Managing Director at Codete. Master of Law, a graduate of postgraduate studies at the University of Economics in Krakow. In his daily work, he masters the combination of business strategy and technology.

Artur Olechowski

<p>The global cloud computing market is on the rise. According to a recent report, it’s going to reach <a href="https://www.reportlinker.com/p05749258/Cloud-Computing-Market-by-Service-Deployment-Model-Organization-Size-Workload-Vertical-And-Region-Global-Forecast-to.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">$623.3 billion</a> by 2023. There are many reasons why more and more businesses are moving to the cloud. Many of them cite cost optimization, data security, and disaster prevention as their primary causes. But migrating to the cloud comes with some challenges too.</p><p>In this article, we dive deep into all of the most important advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing to show you why the solution has become so popular and what challenges it poses to teams looking to make the most of cloud-based resources and cloud services. Keep on reading if you want to find out whether or not your business should migrate to the cloud.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#intro">What is cloud computing?</a></li><li><a href="#prosandcons">Cloud computing advantages and disadvantages list</a></li><li><a href="#future">Is cloud computing the future of IT? Conclusion</a></li></ol><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="intro" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>What is cloud computing?</h2><p>Before we dive into the advantages and disadvantages of the solution, let’s first explain what cloud computing actually is.</p><p>Cloud computing involves the provisioning of computer resources, usually within a pay-as-you-go model. These resources may include virtual machines, data storage, service architectures, databases, managed container orchestrators, and many others.&nbsp;</p><p>Today, the cloud computing market is ruled by three major players: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure:</p><ul><li><strong>Amazon Web Services</strong> - AWS is probably the most well-known and largest cloud computing provider. It offers several almost 200 products for development teams on top of their computing and storage. These include AWS Lambda, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), or Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Engine (EKS).</li><li><strong>Google Cloud</strong> - This Google-run cloud computing service operates on the same infrastructure that powers Gmail, YouTube, the Google search engine, and other services. It offers compute, storage, and a suite of tools for team collaboration.</li><li><strong>Microsoft Azure </strong>- Developed by Microsoft, Azure supports various tools, languages, and frameworks. It allows teams to create, deploy, and manage applications. It’s particularly well known for offering specialized services such as data management, machine learning, and blockchain.</li></ul><p>Apart from these three big players, there’s a number of other cloud service providers such as Alibaba Cloud, the largest cloud computing in China, or Oracle Cloud, operated by the Oracle corporation and offering an Infrastructure as a Service solution for running and storing applications.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Types of cloud computing</h2><p>Cloud computing is constantly evolving, but we can distinguish four main types of cloud setups used by businesses today.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>1. Public cloud</h3><p>These services are offered by third-party providers over the public Internet, meaning that practically anyone can use them. Such services usually offer storage space and compute that is greatly scalable, allowing businesses to eliminate high costs since cloud providers are responsible for system management and maintenance. That way, companies don’t have to worry about running and maintaining their own data centers.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>2. Private cloud</h3><p>A private cloud is used by a single organization and is not publicly available. The idea is to prevent resources from being shared to achieve compliance and build a better security posture. That’s why it’s usually chosen by businesses that are subject to strict security regulations. Only authorized users will be able to access, use, and store data in the private cloud. However, this comes at a cost since the company owning the cloud needs to take care of both the hardware infrastructure and software (or outsource it to a third party).</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>3. Hybrid cloud</h3><p>A hybrid cloud is a combination of private and public clouds that enables sharing of data and applications. Thanks to this solution, companies gain more flexibility and have access to more deployment options. At the same time, they can use the private cloud to optimize their infrastructure and security. Naturally, building the bridge between the private and public clouds requires a lot of expertise in this type of integration.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>4. Multi-cloud</h3><p>Gartner revealed that <a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/why-organizations-choose-a-multicloud-strategy/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">81% of businesses</a> are reusing more than one cloud service provider. This doesn’t come as a surprise - while AWS offers great databases, Google is known for its machine learning capabilities. Companies looking to get access to the best-in-class services choose to go multi-cloud precisely because of that reason. But that’s not everything. Multi-cloud is about developing an infrastructure where engineers can take advantage of different services to optimize costs, prevent disasters, and achieve higher availability.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Quick guide to cloud services</h2><p>Cloud computing services come in different shapes and sizes, but you can roughly divide them into three different classes according to the abstraction level of capability offered.</p><h3>1. Infrastructure as a Service</h3><p>This offering involves virtualized resources such as storage, compute, and communication available on demand. Cloud infrastructure allows on-demand provisioning of servers running different operating systems and customized software. Infrastructure services are the bottom layer of cloud computing systems.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>2. Platform as a Service</h3><p>Apart from infrastructure-oriented clouds that offer computing services, here’s another approach: offering a high level of abstraction that makes the cloud easily programmable. This is known as Platform as a Service. A cloud platform provides an environment where developers can create and deploy applications. They don’t necessarily have to know how many processors or memory these applications will be using.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>3. Software as a Service</h3><p>Applications residing on top of the cloud are known as Software as a Service. These services are located in the layer that can be accessed by end-users through the Internet. That’s why consumers are more and more likely to use online software services instead of locally-installed computer programs. This model of delivering applications means that there’s no more burden of software maintenance for customers, which simplifies the development and testing.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="prosandcons" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Cloud computing advantages and disadvantages list</h2><h3>Benefits of cloud computing</h3><h4>1. Low upfront cost</h4><p>When picking a cloud computing service, you don’t have to worry about any cost associated with buying, setting up, and configuring servers or building a data center. This is the primary reason why so many businesses are migrating to the cloud today.&nbsp;</p><p>With a wide range of cloud-based services on offer, all it takes is selecting the right service provider. You only pay for the resources that you use and store in the cloud. This allows for a flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solution.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>2. High availability</h4><p>Major cloud providers offer complex infrastructures that comprise multiple data centers scattered across the entire world. Thanks to this immense infrastructure, they can create robust and scalable services that offer outstanding availability and SLAs.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>3. No management overhead</h4><p>Cloud computing minimizes the infrastructure required to serve the customers. This means that you don’t have to worry about managing it to deliver your products or services. As a result, engineers can focus on writing code and deploying it without having to engage with operations infrastructure in the process. As you can imagine, faster deployment means faster time to market for your new updates and product features.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>4. Faster time to market</h4><p>In the tech world, timing is everything. By using the cloud, teams can focus on what matters most: creating new products and solving customer problems instead of waiting for their IT teams to provision new resources. The cloud helps to reduce the deployment of new servers from days to minutes, bringing you a much faster time to market.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>5. Drive to innovation</h4><p>Cloud providers offer state-of-the-art IT resources developers can access as soon as they need, so the business gets ahead of the competition. Companies use cloud capabilities to respond to changes faster and at a lower cost, building truly agile businesses ready for the demands of the modern economy.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>6. Scalability</h4><p>As your business grows, you can easily scale your cloud computing solution so that it serves more of your users. You won’t have to deal with any overhead costs related to setting up and maintaining additional in-house servers.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>7. Better collaboration</h4><p>As remote work becomes the industry standard across many sectors and dispersed teams might work from different locations around the globe, using cloud-based solutions makes a lot of sense. By building your application in the cloud, you can provide employees with a robust and secure way to work together and exchange company data to become even more productive - even on the go.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Challenges of cloud computing</h3><h4>1. Initial migration costs might be high</h4><p>Switching to the cloud is cost-effective over the long term. But every cloud migration incurs some expenses. Pay attention to the following costs:</p><ul><li>network costs – for transferring your data to the cloud,</li><li>labor costs – to make sure that your applications are properly migrated,</li><li>synchronization costs - related to ensuring that your data in on-premises systems is synchronized with the data on the cloud server,</li><li>integration and application testing costs.</li></ul><p>Note: Some applications might not be as ready to move into the cloud as others – for example, they might need some extra testing.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>2. Building skills among developers</h4><p>Cloud providers generally try to make their solutions as easy to use as possible. However, your developers might still require some training to become fully proficient. And like every training, this involves both time and money. Training developers to use the cloud means that they will have less time to do their jobs. However, this is an investment with future gains on the horizon.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>3. Building a cloud infrastructure requires expertise</h4><p>You need to engage an expert before carrying out the cloud migration. This person or team will have the necessary experience and knowledge to guide you in the early stages of implementation up until its completion. Choosing between different providers is very difficult. For example, Amazon Web Services offers 400 different EC2 instances. How are you supposed to make sense of that without any experience in AWS?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>4. Downtime might still happen</h4><p>With the cloud, you lose control if downtime hits your cloud computing service provider. That said, make sure that your deployment architecture is built with the option of temporarily losing the data center. This is smart disaster prevention.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="future" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Is cloud computing the future of IT? Conclusion</h2><p>It’s safe to say that the most innovative projects happening in IT right now are in the cloud-native landscape. Containerization with tools like Kubernetes, DevOps trends and best practices like <internallink internallinkid="/blog/business-value-of-ci-cd">Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD)</internallink>, automation – they’re all here to help development teams become more efficient.</p><p><strong>If you would like to make a move to the </strong><internallink internallinkid="/blog/what-is-cloud-computing-software-development-benefits-and-challenges-for-business-owners"><strong>cloud environment</strong></internallink><strong> for your organization, team up with an expert consultant to guide you through the process and help you choose the best cloud solutions out there.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>At Codete, we have years of experience in providing advisory services to companies in need of cloud technology expertise and carrying out cloud migrations with cost efficiency in mind. <a href="/estimation" target="_blank">Get in touch</a> with us if you’re looking for help in building a truly modern business in the cloud.&nbsp;</p>

Key Cloud Computing Disadvantages and Advantages | Codete Blog

List of Most Important Cloud Computing Disadvantages and Advantages

IT Content Writer with 12 years of professional writing experience. Prefers facts and figures to any kind of fiction.

Dominika Reszke

<p>It may be called in many ways, and <strong>Storybook JS </strong>or StorybookJS are only some of its commonly used names. Some also refer to this tool as Storybook React or React Storybook, underlining the fact that it may support the React stack or library. It may be, however, used in other common development environments such as <a href="https://storybook.js.org/tutorials/intro-to-storybook/react/en/get-started/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Vue, Angular, Ember, and Svelte</a>. But, first and foremost, it is assigned to JavaScript, being a renowned JavaScript tool.</p><blockquote><p>Dubbed <a href="https://storybook.js.org/docs/react/get-started/examples" target="_blank">the world’s most popular component explorer</a>, Storybook JS is simply a tool proper for design systems or a button component library or repository. An all-purpose Storybook JS is just what modern – large and complex – web applications, as well as their creators, may need.&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>It helps front-end developers to document, manage and keep track of particular components and pages, being searchable easily. And, above all, Storybook JS is handy and effortless – that’s what its users often say, treating it as their everyday companion that <a href="https://storybook.js.org/tutorials/intro-to-storybook/react/en/get-started/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">runs alongside your app in development mode</a>.</p><p>By utilizing the Storybook, we may build user interfaces that are durable, flexible, and attractive. In general, with Storybook JS in the project, frontend development gets easier and more efficient. That’s crucial as using modular components for building user interfaces becomes more and more common. It's increasingly popular to create component driven UIs, meaning: starting with basic components and assembling them into screens. You can learn more about this design and development practice from its <a href="https://www.componentdriven.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">open source community website &gt;&gt;</a></p><p>But let’s shed a light on Storybook JS and see what exactly it is known and used for.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><p>1. <a href="#intro">Storybook JS in a nutshell – what it is and how can you use it?</a></p><p>2. <a href="#use">Storybook JS – why and how it’s being used</a></p><p>3. <a href="#summary">Storybook JS wrapped up</a></p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="intro" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>1. Storybook JS in a nutshell - what it is and how can you use it?</h2><p>What exactly is Storybook JS? <a href="https://storybook.js.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">According to its originators</a>,</p><blockquote><p>„Storybook is an open source tool for building UI components and pages in isolation. It streamlines UI development, testing, and documentation.”</p></blockquote><p>What’s important is that component implementation or user interface building can be done in isolation, without paying attention to things like existing data, business logic, or APIs. This makes <a href="https://storybook.js.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">developing states that are difficult to get to as well as edge cases</a> possible.&nbsp;</p><p>On the other hand, when you need to find a particular piece of information, use case, component or a page in your app, you may do so easily, using user-friendly navigation and the search bar provided.</p><p>That’s right, one of this tool’s major benefits is its comprehensivity, and multifunctionality, making UI building (but also testing and quality assurance) much smoother and well-organized. But the list of Storybook’s advantages is much longer. It meets the requirements of many developers and can certainly solve more than one problem.&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="use" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>2. Storybook JS – why and how it’s being used</h2><p>The basic advantage of using Storybook JS is that it brings logic, and order to managing and applying components. For this reason, a user interface design system and end applications, in general, tend to be more efficient, well-run, and flexible, doing good on various devices.&nbsp;</p><p>And such qualities may tip the scale and enable standing out among other UIs and other projects, e.g. when you aim to create a React app. Additionally, simple modular components Storybooks are broken into can be reused and revamped – many times and for multiple applications – as use cases are documented as stories.</p><p>Using Storybook JS helps to build top-tier UI or a React app at every stage and from the very first step. It also makes gathering feedback simple and <a href="https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-is-storybook-and-how-can-i-use-it-to-create-a-component-libary-in-react/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">documentation – easier to use</a>. <a href="https://storybook.js.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Other features</a> include addons array that customize teams’ workflow, availability of various ways of effortless testing (like visual test appearance, unit test functionality, and accessibility test), tools for searching and finding needed resources, as well as the possibility to share components across screens and apps, export default title and generate UI docs automatically.</p><p>Storybook examples cover a plethora of industries and types of businesses, regardless of their size and years of market presence. These are commonly known brands and household names as well as ambitious beginners and open-source endeavors.&nbsp;</p><p>According to <a href="https://storybook.js.org/docs/react/get-started/examples" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Storybook JS’s official website</a>, they include such leading teams as those of <a href="https://react.ui.audi/?path=/story/introduction--page" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Audi</a>, <a href="https://gitlab-org.gitlab.io/gitlab-ui/?path=/story/base-accordion--default" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">GitLab</a>, <a href="http://lonelyplanet.github.io/backpack-ui/?path=/story/styles--design-tokens" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Lonely Planet</a>, and <a href="http://airbnb.io/react-dates/?path=/story/daterangepicker-drp--default" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Airbnb</a>, to name but a few. Moreover, the component-driven methodology is utilized in the media, with <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/opensource/projects/psammead" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">BBC’s Component Library</a> called <a href="https://github.com/bbc/psammead" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Psammead</a> as the most prominent example.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="summary" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>3. Storybook JS wrapped up</h2><p>If you don’t know Storybook software or Storybook JS yet, it’s certainly worth paying attention to. It supports React, Vue, and Angular, to name a few, and for many front-end developers, it actually turned out to be a game-changer in their day-to-day jobs. It makes a lot of daily tasks well-organized, and results in better time management.</p><p>Importantly, we may keep parts of our work for future reference, and find needed components (e.g. React components needed for building a React app) or pages easily, thanks to search bars and libraries available. We may also keep track of UI edge cases and reuse stories created beforehand, for performing automated tests.</p><p>It’s also worth mentioning that component-driven user interfaces are something more and more common as they make the workflow of UI designers or front-end developers, in general, smoother, easier, faster, more efficient, and more pleasant. And let’s not forget that Storybook JS is a JavaScript tool, and the latter certainly belongs to immensely popular <a href="https://www.pluralsight.com/tech-index" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">top technologies for software development</a>.</p><p><strong>And you, what other Storybook JS use examples can you recall? When do you find applying this tool the most useful? Which benefits and features are the most attractive to you in day-to-day work?</strong></p>

What Is Storybook JS & How Can You Use It Best | Codete Blog

What Is Storybook JS and How Can You Use It?

Paweł Dyrek

<p>As technology trends come and go, developers are always looking for new tools and frameworks that promise to help them bring products to life faster. It doesn't matter whether you're a pro developer or just a beginner; you’re probably searching for app development tools that accelerate the development process and make you write as little code as possible.</p><blockquote><p><strong>&nbsp;</strong>According to <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/1729/app-stores/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>Statista</u></a>, 83% of businesses today launch apps in the Google Play Store, and 59% of companies develop Apple App Store applications. The Android and iOS operating systems are leaders in the mobile development scene today.</p></blockquote><p>However, developing a native Android and iOS application can be costly. That's why more and more companies consider cross-platform mobile app development solutions. They’re here to help developers accelerate the process by using a single code base, implement testing quickly, and target more significant sections of the market by developing for both Android and iOS at the same time.</p><p>&nbsp;So, which cross-platform tools should you consider exploring in 2021? Continue reading to find out.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#reactnative">React Native</a></li><li><a href="#flutter">Flutter</a></li><li><a href="#xamarin">Xamarin</a></li><li><a href="#othertools">Other tools</a></li></ol><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="reactnative" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>React Native</h2><p>A top choice among cross-platform frameworks, React Native was launched by Facebook in 2015 and quickly gained appreciation among developers working with JavaScript. React Native is based on JavaScript and offers an excellent toolset to develop enterprise-level applications.</p><p>According to <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/869224/worldwide-software-developer-working-hours/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>Statista</u></a>, 42% of developers considered developing applications with React Native because it allows writing modules in major native languages that include Java, Swift, Objective-C, Python, and C++. In addition, designing an app with React Native is faster and more comfortable for developers since it's an open-source framework and allows reusing the codebase during app development.</p><p><strong>Popular applications built with React Native: Facebook, Walmart, Bloomberg, Instagram.</strong>&nbsp;</p><h3>Pros of React Native</h3><ul><li>It helps to speed up the development process because developers can create applications for two platforms using only one codebase. This saves both time and money.</li><li>React Native is surrounded by a large community that offers plenty of support and learning materials.</li><li>React Native has a set of components that simply know how to display the app on a given platform.</li><li>It allows developers to focus on building applications without going into the details of each platform. As a result, the process of building apps is far more stable and tolerant of discrepancies between platforms (differences may arise when you're dealing with two separate code bases).</li><li>React Native offers a rich ecosystem of tools, libraries, and packages. And many of them are used strictly for cross-platform programming.</li><li>React Native is equipped with mechanisms that allow easy integration with an already existing native application.</li></ul><h3>Cons of React Native</h3><ul><li>React Native is a cross-platform technology, not a native solution. This means that the framework creates communication mechanisms between JavaScript and the native world. That's why applications built with React Native might be slower when compared to native applications.</li><li>React Native supports only the basic components out-of-the-box. And many of them are adaptive to a given platform out-of-the-box (think buttons, loading indicators, sliders).</li><li>Apps built with React Native might end up larger than native ones.</li><li>React Native offers weaker support for Android.</li></ul><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="flutter" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Flutter&nbsp;</h2><p>Created by Google in 2018, Flutter is currently the most popular cross-platform technology next to React Native. It comes with a completely different rendering approach that allows developers to run the development process very quickly. Moreover, it supports native out-of-the-box design for both Android and iOS. Flutter is based on the Dart language, which is less popular than JavaScript - this means that you're also dealing with a smaller number of libraries and smaller community than React Native.</p><p><strong>Popular apps built with Flutter: Google Ads, Xianyu app (from Alibaba), Hamilton app (created for the Broadway show).</strong>&nbsp;</p><h3>Pros of Flutter</h3><ul><li>It helps developers write code much faster.</li><li>It includes hot reload, which means that the changes applied to the code can be seen right away. This helps to fix bugs faster.</li><li>Developers get one codebase for two applications that cover the Android and iOS platforms.</li><li>The Quality Assurance process is faster as well because of a single codebase. This means developers can write automated tests easily while developing the app.</li><li>Flutter allows building high-performing applications that offer an excellent user experience thanks to unique design and widgets. You can easily create your own widgets or customize the existing ones to give your app an attractive look.</li><li>Moreover, Flutter delivers the same UI on all devices, so you don't have to worry about how the end-users will see your app.</li></ul><h3>Cons of Flutter</h3><ul><li>Flutter is still in the early years of its development. As a result, it's surrounded by a much smaller community than React Native.</li><li>It also doesn’t have a rich ecosystem of tools and libraries.</li><li>The support for continuous integration might be problematic.</li></ul><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="xamarin" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Xamarin&nbsp;</h2><p>The oldest framework we mentioned in this article, Xamarin, is based on Microsoft’s technology - the .NET framework - and the C# programming language. When developing mobile apps with Xamarin, developers can share 75% of the source code when building for iOS and Android.</p><p><strong>Popular apps built with Xamarin: Microsoft Azure, Microsoft News, Alaska Airlines.</strong>&nbsp;</p><h3>Pros of Xamarin</h3><ul><li>Developers can easily build applications without compromising on their quality. They can take advantage of Xamarin to build native apps that use platform-specific APIs and hardware features with native user interfaces.</li><li>Xamarin also brings you time savings. It streamlines development tasks and enables rapid prototyping so that you can save a lot of time in the development process.</li><li>Maintenance and updates are simpler in Xamarin.</li><li>An excellent technology for delivering fast results.</li></ul><h3>Cons of Xamarin</h3><ul><li>Xamarin is free for small organizations and individuals, but large enterprises need to invest in Microsoft’s Visual Studio license that can be quite expensive.</li><li>Xamarin doesn't work well for applications with heavy graphics, and every operating system has its way of visualizing content.</li></ul><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="othertools" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Other cross-platform development tools you should know&nbsp;</h2><h3>1. Ionic</h3><p>Ionic is surrounded by a strong community and many libraries for native components. Developers can use it to build high-performing applications for Android and iOS. More and more teams are using Ionic to build progressive web applications too. Some popular use cases include MarketWatch and McDonald's.&nbsp;</p><h3>2. Apache Cordova</h3><p>Just like React Native and Flutter, Apache Cordova is an open-source mobile development framework that allows building apps for multiple operating systems. It uses HTML 5, CSS, and JavaScript for development so developers can submit their applications to any mobile operating system.</p><p>You can quickly create applications with a lot of features thanks to standard web technologies and plugins. It's owned by Adobe and currently used by 157 companies. Apache Cordova gives developers access to native resources such as messages, geolocation, network, and much more. It’s a cost-effective technology that takes advantage of native features. Major use cases include Walmart, JustWatch, and Buildr.&nbsp;</p><h3>3. Solar2D (previously Corona SDK)&nbsp;</h3><p>Solar2D is a free cross-platform framework that developers use to build gaming apps that require high-quality graphics. It's a cross-platform framework that simplifies the development of gaming apps for mobile, desktop, and TV devices. The framework is friendly to both beginners and pros.&nbsp;</p><h3>4. Appcelerator</h3><p>Appcelerator is a rapid prototyping tool that allows developers to get a solution to the market faster. Appcelerator has recently become a common choice for cross-platform development. It allows building native apps much faster than other technologies.</p><p>It also provides access to different API service features via Hyperloop that enables developers to use the APIs of iOS and Android with JavaScript directly. Teams can reuse 90% of the code across platforms to make the process faster. Major use cases include The Body Shop and Comerica Bank.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Conclusion&nbsp;</h2><p>We hope that this list helps you decide which cross-platform technologies are worth pursuing in 2021.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Are you planning to learn one of them this year? Did we forget to mention any frameworks or SDKs? Which one are you going to use in your next project? Share your thoughts in the comments section – we look forward to starting a conversation about cross-platform tools critical to the growth of the mobile development landscape.</strong></p><p>And if you’re a mobile developer on the lookout for new job opportunities - we’ve got plenty of exciting roles open. Feel free to check out our <a href="/career" target="_blank">Codete career page &gt;</a></p>

Best Cross-Platform App Development Tools in 2021 | Codete Blog

Best Cross-Platform App Development Tools in 2021

IT consulting and software development company. Since 2010, we’ve been supporting businesses worldwide in gaining competitive advantage by means of modern technology. We advise on digitalization, develop and implement high-quality solutions, and augment our clients’ teams with skilled software developers.

Codete

<p>One of the key factors behind the popularity of Angular as a web development framework has always been its adaptability and flexibility. It’s only natural for open-source technologies to change at an increasing pace given that such a huge community of developers is willing to contribute to its growth. Led by the Angular Team at Google, the framework is becoming more and more popular with each new version.&nbsp;</p><p>So, what can developers expect to get in the latest version of Angular - Angular 12? Read on to find out.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:&nbsp;</p><ol><li><a href="#intro">What's the latest Angular version?</a></li><li><a href="#newfeatures">Angular 12 new features</a></li><li><a href="#summary">Summary of all latest Angular version new features</a></li></ol><p>&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="intro" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>What's the latest Angular version?</h2><p>The team behind Angular practically releases a new major version of this incredibly widespread TypeScript-based web framework every six months. The latest iterations are Angular 12 released in May 2021 and Angular 12.1 that arrived on June 24. The new version of Angular fixes a lot of things and adds support for the compiler.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="newfeatures" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Angular 12 new features</h2><h3>1. Improvements in CSS</h3><p>Developers can now use Sass inline in the styles field of the <code>@Component</code> decorator. If this sounds interesting to you, note that you first need to enable this behavior by adding <code>"inlineStyleLanguage": "scss”</code> to the <code>angular.jsonconfig</code> file.</p><p>Angular CDK and Angular Material now internally adopted the Sass new module system. So, if your app uses Angular CDK or Angular Material, you need to switch from node-sass to the sass npm package. The node-sass package is not maintained anymore and doesn’t keep up with the new feature additions to the Sass language.</p><p>When updating to Angular 12, applications will automatically switch to the new Sass API - all it takes is updating the application with the ng update. The command refactors any Sass <code>@import</code> statements for Angular CDK and Angular Material code.</p><p>Another novelty is support for Tailwind CSS. Now supported by Angular CLI natively, Tailwind can be installed with <code>npm install -D tailwindcss</code>. All that’s left now is creating a TailwindCSS configuration file in your workspace (or project root) - and you’re done! You can now use Tailwind classes throughout your project.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>2. Browser extension for Angular DevTools&nbsp;</h3><p>One of the most commonly used browser extensions for debugging Angular applications is Augury. It has served developers for a good few years by now. But with Angular 12, you get something new: the Angular DevTools, a Chrome DevTools extension developers can use to inspect the structure of their application and profile its performance.</p><p>Take a look at the Angular DevTools and you’ll see that it all starts with a component tree view that shows all of the component inputs, outputs, and class properties. You can edit component properties manually in the dev tools and see the results live in your browser. This is the fastest and easiest way to test multiple scenarios in an application.</p><p>The second tab is a profiler that records different use cases of the application and allows developers to check the impact of these scenarios on their application’s performance. The profiler also indicates how much time is dedicated to which component or directive at every step of the way. This will help teams a lot in troubleshooting performance issues.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>3. New version of TypeScript&nbsp;</h3><p>Angular 12 uses TypeScript 4.2. What does this mean for developers? That they get to benefit from all the recent improvements added to this language like:</p><ul><li>Enhanced type alias preservation,</li><li>Stricter checks for the in Operator,</li><li>Breaking changes,</li><li>More relaxed rules between Optional Properties and String Index Signatures.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>4. Availability of the Nullish Coalescing operator in templates</h3><p>The Nullish Coalescing operator is now available in Angular HTML templates. What does this mean? That&nbsp; a complex expression like this one:</p><p><code>{{ value!== null &amp;&amp; value !== undefined ? value : defaultValue }}</code></p><p>Can now be simplified into:</p><p><code>{{ value ?? defaultValue }}</code></p><p>This added simplicity is going to help developers accelerate the speed of coding, become more efficient, and get faster at reviewing or debugging code.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>5. Deprecation of the View Engine</h3><p>Angular is getting rid of the View Engine - it’s going to be removed in a future major release. The current libraries using View Engine will still work with Ivy apps, so developers don’t get any extra workload related to this change. However, the authors of these libraries do because they need to figure out how to transition to Ivy.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>6. Transition from Legacy i18n Message IDs</h3><p>At the moment, Angular has multiple legacy message ID formats used in the i18n system. But they tend to cause problems related to the whitespace, formatting templates, and ICU expressions. To solve this issue, the Angular Team decided to migrate away from them.&nbsp;</p><p>Now the new canonical message ID format is more resilient and intuitive. It helps to reduce the unnecessary translation invalidation and retranslation cost in applications in which translations might not match because of things like whitespace changes.</p><p>Since version 11 of Angular, new projects are configured to use the new message IDs automatically. Angular now introduced the tooling to migrate the existing projects with existing translations.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>7. The future Protractor isn’t clear yet</h3><p>The Angular Team is now working with the community to determine the future of Protractor. For now, it’s not included in new projects where you get some options provided by popular third-party solutions in the Angular CLI. Angular works with Cypress, WebdriverIO, and TestCafe to help developers adopt these alternatives.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>8. Learning Angular will be easier</h3><p>The team is always busy improving the learning experience for developers looking to fine-tune their Angular skills. That’s why the documentation is being improved as well. For example, the team behind Angular wrote a <a href="https://v12.angular.io/guide/content-projection" target="_blank"><u>content projection guide</u></a> and added a helpful <a href="https://angular.io/guide/contributors-guide-overview" target="_blank"><u>contributor’s guide</u></a> to help the community members wishing to improve the docs.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>9. Running ng build defaults to production&nbsp;</h3><p>This is a huge time saving for new v. 12 projects! Developers can skip a few steps and avoid accidental development builds in production. Note that this feature works only for new projects and Angular tooling doesn’t provide any automatic migrations.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>10. Strict mode enabled by default in the CLI</h3><p>Why is that important? Strict mode helps to identify errors earlier in the development cycle. So, developers have an easier time writing code and can accelerate the process confidently.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>11. Support for Webpack 5</h3><p>In Angular 11, the team added experimental support for Webpack 5. Now, Angular has a production-ready version of Webpack 5 support.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>12. Support for IE11 is deprecated</h3><p>Angular keeps up with the evolving web ecosystem, so it’s only natural that it removes support for legacy browsers and focuses on supporting modern solutions that are most relevant to developers and end-users. Angular will include a new deprecation warning message, and the team will remove support for IE11 in Angular 13.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="summary" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Summary of all latest Angular version new features</h2><p>As you can see, the Angular Team is on the right track in providing developers with a framework that supports them in every project. This host of new features makes using Angular even easier and builds upon the core strengths that led it to the forefront of web development technologies.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Are you planning to use Angular 12 in a new project? Have you used Angular before? What do you think about these new features?&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Share your thoughts in the comments; we look forward to hearing from developers and team leaders on where they think Angular will go next.</p>

Latest Angular Version - What’s New in Angular 12? | Codete Blog

Latest Angular Version - What’s New in Angular 12?

<p>Meet one of the well-known oppositions in the world of API development: <strong>GraphQL vs REST</strong>.</p><p>GraphQL and REST are both popular API design standards with different histories and not quite in line with each other at present. They are certainly not equivalent nor interchangeable, and they both have their avid supporters and opponents among very experienced as well as junior software developers.</p><p>The answer to the question which one is better is, of course: <i>well, it depends.</i></p><p>Trying to figure it out is equally pointless as deliberating on which came first: the chicken or the egg? ;) But it’s good to outline what they are exactly, learn the differences between them, as well as determine <i>who</i> should use them and <i>when</i> to their greatest advantage depending on the project type. And that’s just what we’re going to do in this blog post.</p><p><br>Table of contents:</p><p>1. <a href="#lowdown">REST vs GraphQL – the lowdown</a></p><p>2. <a href="#graphql">GraphQL – who should consider using it?</a></p><p>3. <a href="#rest">REST – why it’s still most developers’ favorite</a></p><p>4. <a href="#wrapup">GraphQL vs REST API wrapped up</a></p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="lowdown" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>GraphQL vs REST – the lowdown</h2><p>Now it’s time to introduce the main subjects of this article, and we’ll start taking seniority into account.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>REST - the API design legend</h3><p>Undoubtedly, it’s REST that is a true legend that’s been used immensely for over two decades and we can say that it's quite the industry standard. Since its beginnings that <a href="https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>date back to 2000</u></a>, REST (name abbreviated from Representational State Transfer and made for <a href="https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>distributed hypermedia systems</u></a>) has provided a set of guidelines for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>designing and developing the architecture for the Web</u></a>.</p><p>REST is something that defines what resources are and how to access them, and API – standing for Application Programming Interfaces – is what makes access to those resources possible. And according to the REST architectural style originator Roy Fielding, resource means <a href="https://restfulapi.net/" target="_blank"><u>any piece of information that can be named</u></a>.</p><p><i>PS For more info on Roy Fielding himself, you can check out his </i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Fielding" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><i><u>Wikipedia bio</u></i></a><i>.</i></p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>GraphQL - the most recent mainstream alternative to REST</h3><p>However, the times when REST managed to gain this dominant position were very different from what we may observe today, when communication needs are way more complex, and when there’s a need for speed and diversity. And now, GraphQL is gaining popularity and attention due to its flexibility, modernity, efficiency, and swiftness (often much more impressive than those of REST).</p><p>In detail, <a href="https://graphql.org/" target="_blank"><u>according to its website</u></a>, GraphQL is „a query language for APIs and a runtime for fulfilling those queries with your existing data. GraphQL provides a complete and understandable description of the data in your API, gives clients the power to ask for exactly what they need and nothing more, makes it easier to evolve APIs over time, and enables powerful developer tools”.</p><p>Interestingly, GraphQL’s public release took place in 2015, although it was developed internally by Facebook in 2012 (you can read more about it on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GraphQL" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>GraphQL's Wikipedia</u></a>). A few years later, GraphQL was called <a href="https://leapgraph.com/rest-api-alternatives/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>the most mature alternative to REST</u></a>.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="graphql" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>GraphQL – who should consider using it?</h2><p>Who should consider using GraphQL, then?</p><p>A GraphQL API will be a good choice when you’re trying to solve the <strong>over-fetching</strong> or <strong>under-fetching</strong> problem, and, for some reason, query parameters are not enough and won’t do. It may also be a good choice when you’re building an API that will be consumed only by the web service end user and not other services in the microservice architecture.</p><p>GraphQL is also distinguished by the simplicity of use for the client, as well as its „additional complexity on the server”. On top of that, Codegram calls GraphQL „a declarative and hierarchal way to fetch data, with just one endpoint to rule them all”. And <strong>single endpoints</strong> from which clients fetch data in response to any API request to the server is certainly a plus.</p><p>Other benefits of GraphQL APIs include: scalability, efficiency, and easy error handling. That's a few reasons why it is often chosen for microservices. And, because it is suitable for quick iteration cycles, it’s also good for many use cases that adapt Agile approaches like Scrum.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="rest" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>REST – why it’s still most developers’ favorite</h2><p>But REST APIs are certainly not out of competition, yet.</p><p>In general, this simple and easy-to-start-with classic API standard is OK if you don’t want to reinvent the wheel with request options and error codes. It may also be more proper when you want your API to be <strong>generic</strong> instead of adapted or tailored to particular use cases. Also, because this technology is <strong>more popular</strong>, and more developers are working with it, it’s easier to get access to this developer experience pool and pick somebody skilled and seasoned enough in case you need more information on best practices or help with solving particular problems.</p><p>There are some constraints, though, and the most serious one is related to the scale of the project. The REST architecture may simply be hard to manage as the architecture gets bigger and more complex.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="wrapup" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>GraphQL vs REST API wrapped up</h2><p>While it’s impossible to clearly indicate which part of the REST API vs GraphQL opposition is superior, we may say what needs those particular API design standards will be the best for.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Pros, cons &amp; use cases of REST and GraphQL</h3><p>REST may be very handy in many cases as <a href="https://www.moesif.com/blog/technical/graphql/REST-vs-GraphQL-APIs-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>no initialization or libraries are needed</u></a> for pros who work with someone else’s API. And GraphQL may turn out to be better in the case of more complex projects and architecture. Besides, it <a href="https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/api/what-is-graphql" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>offers features that are not available via REST</u></a> – through numerous open-source GraphQL extensions.</p><p>But GraphQL is not an answer to every issue, and REST – simple and easy to start with – still has its role to play. And let’s not forget that GraphQL REST is not the only opposition here as there are more modern REST substitutes in the API design standards category. Some of the most interesting GraphQL alternatives include, for example: FALCOR, JSON-Pure, WebSocket, SOAP, and RPC (you can read more about SOAP and RPC in <a href="https://blog.bitsrc.io/not-all-microservices-need-to-be-rest-3-alternatives-to-the-classic-41cedbf1a907" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>Fernando Doglio's article</u></a>).</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>And which API design standard do you prefer for your projects? Is REST still the first choice for you? In turn, who should consider using GraphQL? Is there any other API design standard you’d recommend to API developers?</strong></p>

GraphQL vs REST | Choose The Right API Design | Codete Blog

GraphQL vs REST. Which API Design Should You Choose?

CTO at Codete. In 2015, he received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Fundamental Technological Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His area of expertise is artificial intelligence.

Karol Przystalski

<p>One of the most common misconceptions about the software developer's work is that it's a <i>solitary</i> job. Just like in many other undertakings, teamwork is an essential element in a software development project. A great team helps to solve programming issues faster and more efficiently. Moreover, team members can learn from each other – that goes especially for pair programming sessions.&nbsp;</p><p>In this article, we explore the practice of pair programming to show you its pros and cons and share some best practices that have proven to be valuable to our development teams.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#intro">What is pair programming?</a></li><li><a href="#pros">Pros of pair programming</a></li><li><a href="#cons">Cons of pair programming</a></li><li><a href="#bestpractices">Pair programming best practices</a></li></ol><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="intro" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>What is pair programming?&nbsp;</h2><p>Pair programming is a practice in software development where two developers collaborate in a single workstation at the same time. This collaboration can be done either remotely or in person. If it's the former, programmers will need special software that allows screen sharing and real-time editing to make it all work.</p><h3>How does pair programming work?&nbsp;</h3><p>When programming in a pair, developers take two alternating roles. While one programmer is <i>the driver</i> who writes the code, the other serves as <i>the navigator</i> who reviews the code and provides the former with all the key instructions and information.&nbsp;</p><p>The idea is to switch these roles at regular intervals that can last from 15 minutes to 1 hour.&nbsp;</p><p>While some companies adopt pair programming, others refuse to consider it. That's because pair programming is a practice that comes with some incredible advantages but also disadvantages you should consider before implementing it in your team.&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="pros" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Pros of pair programming</h2><h3>1. Fewer bugs and mistakes</h3><p>When software developers work alone, they can fall victim to many problems. Tunnel vision or stubbornness in using a specific method for solving a problem – these are just the tip of the iceberg. They might get stuck while trying to fix a bug based on an incorrect assumption. They might have gaps in knowledge or simply make some typos.&nbsp;</p><p>In pair programming, two developers are forced to work as a team. And another pair of eyes looking at the code automatically adds more quality control to the process of its writing. Both developers use their shared knowledge and experience to solve problems faster, even immediately after they arise. According to a study from the University of Utah, code developed during pair programming comes with <a href="https://collaboration.csc.ncsu.edu/laurie/Papers/XPSardinia.PDF" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>15% fewer defects</u></a>.&nbsp;</p><p>Having a partner with you while you code also allows practicing techniques like <i>rubber duck debugging</i>. This method of debugging assumes that you explain your code in the simplest terms, line by line – as if explaining it to a cute rubber duck that just isn't very proficient in coding. This allows the partner to easily identify your biases or misconceptions and help you get back on track quicker.&nbsp;</p><h3>2. Greater resilience</h3><p>Every software development team should consider this factor in their projects:</p><p><i>If a person gets hit by a bus (or needs to suddenly depart from the project for another – perhaps more realistic – reason) what will happen to the project? Is there any valuable technical knowledge that would be lost forever with that person gone just because they're the only person on the team who has it?&nbsp;</i></p><p>Pair programming eliminates this concern because it means that at least two people will become very familiar with some part of the codebase. The information will never live with only one person, which helps to prevent unexpected project disruptions or delays due to staff turnover.&nbsp;</p><h3>3. Improved code quality</h3><p>When sharing best practices with each other, developers get to increase the overall quality of the code. Moreover, when a developer needs to be accountable to their partner, they're less likely to take any shortcuts or use hacks.&nbsp;</p><p>Pair programming is a practice that encourages team members to build robust solutions that won't create any unexpected bugs later on and minimize technical debt.&nbsp;</p><h3>4. Faster training</h3><p>In pair programming, the partners are usually two mid-level/senior developers, or one seasoned coder and one junior developer. In the latter scenario, pair programming makes for an excellent opportunity for junior or new team members who can pick up a wealth of insights from their more experienced colleagues. As you can imagine, this accelerates the onboarding process as well.&nbsp;</p><h3>5. Better team morale</h3><p>Pair programming is an opportunity to talk to someone else on the project. Your partner can empathize with you and help you solve problems, so you're never stuck in your brain the entire day. That's why pair programming makes the entire team more productive and happier.&nbsp;</p><p>According to one survey, <a href="http://sunnyday.mit.edu/16.355/williams.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>96% of developers</u></a> who practice pair programming at work say that they enjoy their job more than when programming alone.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="cons" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Cons of pair programming</h2><h3>1. Higher development costs</h3><p>The idea of having two developers working on a single task at the same time seems like a waste of valuable resources. It's true that when practicing pair programming, these team members aren't going to complete a project in half the time.&nbsp;</p><p>However, the overhead introduced by this practice balances out thanks to the higher quality of code and better final results. You might pay more up-front, but you can recover that investment over the lifetime of your project because your team will spend much less time on maintaining the codebase and fixing bugs.&nbsp;</p><h3>2. Sustainability</h3><p>It's common knowledge that pair programming is unsustainable enough to be practiced all the time. The perfect amount of time developers can spend on pair programming is around 2 to 2.5 hours (including breaks).&nbsp;</p><p>To break up the intensity of pair programming, you can simply switch to another project or get a new partner. This helps developers to keep their minds fresh and confront their work with a new pair of eyes.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="bestpractices" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Best practices for pair programming</h2><h3>1. When should you get started with pair programming?&nbsp;</h3><p>The truth is that every team does pair programming to some extent, even if it doesn't admit to it. Almost every developer out there has a tendency to call others for help when they're stuck on a complex piece of code. That's a form of pair programming as well.&nbsp;</p><p>We already said that pair programming helps to solve complex problems faster – so why can't we apply it all of the time? It's just <i>not sustainable</i> over long periods.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>If you'd like to get started in pair programming, it's better to do it slowly. For example, during the next sprint, you can try to pair program around 50% of your time. You can also try most programming on specific story points. That way, your next retrospective becomes an opportunity to evaluate your experience in pair programming.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>If it works for you, you can start defining the pairing agreement within the team. When doing that, answer these questions:</p><ul><li>For how long will developers be paired?</li><li>How will the pairs be organized?</li><li>How will you distribute stories?</li><li>When should developers switch between the roles of the driver and navigator?</li></ul><h3>2. For how long should developers pair up?&nbsp;</h3><p>While in some teams, developers switch pairs every day for half a day, others have completely different approaches. In general, spreading knowledge across all the members of the team is a good practice. However, it doesn't always work as well as we wish. That's because it takes some time for the story lead to onboard partners on the story's objectives and tasks. That's why finishing a story might take slightly more time.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Here's one best practice: switching pairs on a weekly or story basis. You can do that during the sprint – like the mid-sprint planning meeting. That way, you make sure that no pair of developers work together for more than one week.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Another option is switching pairs after closing the story. For example, if during the daily standup developers say that they're close to finishing their story, they could also ask if any pair is interested in switching the partners.&nbsp;</p><p>Changing pairs frequently is important for many reasons. It creates a stronger bond between team members and reduces the chance of any conflicts that might emerge when two developers spend too much time working together.</p><h3>4. When is the best time to plan pairing?&nbsp;</h3><p>If your team follows the Scrum methodology, the best candidates for pair planning are the sprint planning and sprint review meetings. Once you go over all the pending stories in the sprint, you can agree on the pairs and assign story points to each pair.</p><h3>5. Keep things moving</h3><p>Ship code as frequently as possible. This is a general best practice that doesn't go only for pair programming.</p><p>Make sure that the pairing is dynamic by switching between the navigator and the driver frequently. If you don't do this, you risk losing the navigator's focus and engagement in the story. Writing code in pairs can be an excellent incentive for team members to switch between the driver and navigator frequently, especially when your developers are paired remotely.</p><h3>6. Update everyone on stories</h3><p>It's a good idea to keep an up-to-date document shared between all the team members that includes all of the story information. This document can be in the form of a word document, SharePoint, a to-do list, or even a mind map. The important thing is that you share this information with the entire team.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>Wrap up</h4><p>Pair programming isn't a brand-new practice. It's been around in the software development industry for decades. While for some organizations, pair programming doesn't fit well, others find that it brings them many benefits, including higher quality code, better training, and faster onboarding. As long as everyone in the team is working together towards the same goal, pair programming is a good idea.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Do you know any other benefits or challenges of pair programming? Did we miss anything here?&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Give us a shout-out in the comments and share your stories of pair programming. Did pair programming help you become a better developer? Did it teach you some important skills? We're very curious to learn how the practice of pair programming impacts anything from a developer's daily life to career development.</p>

Pair Programming: Pros, Cons, Best Practices

<p>Software development teams use many various project management methodologies today. Picking the right one might be difficult when they all have their pros and cons.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>In this article, we explore and compare the three most commonly used approaches: Kanban, Scrum, and Scrumban. By the end of this article, you will have a clear idea about what each can bring into your project and whether it's a good candidate for your team.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Ready to dive into the most common project management methods in the tech industry? Let's get started.</p><p>Here's the table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#kanban">Kanban: about, pros &amp; cons</a></li><li><a href="#scrum">Scrum: about, pros &amp; cons</a></li><li><a href="#scrumban">Scrumban: about, pros &amp; cons</a></li></ol><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="kanban" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>What is Kanban?&nbsp;</h2><p>It might come as a surprise, but Kanban is actually a <i>manufacturing system</i> developed by Toyota in Japan many years ago. In Japanese, Kanban is translated as “signboard” or “billboard”. The method uses visual cues that communicate what is to be produced, when, and by how much.&nbsp;</p><p>Today, the Kanban methodology finds many uses in software development and business teams. It's a great method for creating and delivering both products and services. The learning curve is flat, and Kanban allows teams to stay flexible in production by adding no extra complexity to their processes.&nbsp;</p><h3>How does Kanban work?&nbsp;</h3><p>Kanban is based on visualizing the workflow in the form of a board with cards that are sorted into columns. Every column on the board represents a different step in the workflow, and each card represents a different task or work item.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>The main idea of Kanban is to establish maximum items for each stage. That way, you make sure that your team isn't multitasking too much. By limiting the work in progress, you can quickly identify problems in your flow and resolve them before they become serious.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>In Kanban, what you manage is how work items move through the production process. Instead of micromanaging team members, managers focus on understanding the work process and removing bottlenecks.&nbsp;</p><p>Kanban also assumes that you formalize the rules for moving cards from one column to another – for example, the conditions a card needs to meet to be transitioned from <i>In progress</i> to the <i>Done</i> column. This method helps to improve work gradually, so your team handles small changes instead of being trumped by an entirely new workflow.</p><h3>Pros of Kanban</h3><ul><li>It keeps everyone on the same page.</li><li>It's flexible in production due to being event-driven, not time-boxed.</li><li>You can easily remove tasks from the to-do list or add new ones, whereas in Scrum, you can't do that until the sprint is finished.</li><li>Kanban is a great method for identifying bottlenecks in your workflow - you can see which column contains the most cards to tell which stage of the work slows the delivery process down.</li><li>The gentle learning curve of Kanban is another important advantage. It's incredibly easy to adopt and doesn't require any role changes or new roles like Scrum Master.</li></ul><h3>Cons of Kanban</h3><ul><li>Kanban doesn't perform so well in scenarios where team members share resources. For example, a marketing team and a software development team might share one graphic designer. While the former needs marketing materials, the latter wants UI design. When both teams face increased demand, it's hard for the designer to prioritize their work. Both projects can get blocked.</li><li>Kanban assumes that your workflow is stable.</li><li>The methodology is not flexible enough to accommodate mixing different products and flow changes in the delivery.</li></ul><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="scrum" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>What is Scrum?</h2><p>Scrum is a framework that helps to address complex problems and finish tasks on time. The Scrum methodology took its name from the rugby formation where all the players pack closely together and try to get the ball.&nbsp;</p><p>In Scrum, you take advantage of user stories, tasks, story points, and sprints. Both user stories and tasks are estimated using story points. Based on that estimation, they're located in sprints that have clear deadlines and goals. The direction of the sprint is the responsibility of the Product Owner, who represents the business side of the matter, and the Scrum Master, who manages the work process.&nbsp;</p><h3>How does Scrum work?</h3><p>The Scrum methodology is based on four <i>ceremonies</i> – which is just a fancy word for meetings. Here is the Scrum sequence:</p><p><strong>1. Backlog refinement&nbsp;</strong></p><p>The <i>backlog</i> is the core of Scrum and looks more like a very long to-do list that includes all the different tasks, features, and user stories the team needs to deliver for a product or service. During the backlog refinement phase, the Product Owner and Scrum team work together on the details and estimate all of the items in the backlog. All user stories and tasks need to be immediately executable when put into a sprint.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>2. Sprint planning meeting</strong></p><p>The goal of this meeting is to prioritize which tasks from the backlog will be added to the sprint. Sprints typically last two weeks, but their duration can be easily adjusted to match the specific needs of the business or team.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>3. Daily standup meeting</strong></p><p>This meeting happens every day, and it doesn't take longer than 15 minutes. Most teams organize this meeting at the start of each working day. The goal here is to synchronize the work of the team, the Scrum Master, and the Product Owner by unblocking the ongoing tasks. Every team member answers the following three questions:</p><ul><li>What did I do yesterday?</li><li>What will I do today?</li><li>What are the challenges or obstacles for my task at hand?</li></ul><p><br><strong>4. Sprint review meeting</strong></p><p>Sprint review happens at the end of every sprint. The goal is to review what was delivered, how it was delivered, and what the team could do better. It usually starts with a demo of the added functionality created during the sprint to get approval and feedback from the Product Owner.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>5. Sprint retrospective meeting</strong></p><p>Retrospectives last 90 minutes and allow the Scrum team to reflect on what went well and wrong in their previous sprint and how to improve that.&nbsp;</p><h3>Pros of Scrum</h3><ul><li>It sets clear goals and deadlines for the team and commits the team to a single goal that needs to be delivered within a specific timeframe (the sprint).</li><li>It helps teams to handle large projects that consist of multiple features and tasks to be delivered in the course of months or even years.</li><li>Scrum works really well in fast-moving development projects that may require continuous changes in priorities and features.</li><li>The contribution of every single team member is visible thanks to the daily standup meetings and sprint reviews.</li><li>Scrum helps in team collaboration because it prioritizes frequent communication, which helps to eliminate obstacles as soon as possible.</li></ul><h3>Cons of Scrum</h3><ul><li>Scrum assumes that the tasks planned for each sprint are fixed, and adding extra ones is impossible. But in reality, emergencies happen in projects all the time – like a critical bug or sudden demand change. This may add scope creep, unplanned work and result in missed deadlines and frustration for the team.</li><li>Reacting to sudden changes is difficult in Scrum because it's time-based on all the work that is planned in sprints that can't be modified once started.</li><li>The Scrum framework is complex and requires experienced teams.</li><li>Updating the team on all the roles and responsibilities and complying with all the Scrum ceremonies can be time-consuming and frustrating for the team.</li></ul><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="scrumban" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>What is Scrumban?&nbsp;</h2><p>Scrumban is a project management methodology that brings Scrum and Kanban together to form a flexible hybrid. It was developed to help Scrum teams in transitioning into Kanban and exploring other than methodologies.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Scrumban takes the structure of Scrum and combines it with the visualization and flow-based methodology of Kanban.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Teams can be just as agile as in Scrum and as simple as in Kanban.&nbsp;</p><h3>How does Scrumban work?</h3><p>In Scrumban, all teamwork is organized in iterations and monitored using a visual board. The on-demand planning meetings happen when the team needs to identify which user stories and tasks are to be completed within the next iteration.&nbsp;</p><p>Scrumban uses work in progress limits to keep iterations short and make sure that the team can easily adapt to the quickly changing environment. All the planning in Scrumban is based on demand and happens when the planning trigger is on. The planning trigger itself is related to the number of tasks left in the <i>To-Do</i> column on the board. When it goes below a specific number, the team holds a planning event to add tasks for the next iteration. The planning event is also an occasion for prioritizing all the tasks. This can be done either by adding numbers to the tasks or simply ordering them by priority in the column.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>A basic Scrumban workflow consists of three columns: </strong><i><strong>To Do,</strong></i><strong> </strong><i><strong>Doing</strong></i><strong>, and </strong><i><strong>Done</strong></i><strong>. As team members work on tasks, they move cards into Doing – and once the task is complete, it's moved to Done. Just like in Kanban.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>For long-term planning, Scrumban offers bucket-sized planning. It's based on a system of three buckets that a work item needs to pass before being included in the Scrumban board. These buckets represent different stages of the plan – usually one year, six months, and three months. The one-year bucket is for long-term ideas and goals; the three-month bucket is for tasks ready to be implemented.&nbsp;</p><h3>Pros of Scrumban</h3><ul><li>Since there's no need to estimate or plan sprints every second week, the team can save lots of time.</li><li>Scrumban comes in handy for handling large projects that consist of multiple features and tasks to be delivered on a long-term basis.</li><li>Scrumban is a great tool for revealing bottlenecks in the workflow because the entire workflow is visible on the board.</li><li>It keeps everyone on the same page, it is easy to adopt and presents a simpler process than Scrum.</li></ul><h3>Cons of Scrumban&nbsp;</h3><ul><li>Since it's a new methodology and a mixture of two that are known to most developers, Scrumban still doesn’t have clearly defined practices. This can create some methodology mishmash that requires teams to start inventing things on their own.</li><li>It might be harder to track the individual effort and contributions of team members.</li><li>The project manager will also have less control over the process.</li><li>Just like in Kanban, an outdated board can cause many issues - for example, having two team members working on the same task because nobody updated the board.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Key takeaway</h2><p>We hope this article clarifies these agile methodologies and shows you the clear differences between them.</p><ul><li>While<strong> Scrum</strong> is the most complex, challenging, and strictest methodology of them, it still comes in handy for experienced teams working on a project that is longer than one year.</li><li><strong>Kanban</strong> is the simplest and easiest one to adopt. A great fit for support and maintenance teams, delivery teams, or continuous product delivery where you have a stable workflow.</li><li><strong>Scrumban</strong> is a hybrid version of these two methodologies and a good match for plastic projects, startups, which means teams can sacrifice the strict rules to gain some extra freedom and efficiency.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Are you looking for software development teams that know how to pick the right methodology and deliver results within the set timeframe? Get in touch with us and <a href="/estimation" target="_blank">let's talk about your project</a>. We have an excellent track record and know-how to tell which methodology will serve your project best.</p>

Scrum vs. Kanban vs. Scrumban Comparison | Codete Blog

Scrum vs. Kanban vs. Scrumban: How to Choose the Right Framework for Your Project

<p><strong>There's so much hype around AI today that it's hard to believe it sometimes actually fails. Truth is, AI goes wrong more frequently than you'd expect. The AI fail stories range from alarming to pretty embarrassing, but they all open our eyes to the limitations of AI and the process of building AI-driven products.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>In this article, we go over some of the most high-profile AI failures and the lessons we all got to learn from them. We show you the most common mistakes companies make when building AI-based products and expert tips that help to avoid AI failure.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#failures">When AI goes wrong: 4 stories of AI failure</a></li><li><a href="#traps">3 traps that lead to AI failure&nbsp;</a></li><li><a href="#avoiding-failure">How to avoid AI failure?</a></li></ol><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="failures" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>When AI goes wrong: 4 stories of AI failure</h2><h3>AI fail #1: IBM's Watson for Oncology</h3><p>Back in 2013, the technology giant IBM teamed up with the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to build a brand-new, AI-based oncology expert advisor. Sounds amazing, right? It was supposed to become an AI that cured cancer by helping doctors to uncover insights from the patient and research databases.&nbsp;</p><p>Its <a href="https://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/42214.wss" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>press release</u></a> declared: "MD Anderson is using the IBM Watson cognitive computing system for its mission to eradicate cancer."</p><p>However, in 2018 <a href="https://www.statnews.com/2018/07/25/ibm-watson-recommended-unsafe-incorrect-treatments/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>StatNews</u></a> got hold of internal IBM documents and revealed that Watson was giving wrong cancer treatment advice that veered on danger. According to the information, it's IBM's engineers who were to blame.&nbsp;</p><h4>What went wrong?&nbsp;</h4><p>The software was trained on a very small number of <i>hypothetical</i> cancer patients instead of real patient data.&nbsp;</p><p>As a result, the system gave what was deemed by doctors as unsafe and incorrect treatment recommendations. In one of the most memorable cases, Watson suggested that physicians give patients with severe bleeding a drug that could worsen the condition.</p><p>The project was benched in February 2017. In a <a href="https://www.utsystem.edu/sites/default/files/documents/UT%20System%20Administration%20Special%20Review%20of%20Procurement%20Procedures%20Related%20to%20UTMDACC%20Oncology%20Expert%20Advisor%20Project/ut-system-administration-special-review-procurement-procedures-related-utmdacc-oncology-expert-advis.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>report</u></a> from University of Texas auditors, it was revealed that MD Anderson spent over $62 million and all it got was an AI giving out dangerous treatment recommendations.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>AI fail #2: Amazon's AI recruitment solution&nbsp;</h3><p>AI and machine learning seem to have one big problem: bias.&nbsp;</p><p>Amazon's AI tool for recruitment encapsulates this issue perfectly. Back in 2018, Amazon was looking to build an engine that could process candidate resumes, and - after analyzing their qualifications and all other relevant factors - it would come up with five candidates ready to be hired.&nbsp;</p><p>Unfortunately, engineers soon realized that their AI engine considered male candidates to be better automatically.&nbsp;</p><h4>What went wrong?&nbsp;</h4><p>The problem was that Amazon's engineers trained the AI-based on an engineering job applicant's resume. They benchmarked the training data with the<i> current</i> <i>employees</i> of engineering teams.&nbsp;</p><p>When you think about a typical candidate for a software engineering job, you're likely to picture a white male. Based on this training data, Amazon's AI learned that candidates who were more male and their skin was lighter are more likely to be a good fit for the engineering job.&nbsp;</p><p>This example is slightly embarrassing, but AI bias can pose a huge risk to any organization that uses it in its decision-making processes.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>AI fail #3: Microsoft's rude chatbot</h3><p>When Microsoft announced the new chatbot back in 2016, the headlines were full of hope. The chatbot called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_%28bot%29" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>Tay</u></a> could automatically reply to people on Twitter and engage in casual conversation, often using teenage slang.</p><p>The project was the result of Microsoft's efforts in improving conversational interface understanding. As more and more people talked with Tay, the chatbot would learn how to respond more naturally and hold improved conversations.&nbsp;</p><p>But what happened next was definitely unexpected.&nbsp;</p><p>It didn't even take 24 hours after the launch for Internet trolls to corrupt the chatbot's personality. They flooded the bot with racist, anti-semitic, and misogynistic tweets. As a result, Tay became a disturbing Twitter account that kept on sharing some really terrifying opinions. After some effort to clean up the chatbot's timeline, Microsoft decided to stop their experiment.</p><h4>What went wrong?</h4><p>Naturally, Microsoft never really revealed how the algorithms worked, so we can't tell which part was faulty. However, allowing Tay to interact with and learn from all kinds of conversations <i>without any filters</i> applied to the content was just naïve.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>AI fail #4: Amazon's facial recognition fail</h3><p>It seems the world is full of AI failures – and image recognition is no exception. In 2018, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/amazons-face-recognition-falsely-matched-28" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>showed</u></a> how Amazon's AI-based facial recognition system called Rekognition matched 28 US Congresspeople with criminal mugshots.</p><p>According to the ACLU, "Nearly 40 percent of Rekognition's false matches in our test were of people of color, even though they make up only 20 percent of Congress."</p><h4>What went wrong?</h4><p>The fact that facial recognition is racially biased shouldn't come as a surprise. In one <a href="https://www.media.mit.edu/publications/gender-shades-intersectional-accuracy-disparities-in-commercial-gender-classification/"><u>study</u></a>, researchers from MIT and the University of Toronto revealed that every facial recognition system they tested performed much better on lighter-skinned faces.&nbsp;</p><p>This failure is about much more than just a technology failure. It refers to the failure of people, systems, and institutions that stand behind those systems.&nbsp;</p><p>Unfortunately, recognition is still sold by Amazon, and law enforcement agencies across the United States are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/04/racist-facial-recognition-white-coders-black-people-police" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>experimenting with tools</u></a> like that to identify subjects.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="traps" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>3 traps that lead to AI failure&nbsp;</h2><h3>1. Saving money on R&amp;D</h3><p>The truth is that AI projects require a lot of investment into experimentation and cutting-edge research. Any company looking to build a useful AI technology needs to invest in research and development; there's no way around it. Downsizing here isn't an option, or you risk failure (and potentially reputation loss).</p><h3>2. Getting caught up in the technology bubble</h3><p>AI technologies can't be developed in a vacuum. We need to consider the social circumstances that make AI necessary in the first place. The context of where our AI engine and algorithms will be deployed is just as important as the technology in question.&nbsp;</p><h3>3. Forgetting about human bias&nbsp;</h3><p>When rushing to keep up with the technology curve, development teams sometimes forget that they're humans who have inherent biases. This is particularly relevant to companies that work on data analytics projects developed for financial services, law enforcement, or healthcare. The Watson for Oncology fail is an excellent example of that.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="avoiding-failure" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>How to avoid AI failure?</h2><h3>1. Get the right data</h3><p>Your data matters a lot because you'll be using it to train your algorithms. The success of AI will be based on it, so make sure that you pick the right combination of data, training, and problem at hand. Be aware of potential bias creeping into your data sets and try to eliminate it as early as possible to avoid any impact on your model.</p><h3>2. Maintain your AI steadily</h3><p>As an AI engine becomes increasingly complex, its risks and costs grow as well. The longer you wait to maintain or repair your AI, the more expensive it will get. Solid and regular maintenance is critical to keep the AI delivering value and working in line with your business expectations.&nbsp;</p><h3>3. Have a plan for failure</h3><p>You need to be prepared for failure in your AI project. Identify potential issues that you might face in the future and come up with new ways for detecting them. If your system goes down for an hour, what measures will you use to manage it? If your AI model breaks down, will you be able to refer to a working one quickly? Build a recovery path to stay on the safe side.</p><h3>4. Improve your reaction times</h3><p>As your AI scales and becomes more complex, correcting it is going to become more and more difficult. It's one thing when you have one or two models working together. When you're dealing with ten models learning from each other at all times, things get tricky.&nbsp;</p><p>Develop a plan for identifying issues in your AI models and build corrective measures:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Are you going to retrain them on your own?</li><li>How are you going to track data flows to identify the source of problems?</li></ul><h3>5. Change your AI together with the business</h3><p>While AI is learning about the world, the world itself might start changing fast. For example, if a business problem that you're solving has radically changed because of a brand-new competitor on the scene or a new regulation, you need to make sure that your AI responds to that.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>After all, your AI project isn't just about technology - it's about many other layers ranging from operational and engineering to business and PR.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>When implementing your AI model, you need to have a plan for monitoring and measuring changes that might affect your outcomes. Ideally, you will also develop a system that makes these adjustments automatically. Building a change management model into the AI will help you keep it up with reality and prepare for changes that are simply bound to happen.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h4>WRAP UP</h4><p>AI is going strong, and its popularity in the tech landscape isn't going down anytime soon.&nbsp;</p><p>Development teams looking to build cutting-edge products using AI algorithms should consider these massive AI failures as powerful lessons learned. After all, we're all here to learn from our mistakes and implement industry best practices to avoid them from happening in the first place.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Are you looking for an experienced AI team capable of building models that are bulletproof and in line with current industry standards? Get in touch with us and </strong><a href="/estimation" target="_blank"><strong>let's talk about your project</strong></a><strong>. We have experience in delivering AI-based applications to clients across many different sectors and know what it takes to build powerful AI that you can rely on.</strong></p>

Common Neural Network Training Mistakes & How to Avoid Them? | Codete Blog

AI Gone Wrong: Common Neural Network Training Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

<p>Certainly, there is confusion.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Test Automation Engineers as well as Automation Test Engineers, QA Automation Engineers, Quality Engineers, Automation and Manual Testers, Test Development Engineers, Test Engineers, QA Engineers, Software Engineers in Test – these are only selected job offers regarding software testing found in one of the Polish IT recruitment sites.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>As we can see, the "Testing" label is vast, and for that reason, many specializations within it are being mixed up quite often, in particular by people who don’t know too much about the IT area. Unfortunately, often these are external recruiters who don’t really know whom they are looking for, and what the differences are. Interestingly, even <a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#technology-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-other-frameworks-libraries-and-tools-dreaded3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>StackOverflow’s 2020 Developer Survey</u></a> uses only one aggregate category called "QA or test developer".&nbsp;</p><p>But QA Engineers and Software Testers, of course, perform distinctive, although complementary, functions. However, we can see a shift within the testing area that makes both specializations closer than ever. Indeed, we may spot surprisingly many similarities between the two but still, also vital differences.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Software Testers and QA Engineers – common features and differences</h2><p>Undoubtedly, Software Tester and QA Engineer are key IT quality assurance positions. Both are inherent parts of quality management, but aren’t synonymous, obviously.&nbsp;</p><p>QA Engineers, in general, are those specialists whose aim is to make the product flawless, and its quality – close to perfection. They work throughout the whole product development process, overseeing it and trying to make it produce effects that are close to perfection. Plus, software testing is one of the areas they supervise.</p><p>On the other hand, Software Testers check whether the produced software (e.g. websites, apps) works properly – usually towards the end of the development process. Looking for possible bugs, they examine parts of the software or particular code modules, inspecting whether they are compliant with technical documentation. Finding the best possible ways of checking the quality of the developers’ work outcome is also a part of their role.</p><p><strong>Software Testers and QA Engineers are simply two different sides of the same coin called quality assurance.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>QA Engineers’ role is making as few mistakes as possible, while the Testers’ task is to find the most bugs possible. This is an interesting kind of interdependency as the work of one side influences the duties of another.</p><p>As for remuneration, QA Engineers tend to earn more, in general, but the differences don’t seem to be significant. The nationwide Polish salary survey by Sedlak &amp; Sedlak unveiled that median gross salary values for software testers account for <a href="https://wynagrodzenia.pl/moja-placa/ile-zarabia-software-tester" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>6,500 PLN</u></a>, while for the position called IT Quality Assurance – <a href="https://wynagrodzenia.pl/moja-placa/ile-zarabia-it-quality-assurance" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>7,320 PLN</u></a>. In turn, average gross values are <a href="https://zarobki.pracuj.pl/stanowiska/it-rozwoj-oprogramowania/tester-oprogramowania" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>7,900 PLN </u></a>for Software Testers and <a href="https://zarobki.pracuj.pl/stanowiska/it-rozwoj-oprogramowania/qa-engineer" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>8,400 PLN</u></a> for QA Engineers, according to Pracuj.pl.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Software Testing – something special</h2><p>But the Software Tester position stands out in a significant way: becoming a Software Tester is one of the easiest ways to get into the IT industry – along with landing a job as a Scrum Master or Technical Writer.&nbsp;</p><p>Software Tester is a specialization considered to be less demanding and easier to enter than QA Engineer. Software testing is, then, an opportunity for those programmers (or other people willing to pursue a career within the IT area) who find coding daily boring and tiresome. This may also be a good idea for those who want to retrain, even being in their 30s.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Software Testers – prerequisites</h3><p>To land your first job as a Software Tester you don’t need to have such a solid theoretical background as you would for the QA Engineer role.</p><p>To become a Tester, you first and foremost have to be:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>clever,</li><li>alert,</li><li>inquisitive,</li><li>curious,</li></ul><p>but also:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>hard-working,</li><li>ambitious,</li><li>eager to learn new technologies and updates.</li></ul><p>Soft skills include being:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>communicative,</li><li>easy-going,</li><li>proactive.</li></ul><p>Other prerequisites include:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>analytical skills,</li><li>eye for detail,</li><li>problem-solving abilities,</li><li>patience.</li></ul><p>You should also be self-confident enough to speak out about what tests and procedures should be performed even if developers say everything is fine.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Many ways to make it</h3><p>Online courses, webinars, or workshops, paired with hours spent on reading traditional books or ebooks, may turn out to be sufficient for you to gather the basic information needed to start as a Software Tester.&nbsp;</p><p>Of course, the most profound and recommended way is computer science studies but there are many different or complementary ways. Some of them include becoming an intern at a software company and learning from more experienced employees. Also, you may find a company offering remote training or one that is looking for somebody to test its website.&nbsp;</p><p>It’s also good to attend industry meetings and conferences such as <a href="https://testdive.pl/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>TestDive</u></a>, <a href="https://testcamp.pl/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>TestCamp</u></a>, and <a href="https://testfest.pl/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>test:fest</u></a> – for existing and prospective testers, the academic community, and business representatives. There are also such initiatives as <a href="https://kraqa.pl/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>KRAQA</u></a> and <a href="http://www.warszawqa.pl/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>WarszawQA</u></a> organizing meetups, workshops, and presentations but also enabling networking where anyone interested in the field may come and find out what are the similarities and differences between Testers and QA Engineers.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Software testing industry – a shift</h2><p>Do you disagree with the notion that it’s not so difficult to start a career as a Software Tester?&nbsp;</p><p>Well, the common belief that it’s easy to become one turns more and more untrue. A few years back, perhaps, there was a gap in the market worth taking advantage of. Due to a significant lack of Software Testers, the requirements were not that high.&nbsp;</p><p>Of course, Software Testers always had to develop their skills but currently, they also need to be much more all-embracing than a few years back.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Being more versatile</h3><p>Testing process automation, continuous integration (CI), and DevOps are what influence the fast changes within the Testing area the most. For this reason, employees responsible for quality assurance and testing are supposed to be more and more versatile, first and foremost know CI/CD tools well. And Software Testers are to be active throughout the whole development process, not only towards its end, and so they have to understand it better.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Other interesting trends</h3><p>Also, the pandemic year of 2020 brought a rise in the number of requirements for Testers – from 6 to 7 per job offer, as well as a decrease in the number of job offers for juniors, and a rise of those addressed to mids and seniors, according to the <a href="https://nofluffjobs.com/insights/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Rynek-pracy-IT-w-2020-roku-No-Fluff-Insights.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><u>NoFluffJobs’ 2020 report</u></a>. The report also shows that must-have technologies for Testing specialists taken together are: Selenium, Java, and SQL, and additionally Rest, Jira, and GIT, and we can see an upward trend regarding Python, Rest, and Postman.</p><p><strong>Have you experienced the growing expectations towards Testers these days? Can you spot any other similarities between Software Testers and QA Engineers? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.</strong></p>

QA Engineers vs Software Testers: Similarities & Differences | Codete Blog

QA Engineers and Software Testers: Are They Really So Different?

<p><internallink internallinkid="/blog/choosing-the-best-framework-for-python-flask-vs-django">Django projects</internallink> need Django packages, as they significantly limit the time necessary to develop high-quality Django apps. They simply take the burden off programmers’ shoulders by providing a fair amount of code so that they don’t need to write everything from scratch.</p><p><strong>And Django – a useful, versatile, free, and open-source Python web framework – is grabbing attention due to its impressive abilities. This list is very long and encompasses such advantages, as impressive speed, </strong><a href="https://inoxoft.com/10-advantages-of-using-django-for-web-development/" target="_blank"><strong>scalability, security, and versatility</strong></a><strong>, as well as </strong><a href="https://datafloq.com/read/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-using-django/3050" target="_blank"><strong>stellar documentation and tutorials</strong></a><strong> available to create or enhance a website.</strong></p><p>Moreover, it offers professional support of a vast and helpful Django community and many features that enhance development at every stage. And of course, Python itself is easy to learn even for junior developers, and on top of that, it offers a large library, and other endless resources.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#packages">Django packages vs modules - what sets them apart?</a></li><li><a href="#list">10 Django packages every developer should know</a></li><li><a href="#summary">Django &amp; packages in brief</a></li></ol><p>&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="packages" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Django packages vs modules - what sets them apart?</h2><p>What needs to be pointed out in the beginning, is that there is a certain confusion regarding Django. First of all, it’s worth noting that Django is a framework, and not one of libraries, so the terms such as „Django library”, or „Django libraries” may be regarded as erroneous.</p><p>Another issue is mistaking Django packages with Django modules. Although numerous Django benefits may be found in modules, the difference between Django packages and modules (that, in fact, are Python ones) is that the latter are single Python files packages consist of. In other words, a number of modules constitute a given Django package, or a collection, and are narrower a term.</p><p>What can also make a Django web app more reusable are Django plugins, another interesting Django-related term.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="list" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>10 Django packages every developer should know</h2><p>Best Django apps may be developed with a little – or rather major – help from particular Django packages. But which Django packages seem to be the most valuable?&nbsp;</p><p>Some say that, when choosing one, it’s essential to pay attention to those most-used, or available in stable versions, while others point a finger at Python 3 packages, or those supporting a variety of use cases and Django projects.</p><p>Our list of top 10 Django packages embraces:</p><h3>1. <a href="https://github.com/encode/django-rest-framework" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Django REST framework</a></h3><p>A solid base to build any HTTP-based REST API, praised for providing powerful and flexible tools as well as impressive usability, authentication policies, serialization, and extensive documentation.</p><h3>2. <a href="https://github.com/getsentry/sentry" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Sentry</a></h3><p>A service meant to monitor a running application and errors or crashes that occur when it’s working. It’s important that events are sent from every language.</p><h3>3. <a href="https://github.com/snok/django-guid" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Django GUID</a></h3><p>A library enabling matching a single HTTP request with all messages coming from logs (the so-called correlation id). Django GUID is WSGI-supported and also ASGI-supported.</p><h3>4. <a href="https://github.com/pydanny/cookiecutter-django" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Cookiecutter Django</a></h3><p>A framework for Django 3.1 that enables quick setup of a new Django project. Works with Python 3.9. Secure and handy - comes with a custom user model.</p><h3>5. <a href="https://github.com/jazzband/django-debug-toolbar" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Django Debug Toolbar</a></h3><p>A toolbar that helps debug a Django application in the browser, offering many built-in as well as third-party panels. It works on Django versions 2.2, 3.0, and 3.1.</p><h3>6. <a href="https://github.com/django/channels" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Django Channels</a></h3><p>WebSocket async support in Django, available via several locations. User-friendly, flexible, allowing for customizability.&nbsp;</p><h3>7. <a href="https://docs.celeryproject.org/en/stable/django/first-steps-with-django.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Celery</a></h3><p>Celery is one of basic yet powerful libraries for asynchronous tasks (running in the background) processing. A guide on how to integrate Celery into a Django project can be found <a href="https://realpython.com/asynchronous-tasks-with-django-and-celery/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p><h3>8. <a href="https://github.com/celery/django-celery-beat" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Database-backed Periodic Tasks</a> (Celery Beat)</h3><p>An extension to Celery that enables storing and managing (creating, editing, and deleting) a periodic tasks schedule in the Django database, backed by the Django ORM.</p><h3>9. <a href="https://github.com/otto-torino/django-baton" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Django-baton</a></h3><p>A handy, cutting-edge, responsive, and user-friendly interface for a Django admin, based on Bootstrap 5. Created with Python, JavaScript, SCSS, HTML, and some other languages.</p><h3>10. <a href="https://github.com/graphql-python/graphene-django" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Graphene-Django</a></h3><p>It’s about making Django data available through an interface based on GraphQL. Some tips on how to add GraphQL functionality to your Django project may be found <a href="https://docs.graphene-python.org/projects/django/en/latest/" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="summary" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Django &amp; packages in brief</h2><p>Django is a high-level framework that allows for truly quick development. The most powerful Django packages outshine many other tools and impress software developers with their incredible usefulness, versatility, reliability, scalability, security, accessibility, as well as providing first-class guidance and assistance.</p><p>What also sets them apart is that – because the Django web framework follows Python’s „batteries included” approach – some of the large Django packages are provided with „<a href="https://docs.python.org/3/tutorial/stdlib.html#tut-batteries-included" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">sophisticated and robust capabilities</a>”.</p><p>They can be successfully and easily utilized in a variety of projects with the idea to develop some of the most cutting-edge Django web apps in mind. Some of the use cases of the best Django packages include <a href="https://blog.crowdbotics.com/best-open-source-django-packages-2020/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">REST APIs, debugging tools, and forms</a>.</p><p><strong>And do you agree with our list of top 10 Django packages? Are there any additional you’d recommend to other software developers? Which of the packages is, to you, the most tested and proven, or useful, in day-to-day work?</strong></p>

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