Technology Stack: 7 Tips To Choose The Right One For Your Business
Whether your company is designing mobile applications, web development, or software development projects, the technology chosen as the solution is referred to as the “tech stack” of the project.
In the early stages of your business, it's important to choose a technology that complements your mission and delivers your business's long-term potential. While software development and IT teams are the ones that are most concerned about their technology systems, this is important to everyone in the organization. It is in line with the company's vision and culture. And it is everyone's responsibility to perpetuate the values of the company and achieve its goals.
Every software application is created using various technologies. The selected options are responsible for each layer of the system's architecture.
Your technology stack says a lot about your company. Its framework, programming language, and tools work to prove its organization. This blog article will give you an overview of tech stacks and how you should choose one for your business and its projects.
What Should You Consider When Choosing a Tech Stack?
1. Objective and Requirement
Every project starts with goals and needs. So, you should consider your product vision and the functionality you will build to achieve that vision. They serve as the driving force behind your efforts, and you should keep them in mind throughout the project. Your technology stack must support these requirements.
For instance, if your product or application processes large amounts of data, you should prioritise technology that processes the data quickly and cost-effectively. It is important to evaluate technology from the standpoint of the strategy that will help advance your goals and objectives. If you choose a technology that doesn't really meet your needs, you could incur technical debt that could have been avoided by making better decisions in advance.
2. Team knowledge and skillset
New frameworks or languages seem to offer advantages, but your team may not have in-depth experience working with them. You need to factor in the extra time it takes to learn new technologies. It can also be a problem if the new technology is untested and risky. But relying on outdated or ineffective technology just because team members have deep knowledge can also affect product quality. That's why you should consider the skills and experience of your team members when choosing the best technology for your project.
Keep in mind that if you don't have the skills and competencies needed for a specific project, consider working with external individuals or teams to help. They often bring their technology of choice to complement their skill set.
3. Project scope
Projects of different sizes require different production technologies. While small-scale projects generally do not require the most advanced or comprehensive languages and frameworks, larger and more complex projects often require more efficient and less simplistic tools. Therefore, it is important to assess the scope of your efforts when choosing a technology system to support your needs and the needs of the project.
4. Strong security
Some applications require a higher level of security. Therefore, security is always a concern when you create a new technology or add to existing technology. Also, include tools in your stack that can help you identify and mitigate any risks, including quality assurance tools and techniques. For instance, if you are going to build a video chat application, a messaging application, medical software, or any other solution that contains highly sensitive user information, you must protect yourself with trusted text, eliminating all risks.
So, remember that it's important to only use safe and reliable tools that allow you to enable the highest level of security for your solution and keep it updated regularly to avoid open vulnerabilities.
5. Customer experience and time to market
Your project timeline will also play an important role in determining the key technologies you choose to drive efficiency. How long do you want it to be on the market? What tools will support this timeline? While most business leaders want to be as productive as possible, it's important to consider other factors, as we've discussed here.
Moreover, customer experience drives demand and keeps you in business. You want to identify technologies that provide a high-quality experience and also allow you to quickly release product updates. The ability to offer new experiences to your customers can help you generate feedback faster so you can improve your product. Also, remember that you want a technology stack that allows you to continually improve your product.
6. Scalability
Growth capabilities and needs must be considered before approving the technology stack. The role of the technology stack in application scalability is to handle an increasing number of users and loads and enable the functional extension. For instance, if you want to build an IoT application, you should choose your technology carefully because scalability is one of the most important aspects to consider when developing the product.
You need additional languages, frameworks, and tools that offer the flexibility and potential to scale and adapt your enterprise. Also, keep in mind the features you might want to add later.
7. Cost
Budgets, of course, vary depending on your activity. Large, savvy companies often have a lot of funds to invest in expensive technology stacks, while smaller startups may be a bit more frugal with their money. This, of course, depends on your unique situation.
Think of long-term and short-term value. There are many open source options available for those on a tighter budget, and they are frequently very cost-effective or even free in many cases. However, it's crucial to balance the advantages and disadvantages. Also, consider that more expensive technology is sometimes more valuable - although this is not always the case.
Choosing a tech stack may be a time-consuming and challenging process, requiring careful analysis, an in-depth understanding of your product’s objectives, its potential growth, and hands-on experience.
The technological stack you choose is a big decision because it will determine whether the product is able to satisfy end users’ needs and withstand market competition. Moreover, if you are a growing and promising start-up, a reliable tech stack, chosen as the result of an efficiently conducted discovery stage, will also be a significant reason for investors to support your business. Remember that if the chosen tech stack contains outdated or unpopular technologies, it will be difficult and uncomfortable to maintain the developed product in the long run. After all, the world of technology is always changing.
