Product Development

5.1 A Bit of History

When the Internet Revolution was just kicking off in the '90s, nobody really knew the right way to develop online services. All their features were immediately available to users, which was quite different from traditional software development.

The biggest search engine of that time, Yahoo, decided to take a new path and borrowed an approach from Hollywood – their managers were called producers :) No surprise, it didn’t work out for them.

Fun fact. Yahoo is probably the biggest loser when it comes to acquiring other companies. They had several opportunities to buy both Google and Facebook back in the day. Eventually, Microsoft tried to take them over for 40 billion, but they turned it down again. A few years later, they got bought for just 3 billion. In the '90s, at the peak of their fame, Yahoo was valued at 200 billion dollars. If they had acquired Google, their worth could have been in the trillions today. Don't be like Yahoo.

Since the Internet Revolution, numerous methods for software development have been tested, and things have settled down now. There are standard roles with standard responsibilities, standard processes, and standard software.

During this course, you’ll learn everything you need to know to work in modern IT companies with contemporary development tools.

5.2 Product Team

A typical development team consists of:

• People who decide, what features and functionalities the product should have
  • Product Owner
  • Business Analyst

• People who decide, how the product will look
  • UI Designer
  • UX Designer

• Developers, who bring it all to life
  • Software Architect
  • Backend Developer
  • Frontend Developer
  • Mobile Developer

• Folks, who ensure the product works well
  • QA Automation
  • DevOps

Product Owner plays a key role in software development, managing the product and ensuring the dev team focuses on the most crucial tasks. They define the product vision, create and prioritize the backlog, which helps ensure every development step aligns with business goals and user requirements.

UX Designer works on crafting a user-friendly and effective product interface, including researching user needs, prototyping, and testing interfaces. This gig aims to improve user interaction with the product, making it as clear and convenient as possible.

DevOps folks optimize software development processes and operational management to speed up and simplify product updates. Their job includes automating testing, deployment, and system monitoring, plus setting up infrastructure and ensuring continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD).

5.3 Development Team

The actual coding is done by programmers. They can be roughly divided into 5 categories:

• Software Architect
• Backend Developer
• Frontend Developer
• Mobile Developer
• DBA

Roles and their duties might shift depending on team size and the product's specifics, but it usually rolls like this:

Software Architect: responsible for designing complex software system architectures. The Architect develops technical infrastructure, defines the structure, and interaction methods for various software product components, ensuring scalability, performance, and security.

Backend Developer: specializes in developing the server-side of applications. Their tasks include implementing logic, integrating databases and data management systems, handling user requests, and maintaining interaction with the frontend.

Frontend Developer: builds the user interface of web applications. This role requires knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as frameworks and libraries to create interactive and responsive interfaces, enhancing user interaction with the product.

Mobile Developer: focuses on developing apps for mobile devices. They create apps for different operating systems (like iOS and Android), considering platform specifics, device performance, and user experience.

DBA (Database Administrator): manages databases, ensuring their availability, security, and optimization. They handle tasks like setup, monitoring, and maintenance, along with developing data backup and recovery strategies.