Finding the perfect stack for you (and your project)

It’s not an over-exaggeration to say that the software industry is one of the fastest evolving industries in the world. This is why choosing the right stack is pivotal for project success and personal growth.

Considering there is now a near endless list of tools, technologies, frameworks and languages, picking the right stack is becoming increasingly more difficult.

I’ve built a framework to help me always choose the right stack for the project, but also a stack that will allow myself and my team to grow our own skills.

Let’s dive in.

Understand your project needs

Before choosing any components of your technological stack, it’s important to understand what your current project requires. This means really diving into the project scope, goals and business requirements.

The key areas to focus on are the type of project that you’re dealing with, the scalability and the performance.

The type of project, such as web application, mobile app or enterprise solution, will play a massive role in dictating what stacks are viable options. Most stacks are designed for specific scenarios, so it’s important to align.

When considering scalability, which would largely impact your backend technology choice, it’s important to factor in how much your project will need to grow in the future. You don’t want to over-engineer by building a massive, complex backend when your project really doesn’t require it.

Lastly, performance is always a critical factor. However, high performance takes time to implement through compiled languages and specific database optimizations. Again, sometimes these considerations aren’t necessary, so it’s important to always build just the right amount required for your current project, while having the opportunity to improve scalability and performance later.

Research job market trends

To take a step back and not think about your specific project, it’s incredibly important to consider the current job market trends.

Where possible, you should avoid building projects in stacks that are no longer relevant or are on a decline in the job market. The reason for this is that companies like to hire specialists in specific stacks or frameworks. By building further skills in a dying (or dead) stack, you may be cutting off potential employment opportunities for yourself.

Always factor in the market when making decisions on how to spend your time.

Assess your skills and the learning curve

Your current skills, coupled with your willingness to learn, play a massive role in your ability to choose a stack as well as quickly gaining knowledge within a new stack.

Some stacks are similar, like React or Angular, while some are completely different, like React and .NET Core. Stacks that are similar typically allow for an easier transition and faster ramp-up time when starting out.

It’s useful to keep this in mind as it means you may have more options than you think, provided you have a decent skill set of one stack, have identified a similar stack and have a willingness to learn.

Balancing your personal preferences with practicality

Ultimately, your comfort and preference play a large role in the work that you do. I truly believe that our best work is done when we enjoy the work that we’re doing.

That’s why finding a stack that you enjoy, but also suits the current project, is a recipe for massive success. While being comfortable is important, ensure that you’re always looking for opportunities to push yourself and get out of your comfort zone so that you can become a better and more well-rounded developer.

That's it for this week.

I hope that you’re all able to find a stack that perfectly aligns with your project, the current market and with what you enjoy. Not every project will be like that, but it’s important to find the ones that do as that’s when you’ll do your best work.

See you again next week.

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