What is Full-Stack Development?

What is HTML All The Things

HTML All The Things is a web development podcast and discord community which was started by Matt and Mike, developers based in Ontario, Canada.

The podcast speaks to web development topics as well as running a small business, self-employment and time management. You can join them for both their successes and their struggles as they try to manage expanding their Web Development business without stretching themselves too thin.

What's This One About?

Full-stack web developers can work on all aspects of websites from the user interface to the database that drives the content. Combining the frontend developer and backend developer positions, full-stack developers boast a full set of skills that many recruiters find useful. With the ever-increasing number of features that are packed into websites and web apps, are full-stack development positions sustainable? Is it possible to know all the skills needed well enough to do your job on all parts of the stack?

Show Notes

What is Full-Stack referring to?

• Full-stack developer titles are on the rise
• It almost feels like you have to say you are ‘full-stack’ without even know what that means
• In the base definition, it refers to being an absolute generalist that can take an idea and create an application around it on their own
  • Build and design the frontend
  • Create the database schema and database
  • Create the API routes
  • Secure the backend connections
  • Create a continuous integration deployment system
  • Create the server infrastructure
  • Manage backups
  • Etc
• Generally hired by small companies that are looking to get something built out by a small/1 person team
• 54% of web developers identify as full stack according to the stackoverflow surview in 2020 (link)

Is Full-stack development the right decision for you?

• The reality is if you can demonstrate that you know the ‘full-stack’ you’ll have opportunities open up
• There are a ton of tools now that make it easier
  • Prismic for sql queries
  • PlanetScale for scalable database
  • NodeJS for people that already know JavaScript for frontend
  • React, Vue, Svelte for building dynamic layouts fairly simply
  • Netlify, Vercel for continuous deployment and servers
• The problem is that these systems that are being built by most full stack developers are not sustainable or scalable
• If a company needs a proof of concept fast, maybe it makes sense to get a full stack developer but the expectation should be that to scale they will probably need to rebuild crucial parts of their application
• Having one developer responsible for the whole infrastructure leads to very high chance of downtime
• If the developer leaves, or gets sick you’re entire system could fail

A Move back to Traditional Roles

• A much more sustainable approach is building out a development team where people are responsible for sections of the app
  • Frontend lead with frontend devs under them that are responsible for building out the UI/UX of the app
    • As well as connecting to the backend APIs
  • A backend lead with backend devs responsible for creating the database schema and setup, the routes as well a securing the APIs
  • A devOps team that can standup servers, create and maintain deployment workflows and support backend security teams
• This all sounds expensive and extravagant but you can start small by at least hiring one or two extra people to split responsibilities
• Then doing some cross training to make sure that if someone leaves you’re not SOL
• Companies need to also think about the pressure they are putting on full stack devs
  • This can lead to quick burnout and high churn
• Looking for ‘unicorns’ and ‘10x developers’ is not a sustainable or even achievable practice. Companies need to be pragmatic and just look for developers that can build.

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