The Secret To Working In Harmony With Your Developers

Developers are busy folks and it's not easy to don the hat of a developer, though their work is truly rewarding as these professionals are the ones who help scale businesses to great heights. Developers however need to multitask and they must have the right skills for writing, coding, testing, debugging, and maintaining applications. Furthermore, there are also times when a developer needs to make repeated iterations in order to revamp the work.

Doesn't this sound exhausting? Well, it truly is! Their work is not a regular desk job because developers need to go above and beyond in order to create products that add value to your business.

So taking all of that into consideration, while also lessening the burden on yourself and your developer, you must learn some tips on how to strike up efficient and effective communication with developers.

And who better than our pro developers to guide you in this regard. Raunak, a Senior Lead, has been with thinkbridge for the past seven years. He is a BE IT graduate from the Sinhagad Institute of Technology and Science, Pune. Also, Basant is a Senior Software Developer at thinkbridge. Basant holds a BTech (CSE) from the MIET University, Meerut, UP. Development is like fine art for our proficient developers who put their heart and soul for creating stellar and feature-rich solutions, and below are some expert tips from our developers that would help you learn the art of harmonious communication with your developer teams.

1. Define Requirements As Problem Statements. Developers have their hands full and you don't want to confuse them. You thus need to make sure that you explain your requirement in the most clear and concise manner without beating around the bush. Refrain from providing vague briefs, because a good developer would surely hurl a volley of questions your direction in order to better analyze your idea. That’s why it’s preferable that your requirement be crystal clear for the developer to comprehend.
2. Effectively Communicate What You Want. While this might seem tedious at first, this is a sure shot key that would minimize any room for ambiguity. Make short notes of the task that you assigned, and use flowcharts and diagrams as this would in turn assist both you and your developer in having a clear idea of the work requirement.
3. Plan to Remove Obstacles. Communication is the key to success, so you must be readily available as there might be times when your otherwise expert developer can't find a solution and would like some additional assistance. Also, you need to be involved in your project right from the very initial prototyping to the ultimate post-delivery stage as this would ensure not only effective developer communication, but also a fantastic end product.
4. Don't Make Assumptions Without Data. It's not easy to be a developer as those professionals have burned the midnight oil to acquire all those dexterous skills. Additionally, you shouldn’t dictate or make whimsical requirements that might be impractical, or even technically impossible, as your developer has a better understanding and he's working for the betterment of your business.
5. Have Realistic Expectations. There's no denying the fact that developers are hard-working folks, but having said that, it is extremely important for you to set realistic and attainable deadlines because you can't expect your developer to create an end-to-end app overnight. After all, a developer has no magic wand to do so. That's why it’s preferable that you let your developers set their own deadlines, as an arbitrary deadline would inevitably result in a bug-ridden disaster that would take a lot more time to fix.
6. Schedule And Effort Are Not The Same. Please understand that scheduling a task might not be as onerous as putting in efforts for creating a valuable output, especially when it comes to something as complex as developing a new technical product. This is not a cakewalk as it involves hours of strenuous efforts that you must acknowledge and appreciate instead of always compelling your developer to work within tight schedules.
7. Share & Solicit Constant Feedback. You must make sure to not bog down your developer by sharing your feedback at the eleventh hour. A better way would be for you to share constant feedback at each juncture. This enables your developer to simultaneously work upon the exact requirements and make corrections in time, instead of being burdened at once with short deadlines. Also, you must not forget to get their feedback and understand their perspective as they are the true masters of this realm and developers therefore know better than most of us newbies!

Well, this is all that you must keep in mind while communicating with your developers. Please understand that developers are not aliens and there's no special labyrinth code that you need to learn in order to effectively communicate with them.

Secret Tip - Make sure to follow these 3 C's whilst communicating with your developers - be more Clear, Concise and Coherent, and well then you can just sit back and see your developer work their magic!