As professionals, we should focus on developing great technical solutions. But, these solutions need to solve real problems. At the end of the day, if we don’t deliver value, no matter how much effort we made, we will fail.

Let’s see three common mistakes developers do that prevent them from meeting the business needs.

Mistake #1 – Pay attention only to the technical aspects

Yes, I know! We are technical people, and our primary concern should be technical stuff. Right? No. I don’t think so.

We are technical people, that’s true! But our mission is to use technology to solve business needs. All technology that we use that business does not recognize as a benefit is wast of time, talent, and money.

Recommended solution: Justify any technical solution you choose with a business need.

For example,

• You want to reduce the cost of adding new features. So, you will adopt TDD.
• You want to save user’s time. So, you use Angular/React/Vue.

Ensure that you will deliver the business benefits. If you are are not ready, don’t make promises _ and _ do not adopt the technology.

Mistake #2 – Do not (even try to) speak the language of the business

If you want to justify your technical decisions with business arguments, you need to speak the business language.

Accept this fact: YOU ARE NOT A DOMAIN EXPERT, no matter how experienced you are. If you are not in front of the business, you are not able to define what the business needs are.

Recommended Solution: Pay attention to the business vocabulary and adopt it. Develop and use a Ubiquitous Language.

Do not even try to make business people understand technical vocabulary. It is waste of (valuable) time.

Mistake #3 – Resist to accept changes in the requirements

This one is difficult. Believe me; I know how frustrating it is. Sometimes, we need to change everything. Sometimes we need to throw away many hours of work and thousands of lines of code.

Yes! The business world is dynamic and changes every time. Besides of that, people don’t look like understanding how costly it is to change software.

No matter how much effort you put to understand the requirements. When the business people start using your software, the changes will come.

What you need to understand is: It is pointless to resist the change.

Recommend Solution: Start your work knowing that the changes will come. Write code that is easy to read, understand and change. And, above all, stop segregating people. There is no “us and them.” Be professional and accept that everyone is in the same boat.

It’s time to action

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list. What we have here is just a starting point. Share with me your opinions! I want to make a step in the right direction every day, and you are welcome to help me.

Also, You can subscribe the newsletter. I will send you a lot of technical and non-technical content. Only things that are helping me to be a better professional.

Cover image from: Nathan Dumlao

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