Developer
The Developers Role
The Developer focuses on designing the architecture of the product and building the features. But as with all of the other roles on the team, the role of a developer goes beyond just writing code; it involves active participation in the entire product lifecycle, from ideation through to delivery and iteration, based on user feedback and product performance.
Product Risk
The developer has a core responsibility for validating the Feasibility risk - can we build this solution in a way that is economical, sustainable and maintainable? However, they are also accountable for, and provide input into, the other core risks: Desirability risk, Third-party incentive risks, Usability risk, and Viability risk.
Key Responsibilities
Designing the System: Planning and architecting the software structure and components in a way that supports scalability, maintainability, and the seamless integration of new features and technologies.
Estimating: Providing high level estimates for the effort required to implement features in order to inform prioritisation and planning.
Breaking Down Solutions: Utilising techniques like user story mapping to decompose high-level solutions into manageable, implementable tasks and features, ensuring alignment with user needs and product goals.
Designing the Feature: Iteratively planning and architecting the software structure and components in a way that supports scalability, maintainability, and the seamless integration of new features.
Building: The compiling, packaging and testing of the software to create a deployable artifact.
Deploying: Establishing continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) practices to automate the testing, building, and deployment processes, enhancing efficiency and ensuring high-quality releases.
Testing: Implementing automated and manual testing strategies to validate the functionality, performance, and security of the software, ensuring that it meets the specified requirements and user expectations.
Monitoring: Implementing analytics, monitoring, and logging tools within the product to gather data on usage, performance, and user engagement, enabling informed decision-making and continuous improvement.
Collaborating with Cross-Functional Teams: Working continuously with the other Stream Team members to ensure that user insights are integrated into the product development process.
Key Artifacts Produced
User Stories: Detailed descriptions of product features or functionalities from the user's perspective, outlining the desired behaviour, acceptance criteria, and value to the user.
Architectural Decision Records: Documentation of key architectural decisions made during the development process, outlining the context, decision, and rationale to guide future development and maintenance.
User Story Map: A visual representation that organises and prioritises user stories, depicting how they fit into the overall user journey, to facilitate understanding and planning of product features.
Technical Tasks: Specific technical tasks derived from user stories, breaking down the implementation details and requirements for building and delivering product features.
Wardley Map: A strategic tool that visualises the evolution of components and services within the product ecosystem, enabling the team to make informed decisions about technology investments and dependencies.
API Specification: A detailed description of the application programming interface (API) endpoints, methods, parameters, and responses, providing a blueprint for developers to integrate and interact with the product.
Versioned Code: A version-controlled repository of the software codebase, enabling collaboration, tracking changes, and ensuring the integrity and consistency of the product across development stages.
Automated Alerts: Automated monitoring and alerting systems that notify the team of issues, errors, or anomalies in the live production environment, enabling rapid response and issue resolution.
Automated Rollback Capabilities: Automated processes and tools that enable the team to revert to a previous version of the software in case of deployment failures or critical issues, ensuring the stability and reliability of the product.
Why only a single developer?
Software is at the heart of everything we do so every Stream Team will need at least one developer. On most teams, you will likely have more than one developer with people specialising in different areas such as front-end and back-end. However, as the quality of AI-generated code increases the amount of work a single developer can achieve will increase. The bottleneck in our process will move from building the product to ensuring that the product is solving the right problem.