English | EN Five steps for Developers to cope with Digital Explosion
Apr 8, 2015
“The digital revolution is far more significant than the invention of writing or even of printing.” – Douglas Englebart
The age of the Digital explosion is upon us, are you ready? Everywhere we look, we see someone carrying a tablet, using a Smartphone, and sporting a FitBit or Jawbone and all three devices are communicating with each other, displaying who’s called us, who’s emailed us, who’s poked us on Facebook and how many steps we’ve taken today. As a developer, the task of trying to decide where to start in this digital explosion can be daunting. Even an experienced developer can be overwhelmed with the decision of whether to start with mobile development, IOT development, Big Data & Analytics, or developing for wearables. Following are the five steps that can help resolve your confusion:
Find Your Passion
First and foremost, we know that you are passionate about technology, otherwise you wouldn’t be here reading this blog article. Finding your passion is an important first step so that you can prioritize your path into new technologies. Begin by looking around your environment at the various technologies and see what piques your interest. Are you curious about connected devices and how they communicate with each other? Do you look at the appstore on your phone every day to see what is the latest greatest app? Are you constantly browsing the KickStarter technology section to see what others are making? Start with whatever rouses your interest. If you later decide that you aren’t passionate about that area of technology then you can easily try something different.
Brainstorm
Once you have found what you want to focus on, start jotting down ideas. At this point, don’t focus on the size or possible complexity of your project; if you have an idea for a project, write it down. After you have between 5 and 10 ideas, order them as per their complexity level (as assessed by you) from easiest to hardest and then start with the easiest.
Gather your resources
Before creating your project, you will want to gather your resources. Be sure to have reviewed your blogs, examples, videos and any other resource to help you on your venture. If your chosen passion requires any specific software, hardware, devices, locations or people, you will want to make sure you have those at your disposal as well.
Build a POC
When building a POC (proof of concept) or Prototype, you don’t want to focus on the code structure or quality. You would want to focus on proofing out your idea. Can you accomplish what you have set out to create? Start small and then build on as you progress, recognizing small successes as you grow. For example: if your project is based on connected devices and you are using an Arduino board, you will most likely want to start with turning LED lights on and off before you progress into reading a thermal sensor.
Refactor
Once you have your prototype completed and you are happy with your progress, you can look at your code base and begin your refactoring process. This is where you will want to focus on the code structure and quality. When refactoring, look for areas of reuse and encapsulation, making sure to follow the tenants of object-oriented programming and solid design principles.
Now that you have completed your first project, ask yourself if you are ready to build your next one. If you can answer “yes” then you have likely found your passion, if not then just move on to your next area of interest and repeat the process. Either way, you have learned about a new technology, increased your skillset, and entered the digital age.
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