What makes a world class software developer? Well, there are plenty of ways you can gauge the qualities of a software developer. It is a topic that opens itself for arguments. We take a pragmatic approach to assess and study the qualities that make a top software developer.

A good software engineer must be able to produce working software, write readable code, be able to fix bugs in legacy code, be a team player, keep up-to-date with new technologies etc. Our study of software developer attributes covers over 100 projects that caters to over 150,000 users. Here’s what we found: 

1. Passion for Learning

The passion for learning separates the top software developers from others. These developers understand what they are doing, they dig deep to uncover the concepts, and know the ins and outs of code.

It is easy to get the code running, but it takes time to master the concepts, drill down deep into the technology stuff. But this is what makes the difference. The top software engineers are able to build products that scale, they understand the architecture, design, optimise code and write top quality programs.

They are passionate about learning and do everything to master what they are doing. In the process, they do quality work that helps them and their companies create better software solutions.

2. Adaptable & Flexible

Software programming can be unpredictable. Great software engineers understand that business requirements may change anytime and they may need to confront unknown challenges. They are ready to adapt and are flexible.

A great developer has a knack of producing his best work when the situation demands it. They refactor code and reengineer things to meet the needs of the clients and business. 

They are also always on the look out to make things better proactively. Ordinary developers fix things when they break, top developers fix things before it affects the users.

3. Team Player

Software developer is a team sport. The better you coordinate with your team, the more you can excel at your job. Software engineers need to work with top focus to produce quality work, but they know and learn to communicate with others.

They coordinate with other developers, designers, content writers etc. to produce quality work. These developers are also good at adding value for others. They do code reviews, help others write better code, provide suggestions for improvement of the overall project & always focused on the bigger picture to make the project successful.

These software developers offer help to their teammates when things are stuck, learn new skills & share their learnings with others as well.

4. Test Driven Development

Software programs can be very hard to debug, especially when you’re dealing with legacy code. It takes time to resolve, debug and fix code. Many a times, programmers may add more bugs than they fix.

Test driven development allows software engineers to write test cases for their development work. So, for every new functionality that is added to the code, they build test cases to check the functionality. This becomes even essential in the agile driven software world today.

Programmers have to write code almost on a daily basis that gets shipped for customers. Writing code without proper test cases can leave many gaps. Developers who can write test cases for the features they build can write higher quality code.

5. Good Under Pressure

Software programming can be a demanding job, especially when you’ve got hard deadlines to meet. Software professionals need to constantly meet deadlines, fix critical bugs and improvise as per changing technology needs.

As a programmer, it can be stressful to manage these changes and keep producing top quality work. A good developer learns to manage his time to write quality code, create innovative solutions and is ready to handle the unexpected challenges.

The good developers are like saviours for their teams in a crunch situation. They not only do quality work, but their presence lifts others and helps them achieve their targets too. These programmers train themselves to deliver under pressure and know how to get the best out of themselves.

6. Tools & Technologies

One of the most challenging aspects of being a software developer is to be up to date with the latest tools and technologies. While it takes lot of discipline, focus and hard work to master skills, you need to constantly update yourself with the changing technology landscape.

Top software developers are aware of the latest tools and technologies. They devote regular time to learn about new skills relevant to their craft and practice deliberate improvement.

These developers don’t reinvent the wheel and know which tools can make their job easy. By using existing libraries and tools, they devote more time for innovative work that sets their standards higher than others. 

7. Creative Solutions

Great software programmers provide comprehensive solutions for their clients. They build creative solutions that resolve pain problems for customers. They know the customer environment, familiarize themselves with users and produce innovative solutions.

More often than not these developers think out of the box and find better solutions than existing ones. It is the quality of solutions, thought process and execution that makes them valuable.

8. Time Assessment: 
Programming requires skills beyond logic. Many a times, software developers are confronted with hard tasks, which are new to them. A good developer is able to give an accurate timeline for his deliverables. Whether it is the clients or the internal teams, the right time estimates are important to get things moving.

These programmers are reliable. They finish off their deliverables within time and budget almost always. In case, when they have to go over time, they give reasonable explanations to back their case too.

9. Debugging & Architecture

One of the hardest things you have to master as a programmer is debugging. It involves working with legacy codebase, fixing bugs with high reliability and improving things by refactoring(redesigning of code with good architecture). Good programmers are excellent at debugging not just their own code, but others too.

These developers also build a solid understanding of software architecture and design principles. The architectural understanding of codebase helps them develop scalable solutions. It can be very hard to maintain software code that is not written well. But these software developers learn to create code that is maintainable, scalable and easy for others too.

Kreyon Systems provides excellent opportunities for software developers to build innovative products & solutions. If you are looking for an excellent software development team to build your software products or services, please reach out to us.

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