Web developers are different breed of technologists. We are increasingly creative. In my experience this comes from a few factors. On smaller agile teams, developers are asked to work on many roles of a project, and in some cases this includes design. Also unlike traditional software not all web developers are solely computer science majors. They may be designers, or business students who have a passion for the web.

A good web developer is interested in design, performance, user experience – the full range of a tool. They do not code assembly line style. At most shops these days, the same development team that built a tool or product will then maintain it. We live and breath the website and the product. In many cases, the development team is be the group most in tune with the product.

Developers are not always given the credit they deserve from management for being creative. I’ve even seen technical managers who have yet to recognize these facts. They come from an old school mentality, assigning bits and pieces of a web project to their team, having them work in a silo. Their teams are not aware of the bigger business decisions, and feedback is not valued. Their creativity is suppressed, forced to work on implementing mock ups and coding to spec.

Because the actual developer is the one who will work closely with the project, they need to know as much as possible about it, and have the ability to be creative with its individual elements. Like a designer, or writer, developing software is creative, and you need to be passionate about it. It is the developer who should be able to spot the flaw in a design element, and be able to voice their opinion on a replacement. I realize projects have their client requirements, and business elements that are out of our hands. But the creativity of the developer will enable the business requirements to mesh with the real practical aspects of the tool.

Involving developers on a project from its early phases should result in a clean, effective tool that otherwise may not have been achieved by designers and management alone. They can bring a wealth of knowledge to a project both in capabilities and enhancements.

image by jorel314

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dev team, experiences by bill breen