Article: Top Ten Developer Interview Questions You Should Know

It seems like anyone that knows how to copy code from an Internet search or put a semicolon at the end of a line calls themselves a developer.  However, how do you sort those that understand development from those that just want to.  The answer, may be in these ten interview questions that every developer should know.  Developer is the workhorse role in the software development process as the Anatomy of a Software Development Role: Developer article points out.

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Article: Top 10 Interview Questions a Solution Architect Should Know

Building software isn’t like building bridges.  Building software doesn’t mean an understanding of material strength but it does mean understanding how different approaches are capable of coping with today’s emerging needs.  Solutions architects have some of the greatest experience requirements of any role in the software development.  These ten questions may be how the interviewer can quickly assess the experiences of a candidate.  You can find out more about the critical role in Anatomy of a Software Development Role: Solutions Architect.

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Article: Ten Development Lead Interview Questions You Should Know

Every development lead will need to know these questions, which will reveal the skills and technical knowledge of a candidate, their creativity in creating their own tools to solve problems, as well as their ability to train, support, and lead a development team. If you’re thinking about becoming a development lead, check out the article, “Anatomy of a Software Development Role: Development Lead,” for a comprehensive overview of what the job entails.

Part of the developer.com series, Top 10 Interview Questions.  Read more…

Article: Ten Interview Questions Every Functional Analyst Should Know

Bridging the gap between subject matter experts and the architects and developers who create solutions is hard work—but it’s work that the functional (or business) analyst is up for. Interviewers may challenge candidates with these ten questions so they’ll know that the candidate has the skills to help transform desires and dreams into developed code. The Anatomy of a Software Development Role: Functional Analyst can help you find out more about the role.

As part of the developer.com series, Top 10 Interview Questions.  Read more…

Article: Ten Interview Questions Every Project Manager Should Know

The project management role may not be specific to software development, but there are certainly specific skills that are needed for managing software development projects. Project manager candidates should be prepared to answer these ten questions when competing for a position. The Anatomy of a Software Development Role: Project Manager can help you find out more about the role.

As part of the developer.com series, Top 10 Interview Questions.  Read more…

Article: Ten Development Manager Interview Questions You Should Know

Development managers are anchors for getting development projects done.  The role has a greater impact on the success of the entire development team.  If you’re gunning for this role, you’ll need to be able to answer these ten questions that interviewers may ask you.  if you want to know more about the development manager role, you may want to see Anatomy of a Software Development Role: Development Manager.

The development manager is the first role we cover as a part of the new developer.com articles series, Top 10 Interview Questions. Read more…

Article: Freedom Through Apps: Targeting and Marketing Your Apps

The chink in the armor of most of the developers who are looking to retire rich by creating apps is marketing to users. It may be that you are able to learn how to create some independence. You might even have decided whether the lone wolf or the sexy startup is right for you. You might have even figured out how to iterate App development quickly, but you’re not done when you release your App into the App Store. It takes more than being available in the App Store to be successful, that’s when it’s time to put on your marketing hat—or buy a marketing hat to put on.

Sitting On a Store Shelf

Just because a product is available doesn’t mean that it will automatically sell itself. Just because your application is in the store doesn’t mean that it will sell. In fact, there are thousands of apps that are in the store with nearly zero sales. You don’t want this to be you. If you want to sell your app and retire, it’s going to take getting out there and doing some marketing.

Marketing is not a skill most developers have been taught or even understand. Development is a world of rules and if … then …. The world of marketing isn’t repeatable and just because it worked some way last time doesn’t mean it will behave the same way the next time. However, once your application is launched it’s marketing that will make it appeal to others—and convince them to buy.

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Article: Freedom Through Apps: Knowing How to Iterate Apps

Becoming rich through the development of applications is a common dream. At the start of this series, I wrote how the road leads through independence. From there, I explained the idea of the lone wolf app developer. The last article was how to get folks together and do a sexy startup. However, this is the structural component of making the dream of retiring rich. It’s time to learn how to create the compelling apps that users will buy.

Perhaps the most successful mobile game of all time is the Angry Birds franchise from Rovio—a Finnish game developer. At first glance, it appears that Rovio has been making great mobile games forever; however, the truth is much different. Angry Birds was their 52^nd game released. Not the first, nor even their fifth…, but rather their 52^nd. Flappy Bird, another popular bird game, found its creator, Nguyễn Hà Đông, re-using a character he had created for a game that was cancelled a year earlier. Not even the titans of the mobile game market earned their chops on their first game. Instead, they had to “kiss a lot of frogs” before they found their prince.

Applications and Apps

It used to be that Electronic Arts built megalithic games with storylines and cinematography and big budgets. Today, PopCap Games (a division of Electronic Arts) builds small games to run on mobile devices. Instead of a game development cycle running years, they run months. Instead of teams of hundreds, they’re teams of dozens.

The market has changed. The market used to be that we had to invest and test to see if it worked at the end. However, today we’re focused on the minimum viable product (MVP). That is what can I get out into the market to test and let users react to it. We need to learn what did—and didn’t work when the users got it. What did they love? What did they hate?

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Article: Freedom Through Apps: Sexy Tech Startup

If you are like most developers, you dream of the idea of building the next big app that will cover the cost of your retirement. In the article, Freedom through Apps: The Road through Independence, I cover a few up-front considerations needed to begin the reality of building such an life plan. If you can’t be the lone wolf developer; because it’s too much work, or it’s too risky, or you like people too much and you want a road to financial freedom, how do you get there?

The other vision that people chase is the idea of creating a startup company, getting funding, and making it big. While certainly this has worked for some folks, it’s not the path that most successful folks take. As it turns out the hidden work of building a startup is more than most folks realize.

Fail First, then We’ll Talk

Imagine for a moment that you’re sitting down with an investor who has enough money to invest in your company. Imagine that you’re willing to give up any amount of ownership and you’re ready to deal. However, instead of the investor working on terms and negotiating for a percentage of ownership for an amount of money, you hear “Fail first and then we’ll talk.”

The reality of getting investment dollars is that investors invest in people and not ideas. They invest money where they believe that the person will make it work no matter what the cost. They invest when they believe the investment will pay off and not in a win-the-lottery type of way, but in the kind of way that they expect people will want to buy milk tomorrow. So investors are looking for two key things in a person. First, they want to know that you know what it’s like to fail. They want to know that you’ve learned what you’ve done wrong before so you know not to make the same mistakes.

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Article: Freedom Through Apps: Retiring a Rich Developer

In the first article of this series, “Freedom through Apps: The Road through Independence,” we started to look at the idea of gaining freedom from the daily grind through creating applications. We more specifically covered the idea of carving out time. In this article, we focus more deeply on how you can leverage your independence to create an app—and a company that will be your ticket to retiring rich. What does it take to set yourself up as a developer who can retire rich?

Our first view of the developer who has become independently wealthy and has retired is the lone wolf. The idea of the lone wolf is enticing because it means we don’t need anyone else to “make it big.” However, there don’t seem to be many successful lone wolves. Those who try to make it on their own often end up burned out and frustrated. One success story from many years ago is Phil Katz, who wrote an enhancement to the ZIP archive format—PKZip. The program was a success and a company formed around it and his software. However, PKZip is the exception not the rule.

To Know about Knowing

Most developers are hard wired for learning. Whether it’s a new language, tool, or environment, learning is a core part of what it means to be a developer. Most developers will initially resist a language or environment as a passing fad, but eventually dive in and learn the latest and greatest once they’re sure it’s going to stick around. We’ve all learned something that turned out to not be useful any longer. (I happen to know a great deal about sales and use tax because I needed to for a project once.)

However, when considering the lone wolf, not everything is rosy. Some of the skills that are required need a different way of viewing the word. Often, the required perspective is so foreign that it’s difficult to see how to get there from where you are. The skills I’m talking about aren’t the skills of a new language or environment; the skills I’m talking about are business, sales, and marketing.

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