company’s values
Now, let’s move to a company’s values. I’m sure you’ve asked yourself what your company should have to get good and great developers in a team. I’ll give just a short overview of the values that will help to do so.
1.Open communication
When your company has free communication without formalities or fear to say something, your developers know what is going on around and what tasks they have – they become more creative, effective and focused.
2.Opportunity to learn and grow
This is one of the most crucial values that any company should have. When a specialist has the opportunity to grow, develop and improve his or her skills and knowledge he or she wants to stay in the company. That’s why it’s essential to provide lectures, training, books, courses where the level of professionalism can be boosted.
3.Recognition
Everyone wants to be appreciated and when a company shows that the work of a developer is good, it motivates them to work harder and better.
4.Strong team
When you come to the team of real professionals you feel inspired to work. You learn, grow, make friends and when you have this atmosphere of friendship instead of the competitive one all employees feel relaxed and concentrated on the tasks.
5.Work-life balance
The last but not less important value is a work-life balance. When your people know, they don’t need to work 12 hours a day but 6-8 it makes them happier. It is possible to maintain a personal life, employees become healthier and, as a result, more effective. Your people will truly like the company and be loyal to it.
Summary
To cut the long story short, I’ll just give the lists of the traits of a good and great developer and the list of company’s values, necessary to get and keep a specialist.
A good developer:
- communication skills;
- ability to learn;
- time management;
- expertise;
- final result and end-user;
- positivity.
A great developer, in addition to the above-noticed, also has:
- obsession for development;
- intuition;
- wider expertise
- no supervision;
- leadership and mentoring.
As for a company’s values:
- open communication;
- opportunity to learn and grow;
- recognition;
- strong team;
- work-life balance.
Thank you very much for reading! I hope, now you understand the difference between good and great developers.
If you are interested to read some more, please, check the rest of the articles here.
Thanks a lot and have a nice day/evening!
