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Companies, managers, and team leaders constantly seek easier, faster, more efficient, and innovative product development and problem-solving...

Companies, managers, and team leaders constantly seek easier, faster, more efficient, and innovative product development and problem-solving. Besides casual brainstorming and discussions, there are a lot of more creative methods that come in handy, one of them being Event Storming.

Once you get familiar with this method and its benefits, next time you will be less surprised after entering a room full of colorful sticky notes. Stay with us to learn what is Event Storming and its main principles.

Event Storming is a workshop-based method that helps quickly identify issues and processes in the domain of software development. Its roots reach the DDD (Domain-Driven Design) approach. It helps teams to see the big picture of the situation and reveals its complexity and status, as well as helps to clarify needs and goals. 

As Event Storming accelerates group learning and finding non-standard, alternative solutions and improves the efficiency of teamwork, it’s commonly adopted by both startups and more mature organizations. Needless to say - it can be also truly fun, stimulating and engaging, and much more satisfying than traditional methods. And all of this can be achieved with the simplest tools you can even think of - colorful sticky notes.

**What can you use Event Storming for?**

- Building business modules
- Assessing the health of existing business models or products
- Defining or highlighting your project’s goals, needs, challenges
- Visualizing the potential solutions and brainstorming
- Identifying bottlenecks and areas for improvement in already existing products and processes
- Getting a shared vision or common understanding of the discussed topic.

On the contrary, Event Storming may not be suitable for creating deployment plans, designing documents, or planning the coding process, and it’s not a substitute for a UML diagram, flow chart, architecture diagram, or any other tools used in the implementation. Event Storming is much more about improving teamwork that drives creative thinking, exchanging ideas, and running productive conversations and discussions.

Although Event Storming can be used in nearly every industry, it perfectly corresponds with the specifics of IT projects.


To get a better understanding of how Event Storming can contribute to your daily work, think about the last project you completed. What did developers have to do to understand the business domain, and build the system that would correspond with the client’s needs? Most probably, they had to chat with a dozen of team members such as domain experts, architects, designers, and more. As a result, the knowledge got too diluted, distorted, and fragmented to be able to build a complete, functional model.

Event Storming can respond to these challenges and minimize the risk of misunderstandings in the project. With this method, you can accelerate communication and involve everyone in the problem-solving process.

**So what are the benefits of using Event Storming in IT projects?**

- Common vision. The team working together can go deeper into the discussion and achieve mutual understanding, even between technical and non-technical stakeholders and participants.
- Accelerated group learning. Thanks to this collaborative method you will achieve rapid modeling without the need to become a DDD expert.
- Fast development. Event Storming increases software development efficiency and helps to define goals, objectives, and principles, and to form business models in a reduced time. 
- Boosted creativity. Event Storming drives innovation and allows for a much more inspiring product development process than standard techniques do.
Integration and cooperation. Working together can be fun, and help team members to achieve more. Thanks to hands-on experience, everyone can participate and interact, which leads to increasing morale in the team and more satisfying results.
- Efficient problem-solving. Breaking the process down into simple terms helps to identify bottlenecks and find alternative solutions much faster.
- Group learning. During the Event Storming session, everyone is involved in the process, which stimulates group work and learning by doing. It also involves exchanging knowledge between domain experts.
- Low costs. The process is informal and inexpensive. To organize an Event - Storming workshop, you need paper, sticky notes and pens that you can most probably find in every office.

An Event Storming session is typically a one-day event preceded by the right preparations and involving the proper people. There are obviously different approaches to the method, however, we’re gonna provide you the information on the most classical one.

At Amsterdam Standard, we typically start the workshop with a short discussion about the purpose of the session. We make sure that all participants are prepared to use the technique, and have the essential knowledge. We start with pre-defining the problem and the flow of the session. With the right preparations, we usually manage to map the complete business process during a single workshop.

**1. Right people**

The people involved in the Event Storming session are: 

- _Participants. _The process must involve both domain experts and people who came to ask questions, and be based on cross-department cooperation. Typical participants are C-level employees, stakeholders, business domain representatives, managers, developers, team leaders, designers, and testers, depending on the project’s specifics and objectives. Everyone should be equally engaged, related to the problem, and able to contribute. This usually means involving 6-8 people on average.


- _The facilitator._ To keep an Event Storming session effective, it needs to be led by an experienced facilitator or trainer who plays an essential role in the process. They provide participants with instructions and moderate the entire workshop to make it smooth, clear, and valuable. What’s important, they don’t disrupt the process and don’t interrupt the participants’ vision, but only control the flow and make sure it goes in the right direction.

**2. Right space**

To run an effective Event Storming process, you need to prepare the working space.  Start with collecting multicolor sticky notes, markers, and a big piece of paper or a vertically oriented flipchart that will allow you to arrange the notes on the timeline. Make sure you have enough working space, and that you will not be limited by the dimension of the room or paper - as you will prepare a big map containing ideas, expressions, and questions written on sticky notes, the modeling space should be as big as possible. We also advise removing chairs and tables
Let’s also shortly discuss the colors of sticky notes. To make the process effective, they should appear in different shades. Of course, you can agree on your own color code within your team, but the most basic colors used in Event Storming are orange, blue, and green. To ass more context to the model, you can also use yellow, purple, pink, or red. So, make sure you have enough sticky notes in different colors before setting up the place. 

**3. Right communication**

The language of communication during an Event Storming workshop should be as clear as possible, and understandable to everyone. For example, if you typically work with developers, but for this specific project, you need to engage stakeholders without technical knowledge, make sure that your team members will be understood. To ensure this, avoid technical jargon or explain the most important keywords right before the process.

**4. Business domain**

A good understanding of the business domain is essential in effective Event Storming sessions. There are three main components of the Event Storming model that help to break down the discussed problem:

_Events_

Identifying domain events is the first step in the process. Domain events are all events that happen and trigger reactions. This step helps to understand the principles and functionality of the designed processes or system and is a critical step of the Event Storming session.

The events, defined and written down on sticky notes, should be then organized in chronological or sequential order on the timeline. The recommended color of the sticky note is orange, and the phrases should be formed in the past tense to highlight that there are events that actually happened.

The examples of events are:
- An account was created.
- An e-mail was sent.
- Tickets are sold out.
- The payment was completed.

_Commands_

Once you have your domain events defined, it’s time to evaluate each of them and find answers to the question: why did this event occur? Evaluating each of them will help you to define their causes and the factors that triggered them called commands. They can also represent user interactions with the designed system and are typically written on blue sticky notes.

The examples of commands are:
- Create account.
- Send e-mail.
- Sell tickets.
- Complete payment.

_Reactions_

The next step in the process is writing down what will happen as a result of previously defined events. They are put on green sticky notes in future or present tense.

Examples of the reactions are:
- Creating account results in sending a confirmation e-mail.
- Sending e-mail results in confirming the participation.
- Selling the results of the ticket in blocking the reservation system.
- Completing the payment results in sending an e-book.

Combining events, commands and reactions helps to map the processes and visualize the functionality of the system.

**5. Domain-driven design**

The next step of an Event Storming session is creating a domain-driven design. This part is optional but can help you to define the structure of the system and make further implementation easier and more smooth. In simple words, the previously created modules can be now grouped by using boxes, circles, and arrows that provide context for sticky notes. 

For example, you can group together the events and reactions related to automated messages sent by the e-mail marketing system, and then define how they are linked to digital advertising, payments, shipping options, etc. Thanks to this, all participants will be able to see how modules interact with each other, influence the flow of the process, and will be able to develop the full visual picture of the system’s functionality. 


As you can see, Event Storming is a simple but effective method that can accelerate teamwork, contribute to the product designing process, and bring significant value to the business domain.

At Amsterdam Standard, we use Event Storming and other creative methods on a daily basis while developing projects for our clients. If you feel like working in a creative, cooperative team utilizing modern, interactive methods, feel free to check out our open positions and send your CV.

Event Storming: what it is, benefits & risks

What values Lean management can bring to project and team management? Let’s take a look at this together.

#### What values Lean management can bring to project and team management? Let’s take a look at this together.


Lean management is mostly associated with manufacturing, but some parts of its philosophy can be successfully applied to project management and even team management.

Let’s start with Kaizen, a continuous improvement methodology that originated in the Japanese manufacturing industry. Kaizen principles can be well applied in other industries. I’d like to present to you the fundamentals of it and illustrate how we can use them in project management.

Maasaki Imai, who introduced the Kaizen approach described the whole concept in one accurate sentence: “Kaizen is everyday improvement, everybody improvement, everywhere improvement.” The word Kaizen stands for “Good” (zen) and “Change” (kai). 

The core of Kaizen’s philosophy are 10 principles that allow you to understand the whole mindset:
1. Let go of assumptions.
2. Be proactive about solving problems.
3. Don't accept the status quo.
4. Let go of perfectionism and take an attitude of iterative, adaptive change.
5. Look for solutions as you find mistakes.
6. Create an environment in which everyone feels empowered to contribute.
7. Don't accept the obvious issue; instead, ask "why" five times to get to the root cause.
8. Collect information and opinions from multiple people.
9. Use creativity to find low-cost, small improvements.
10. Never stop improving.

Teams that are already working in Scrum, might even not know that they’re already using camouflaged Kaizen’s technique: PDCA - plan, do, check, act.

- **Plan** - it’s nothing else than planning a Sprint and all the work that needs to be done
- **Do** - Ongoing Sprint while we’re delivering the work
- **Check** - demo and retrospective (what else is a retrospective meeting than seeking improvement?)
- **Act** - all the action items taken to improve the process, team collaboration, and delivered product

We can say that Kaizen gave birth to the idea of continuous improvement in Agile.

Taking a look at retrospective meetings, it’s team time to think about what went well, what could be better, and what improvements can be made, so it’s a powerful tool that allows the team to continuous improvement, therefore practicing Kaizen. They can identify small steps, be proactive about solving problems and make changes in an iterative way. 

From a project management perspective, a very useful technique might be asking 5 times why. Cast the first stone who was not struggling with the issue, racking his head about the root cause. So, when the problem occurs you can drill down in a simple way, to peel off the symptoms layers, discover ‘the truth’ and prevent issues from recurring. 


If Kaizen is about continuous improvement, we could also use it just for people. Companies, projects, and processes… but the heart of all of it are people. What’s the best way of using Kaizen for individuals? It’s a feedback loop. 
Asking for feedback or giving feedback is not a simple thing, but we all know it’s needed for both improvement and growth. Using the Kaizen philosophy in team management could be feedback based. 
First, we should focus on continuity. Giving feedback once won’t change much, improvement will take place if we will make it with a specific frequency, on a continuous basis. What’s also important is that it should be goal-oriented, not time oriented, and perfectly divided into smaller objectives. As Kaizen says: Let go of perfectionism and take an attitude of iterative, adaptive change. It also means that by giving feedback we should be as specific as possible to give improvement opportunities as soon as possible (in an interactive way). 
Good feedback also doesn’t give ready solutions. Empower people to actively seek improvements and growth opportunities, solving issues and being proactive about that. A perfect way to talk about feedback and shortcut the distance between the leader and team member is Gemba's walk.


Gemba is a Japanese word that means 'the real place', but lean management adopted it to describe any location where work happens. The most important aspect of Gemba is the “Gemba walk” which is literally a walk and it encourages leaders/managers to interact with people they work with, and interact with projects and processes. 
Why is it important? It gives both leaders and managers a better overview of the project and could help to obtain more details, and understand the team as a whole and all the members. 
What will it give you? More transparency and trust encourage greater communication which is a perfect ground for building strong, well-performing teams. 


Don’t forget to improve!

Amsterdam Standard officially announced the acquisition of the leading Laravel development company HighSolutions from Poznan. 


Amsterdam Standard officially announced the acquisition of the leading Laravel development company HighSolutions from Poznan. Together, they will grow their footprint over Poland and continue delivering team augmentation services for fast-growing SaaS companies in the Netherlands. The HighSolutions team will be fully integrated into Amsterdam Standard, and both companies will continue under the brand of Amsterdam Standard. 

In a labor market where development talent is scarce, Amsterdam Standard has been delivering top-notch development power for almost 19 years. Employing ± 170 experts - spread over five offices in Poland and Amsterdam - both companies combine the power and flexibility of remote development teams with the advantages of local project management, UX/UI design and quality assurance.

Currently, the company delivers development teams for more than 40 innovative Dutch clients, such as MrWork, ChannelEngine, Nutricia, Orderchamp, LeadingCourses, Yesty, WPP, GoBoony, Tiqets and many more.
 
The founders of HighSolutions have acquired a stake in the holding company of Amsterdam Standard (Saasmore) and have already joined the management team of Amsterdam Standard.
The daily management of Amsterdam Standard is still in the hands of current Amsterdam Standard CEO Tomasz Rzany. In the next three years, the company will aim to double in size by expanding in Poland.


>"From the beginning, I knew that Amsterdam Standard was the right partner for us to join forces,"

explains Adam Matysiak, co-founder of HighSolutions. 


>"We were ready to take the next step. Thanks to a stronger operations team, more mature processes and a more efficient business model, we can deliver more value than before. The knowledge, experience, and team of Amsterdam Standard are just top-notch, and we will highly benefit from their culture. Moreover, their mostly Dutch clients will bring interesting new opportunities for our current developers. And I believe that we will also deliver outstanding results to Amsterdam Standard and their clients." 

Adam Machowiak, the second co-founder continues: 

>“We are pretty sure that we can double our team in Poznan now quickly to ± 60 colleagues. To accommodate that growth, we will move into a new office soon, and we are very excited about that!”


>"With HighSolutions, we onboard tons of experience to our team that will help us with our growth in Poland and the Netherlands,” 

says Tomasz Rzany. 


>“They built a very well-recognised Laravel specialized boutique agency with great clients. This deal will strengthen our position as a leader in team augmentation for SaaS businesses, and their access to high-end development talent in Poznan will help us achieve our clients' ambitions even better. In 2021 we experienced such a big demand from our existing clients that we rapidly needed to scale up our operations to stay a relevant partner for them. We always wanted to build a presence in Poznan since this city hosts an amazing eco-system for tech companies. The conditions and infrastructure are just perfect there. I am delighted that the team of HighSolutions will now join our ranks to help us achieve our mission."

Would you like to know more about this acquisition? Please contact Tomasz Rzany (tomasz@amsterdamstandard.com) or Adam Matysiak (adam@amsterdamstandard.com).


HighSolutions joins forces with Amsterdam Standard

In this article, we’d like to bring you closer to the roles of Project Manager and Product Owner in Amsterdam Standard, outline the main responsibilities and show how these two roles meet in our cooperation.

Simply put, Product Owner role is to “[maximize the value of the Produc](https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-a-product-owner)t”. Yeah, we have heard it many times, but what does it actually mean? 

#### Maximize the value of the Product

Value is nothing else than the financial benefit that the company receives by releasing a developed product (until it is pro bono). 
Now, knowing that, we can say that a Product Owner is a key person responsible for the Product, its management, its vision, and is inextricably linked with the Development Team who produces it. 

#### Product Owner responsibilities - a simplified version

###### Define a clear vision.
Product Owner is the person who should communicate with the rest of the company and understand business objectives. Then, understanding that he should be able to prepare a product Roadmap to easily present the business goals to the team. It’s on his shoulders to keep the product in line with goals and make sure that the Development Team understands where they are going. 

###### Prioritize.
As PO knows the goal, he can juggle budget, timeline, and scope for defining priorities: what should be done first, and what can be done next. 

###### Manage the Product backlog.
Ok, we already know that PO needs to prioritize, but what exactly? First, he needs to prepare a backlog (a list of functionalities that the product should contain). Then, he should manage it, which means: designing dependencies, blockers, priorities, create user stories.
Here I would like to stop for a moment and have a better look at this point.

**Papa Of User Stories**
Poor user stories or even lack of them is one of the biggest complaints from the Development Team. I used to caressingly call the Product Owner a Papa of user Stories, as creating them is one of his key responsibilities. User Stories are the heart of the PO’s role as they represent the tangible elements of the vision, are prioritized, and show detailed direction. It’s an instruction for the team. The Development Team can actively help PO and provide technical support, but PO is the only one and the right person to define the pieces that are creating the final product. 

###### Oversee development stages.
As some of the overseeing duties can be delegated e.g. to Project Manager, it’s important for PO to be present on Sprint Review and Refinement. Under these Scrum ceremonies is nothing more than checking the product under construction and seeking process improvements. 

#### Who should be a Product Owner?
In our collaborations, the Product Owner role is cast by someone from the customer's side. You know your product, vision, and goals better than anyone. If you don’t have such a role specified in your company it’s nothing to worry about! At the same beginning of our cooperation, we’ll consciously discuss the responsibilities and give you all the necessary support to fulfill that role. Our project managers can also act as Proxy-PO who could work with you hand in hand, if you need only partial support. For the full commitment support we highly recommend our close partner [Expandior](https://www.expandior.nl/). 




If you google “Project Manager” you’ll get a list of responsibilities that a person in this role is accountable for. If you talk to any Project Manager you’ll notice that it differs in the companies. If you think about Agile and Scrum you’ll find out that there’s no role like Project Manager, only Scrum Master. 
What’s the role of the Project Manager in AS then and why is it so important?

#### We’re more than Scrum Masters
We work in Scrum or Kanban and usually one of our PMs plays the role of Scrum Master, (until otherwise agreed at the beginning of the project). It helps our client to have the best focus on the PO role. 

Other Project Manager's responsibilities are as follows:

- Weekly health-check with a team.
- Key facilitator: Their goal is to empower their team and clear potential roadblocks, paving the way for project success. 
- Support the team with ‘inside’ issues.
- Feedback evaluations, team performance.
- Build process and seek improvements.
- Support PO in his role.
- Organize other ad hoc meetings, team integrations, and visits.
- Introduce new team members to the rest of the team. 
- Help manage holidays.

#### Project Manager - observer
For smaller projects ( <2devs) or projects where there’s a PM on our partner’s side, we’re supporting as active observers who start acting when the situation calls for it. It’s the minimum engagement that ensures that if something unexpected pop’s up we’re up and ready to help you. This approach is based on weekly or biweekly health-check with our partner and team, yearly evaluations, and ad hoc help.


To feel the roles and responsibilities of PO and PM better, let’s see them this way. You’re going on a cruise, but you don’t know how long it will take. It's the most important cruise in your life because it makes your dreams come true and will bring you money.

You’re taking a team with you, it's an experienced crew, very eager to sail with you. But they either don’t know how much time it will take and what’s the destination, they don’t know you, don’t know the boat, so it’s your first role to do. You need to explain what’s the objective of this sail, where are you going, and what you want to achieve. Human memory fails, so you can prepare for them a (road)Map showing the most important places you’ll be visiting and more or less when. If the weather disturbs your course and you deviate from the sailing course, don't forget to update your map! You have a budget for your trip, you know the desired dates of arrival and the scope of the journey. It’s up to you to make the priorities for this trip and plan the most important ones.

Ah, the scope. On your ship, each crew member has a task. All the tasks are important for the journey and its scope. They’re experienced guys, so they will be fine with outlined user stories. Just prepare the generally described tasks for two weeks. Don’t forget about the acceptance criteria. If you want them to bootleg rum in barrels, say it! Otherwise, if you just say: prepare me alcohol in barrels, you may expect anything else.
From time to time have a look if it goes according to your priorities if the process is well and if the boat is heading in the right direction. We don’t want to have a Titanic, right? As a captain of the ship, you have more important things to do than look after your team daily.

Luckily, you took the project manager with you who’ll be your right hand. He’ll perform standups, retrospectives, and other sailings (scrum) ceremonies. He’ll remove obstacles, take care of your crew's well-being, support you, and take care of process improvements. So, even if you get seasick, your crew will be taken care of and the ship will be on track! 


… is simple. We define the roles and responsibilities at the early stage of cooperation, together. We support each other during our common journey and always bet on clear and transparent communication.

Project Manager vs Product Owner

Developers around the world struggle to find new solutions for faster, more efficient, and effortless coding. Also, the constant lack of qualified IT specialists leads to the creation of new ways of engaging non-technical employees in the software …

###### Developers around the world struggle to find new solutions for faster, more efficient, and effortless coding. Also, the constant lack of qualified IT specialists leads to the creation of new ways of engaging non-technical employees in the software development process.

###### One of the existing options that can help to reduce talent shortage is low-code development. What is it and how can it influence the coding process?

Low-code is the software development approach utilizing a visual software development environment that enables the building applications by simply dragging and dropping ready-to-use, pre-defined components. Those tools are delivered with an easily navigable graphical user interface (GUI) and are equipped with various elements such as scripts, integration options, blueprints, testing and automation tools, and more. Then, those pre-defined components can be freely arranged into more complex modules and applications and perform desired functionalities.

Low-code approach can help to develop software for a number of industries, including business services, manufacturing, logistics, banking, telecom, education, and many more. Within the low-code environment, it is possible to build mobile and web applications, custom apps, microservices, and other types of software.

In addition, there is also a sister of low-code - the no-code development. Although both systems provide companies with similar benefits, they differ slightly. Low code reduces the amount of work but still requires some coding, while no code is based only on using ready-to-use components and doesn’t involve any programming skills to build simple applications. Then, this method is dedicated mainly to non-technical software development adepts.

Obviously, low-code development was not created for no reason, and now it provides businesses with a wide range of benefits and opportunities. Low-code development:

- Requires way less advanced programming skills than traditional software development methods. Thanks to this, it enables non-programmers to build simple applications to automate their daily work and get more engaged in the problem-solving processes; 

- Makes the software development process more enjoyable and more efficient as it reduces the need for writing code line-by-line;

- Allows companies to meet their customers’ demand and launch products faster due to a shorter software development process; 

- Helps to reduce talent shortage in the IT market, as it enables specialists from various backgrounds to perform software development tasks, and makes programming more accessible to adepts;

- Contributes to digital transformation, helps companies to benefit from utilizing modern technologies, and improves their agility.

Although the low-code development approach is undoubtedly promising, there are a few challenges that you need to be aware of.

- The low-code software development is usually more difficult to track and supervise for managers and team leaders. They typically have less control over their subordinates’ actions and the results of their work.

- Unwisely used low-code development can lead to non-efficient resource spending due to the higher independence of inexperienced employees utilizing this tool.

- Although the low-code approach accelerates software development, it still requires some programming skills to build truly functional apps. Software developed by non-technicians sooner or later will become difficult to maintain and scale, and might collect a technical debt.

As we have already explained, low-code development is based on intuitive visual tools coming along with a set of ready-to-use components that can be arranged into more complex modules. This is exactly what makes this programming method so effortless and fast.

There are a number of low-code development platforms available on the market, and the chosen tool may significantly influence the costs, quality, and efficiency of the software development process. Let’s take a look at the most popular solutions:

#### Lansa
Lansa is the low-code development platform equipped with IDE enabling the creation of different types of applications: desktop, web, and mobile. Thanks to extended functionalities, it helps to build apps easier and faster and allows for high control over the software development process. In addition, it delivers a variety of deployment, testing, and integration tools, which makes the creation of enterprise software more efficient, cheaper, and productive.

#### Retool
Retool is one of the fastest available tools for low-code development. Equipped with over 50 ready-to-use components, it allows for developing and launching software products much faster than traditional methods. Moreover, it offers the possibility to easily switch to JavaScript coding mode anytime the user needs to customize the app’s design or functionality. It also allows for smooth integration with a number of data sources thanks to API.

#### Appian
Appian helps companies to build a variety of applications that improves the quality and efficiency of business services. Like many low-code development tools, it comes along with drag-and-drop components, AI/ML services, and easy integrations with popular data providers and cloud systems, Moreover, it ensures the proper security of the developed applications and intelligent automation of the development process.

#### Mendix
One of the most popular platforms of a kind, Mendix helps to build functional applications for any type of device and is easy to adopt even by non-experienced programmers. It offers different types of deployment: on-premises, public cloud, and private cloud. It allows for agile project management, automatically creates backups, and operates in the offline mode. 

#### Quixy
Quixy is a cloud-based platform dedicated to non-technical users. The tool allows for building and automating workflows across all business departments with no need to use coding skills. It highly contributes to improving business efficiency thanks to the significant elimination of manual coding. It comes along with a text editor, QR-code scanner, facial recognition, e-signature widget, and other useful tools. It also allows for easy integration with 3rd party solutions through connectors and API and is also available in the offline mode.

#### Creatio
Creation is an intelligent platform offering a variety of templates and ready-to-use solutions for low-code development. It allows for building functional applications and automating routine tasks and manual operations. The provided tools, such as the BPM engine and automation solutions, help to build software easily and flexibly. It also comes along with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning tools that can be used to improve business processes, structure analytical work and ensure the right security.

#### UI Bakery
UI Bakery, the last popular low-code platform in our overview, allows for the building of functional apps with the help of pre-defined and custom components. It also comes along with a number of data source connectors including HTTP, and SQL. Thanks to this, it ensures fast development while keeping high customization of the solutions thanks to the possibility of using JavaScript. Their prices and packages are cost-friendly for small and medium businesses



Low-code development will surely benefit a number of developers and companies worldwide. It successfully accelerates the software development process and makes it more enjoyable. Thanks to this approach, programmers don’t need to struggle with writing the code line-by-line and can take on more complex tasks, and complete them within shorter deadlines.

However, although the solution is becoming more advanced and popular, we should not expect that the low-code approach will fully replace developers. Human involvement will be still required to build really functional solutions which would be easy to integrate with third-party, maintain and scale. The process will still need to be supervised, as software development performed only by non-technical people, even with the support of dedicated tools, will come along with risk.

So, there’s no need to worry that low-code development will replace regular software development. There’s still the need for improving your software development skills as the software developers’ profession will remain reputable and highly desired in the upcoming years.

christopher-gower-m-hrflhgabo-unsplash.jpeg

Low-code development: pros and cons and best tools

More and more people use the opportunity to work remotely from a number of attractive European …

If the COVID-19 pandemic brought anything positive to the world, that’s definitely the increased popularity of remote jobs. Most of us are no longer stuck in tiny offices but have more freedom to explore the world and work not only from home but simply wherever we have access to the Internet.

Therefore, more and more people use the opportunity to work remotely from a number of attractive European locations. The number of digital nomads increased, but there is also another trend that has emerged - workation. What is it, why is it so popular and what are the best workation locations in Europe in 2022?

Workation is a term combining two words: “work” and “vacation”. This means nothing but combining traveling and exploring another location while working remotely. In this way, it is possible to travel much longer than during a typical vacation as there’s no need to take days off. You can still continue working 9-5 and enjoy a new location in your free time.

Workation obviously has many benefits. It helps to get away from the daily routine, get more relaxed and simply spend much more time in beautiful locations without the need to rush back home to work after a week or two. It’s a priceless opportunity to feel like a local person and enjoy the daily life of habitants which is usually not accessible during a short-term visit. The ability to change the environment and work from a much more appealing place also boosts motivation, improves creativity and impacts the overall attitude toward work.

How to start your vacation in Europe? There are only a few simple rules that must be applied:

- the ability to work remotely and from abroad

- income able to cover costs of living in a foreign country

- ability to travel freely (with limited luggage and a Schengen visa)

- booking accommodation in advance (to get the best prices)

- choosing a digital nomad-friendly location.

Now, let’s move on to the top European workation locations to provide you with an outstanding workation experience.

Before we start to dwell on the topic of places worth visiting, let’s see what factors are important when choosing a location for remote work. You should definitely take into account:

- Prices. It might be challenging to live in a country where daily life is much more expensive than at home. This is why we decided to focus mostly on affordable locations and some European hidden gems to make sure that you will be able to enjoy your workation to the fullest.

- Internet speed and coworking spaces. There’s nothing more annoying than a poor Internet connection while you’re trying to work remotely. Also, the presence of coworking spaces where you can meet digital nomads is valuable.

- Quality of life. No one wants to worry about high crime rates, poor access to health facilities or insufficient infrastructure. All the places in our interview meet European standards and will provide you with a comfortable and undisturbed stay.

- Visa and COVID-19 situation. Although in summer 2022 most of the restrictions are already gone, the situation is still dynamic and unpredictable. This is why we suggest places with easy access without the COVID-19 certificate.

- Culture and attractions. Of course, you travel for a reason - you want to really enjoy whatever your workation spots have to offer. Therefore, we provided you with outstanding locations with great nature or historic or cultural heritage to explore. 

- Friendliness of locals and English speaking. Living abroad, even for a short while, comes along with integration with local people. Then, the ability to communicate with them will be definitely a plus.

#### Canary Islands
The Canary Islands has been one of the most popular workation destinations for many years. Affordable prices, amazing weather all year long, a variety of landscapes and easy access from a number of European locations make it a perfect spot for digital nomads. In such a location, you can successfully combine working with all the playful activities that the islands have to offer.

Most of the islands are accessible by ferry or plane and it’s pretty easy to get around by car or even public transportation. A stable Internet connection and London timezone make connecting with workmates or clients convenient within standard working hours. There is also a number of cafes and coworking spots for digital nomads and a friendly international community. Affordable accommodation is available at both luxury hotels and private, cozy apartments, which makes it easy to find comfortable short-term or long-term housing.

#### Albania
Thanks to a number of tourists that visited this location in 2020 and 2021 due to the lack of pandemic restrictions, Albania gained in popularity. In 2022, it is the 9th most popular workation location according to the [Work from Wherever Index ](https://www.kayak.co.uk/work-from-wherever/rank)published by KAYAK, and 15th place in the global pool overtaking iconic digital nomad hubs such as Thailand or Mexico. 

And this has not happened for no reason. Albania offers breathtaking nature, and pleasant weather all year long, and a number of great apartments to let at one of the Mediterranean locations such as Vlore or Durres. For those who prefer city vibes and less touristy spots, Tirana, the capital, will be also a perfect choice. No matter where you stay, there is always a stable Internet connection and one of the lowest hotel and housing prices in the world, which makes Albania a perfect location for all digital nomads.

#### Montenegro
As a Balkan sister of Albania, Montenegro is also attracting tourists with breathtaking, one-of-a-kind landscapes and nearly untouched Mediterranean nature. The country, despite the EUR currency, also offers affordable prices and convenient locations to stay both short-term and long-term. If you don’t mind summer crowds, you can first try out Budva which is just a short ride away from one of the most stunning European spots called the Bay of Kotor. However, if you prefer finding accommodation in smaller but cozy locations, you can always turn your steps to Herceg Novi or Bar region. 

Much cheaper than nearby Croatian, Montenegro will soon attract many tourists as well as digital nomads. From there you can also easily move around the Balkans and explore the variety they have to offer. 

#### Amsterdam
As the first European capital in the overview, this vibrant city will provide you with a variety of attractions related to art, culture and music. Much more modern than the Balkans, it will be a perfect spot for those who prefer Western vibes. In the city, you will find a number of cozy cafes by the stunning Amsterdam channels where digital nomads can spend their day working, enjoying completing daily tasks and exploring the magic of the Dutch iconic city. Amsterdam is also a perfect starting point for tours around the Netherlands, Belgium and Northern Germany.

At Amsterdam Standard, we are huge fans of Amsterdam as well as remote work. Our employees are free to spend their workation at our Amsterdam apartment fully prepared for short-term and long-term stays. Thanks to this, they can use the opportunity to work from another country and enjoy all the workation benefits.

#### Budapest
If you haven’t visited this spot yet, you should definitely do it! Budapest is one of the most beautiful European cities - some sources and visitors claim that it even outshines the iconic Rome or Vienna. Vibrant nightlife, affordable prices, excellent wine, and a lot of greenery make the city one of the best places to visit - and work remotely, too. 

Staying in Budapest is a great idea all year long. In summer, you can spend some time at Margit Island, the island on the Danube river, or relax at one of many thermal pools available in the city. You can also make a short trip to one of the remote spots accessible by trains, such as Visegrad or Szentendre. Winter is a perfect time to enjoy amazing ruin pubs and hot thermal baths, not even to mention the rich historical and cultural heritage that the city has to offer. Affordable rent and food prices make it easy to stay long-term - you can get a coffee for just 1.20 EUR and rent a room or small apartment from 400 to 800 EUR per month.

#### Slovenia
Slovenia, although frequently skipped in a number of overviews of the best locations for workation and digital nomads, is a hidden European gem definitely worth exploring. You would be surprised by the beauty that this country has to offer, starting with lovely Ljubljana, the capital, and finishing with iconic locations such as Bled Lake, Triglav peak and Postojna Cave. If you’re craving adventure, you can also try out one of the rafting organized right there.

For your workation, you can choose either the vibrant capital offering rich cultural life or one of smaller town of spots for more relaxing and cozy experience. As Slovenia is a part of the EU, you can enjoy all the benefits offered by the European country, such as fast Internet connection, easy access to healthcare, and overall safety.

#### Malaga
This iconic city of Andalusia is a great choice for an all-year-long workation stay with its amazing weather and great access to beaches, natural landscapes and vibrant nightlife. While staying in Malaga, you can enjoy the vibes of Spain away from the crowds, and you will be just a short ride away from stunning attractions such as Ronda, Gibraltar or Seville. Malaga is definitely one of the best workation spots in Spain considering prices, climate, weather and access to culture and Mediterranean nature.

Moreover, Spain is the world’s second best country for remote work, according to the [Work from Wherever Index](https://www.kayak.co.uk/work-from-wherever/rank?region=europe). This result is based on fast internet speed, a high number of restaurants and cafes per capita, access to co-working spaces, and the availability of remote visas for freelancers. Then, feel free to explore also other locations in Spain. 

#### Lisbon
As this is Portugal which [was ranked the best country to work remotely](https://www.kayak.co.uk/work-from-wherever/rank?region=europe), we simply couldn’t skip Lisbon in this overview. Similar to Malaga, it’s an all-year-long sunny and affordable destination for digital nomads. Lisbon offers amazing wine and food, excellent sweets and the soothing presence of the ocean. On the other side, it’s a European hub with all the modern facilities required by digital nomads, including a vibrant community and access to co-working spaces. Moreover, the city is not only accessible from many European cities with just a short flight, but also it’s a great spot for flying off to Portuguese islands such as Azores or Madeira.

#### Bari
If you’re a fan of Italian vibes and cuisine, Bari will be one of the best places for you to go. With affordable prices and excellent Italian food, you will surely enjoy small and less touristy spots far away from huge locations like Rome or Milan that will provide you with the most authentic Italian experience. From Bari, you can also reach and explore a lovely region of Puglia.

Regarding the prices, renting a studio flat in Bari should not exceed 700 EUR for two people, so it’s a great opportunity for all digital nomads or workation enthusiasts that would like to spend some time at the Italian seaside and enjoy the opportunity to integrate with locals.


#### Tallinn
Last but not least, this hidden gem will be a great choice for those who prefer more chilly weather and stay away from crowds. If you have never thought about this destination, you should definitely try it for yourself. The capital of Estonia perfectly combines modern and medieval styles and offers a friendly vibe for both locals and incomers. In summer, you will experience long days without paying Scandinavian prices, while in winter you will enjoy a traditional Estonian sauna or even a glimpse of the northern light if you’re lucky. From Tallinn, you will be also able to explore the shore of the Baltic sea or take a short trip to Helsinki as it’s only two hours away by ferry.

The other things that make it a perfect workation location are fast Internet connection, the opportunity to meet other remote workers and ability to communicate in English.


 

So, which location do YOU choose for your next European workation?






10 top workation locations in Europe

There are a lot of ways in which software developers can develop their skills, one of them being …

###### If you wish to develop your programming skills rapidly and keep an eye on novelties, that’s great! However, staying always updated in a dynamically evolving programming world might be challenging - as well as navigating your career in face of the variety of available options.

###### Fortunately, there are a lot of ways in which software developers can develop their skills, one of them being finding a mentor. No matter if you’re a newbie in the industry or already experienced, a person who will guide you individually and contribute to your development would be an invaluable help. Who is a mentor, why should you consider having one, and how to find them?

To put it simply, a mentor is someone with vast experience in technical and business fields that can provide their protege with career-related advice. Thanks to the knowledge, support and guidance provided by the more experienced person, a developer can achieve their goals much faster and create a much more satisfying career path.

- **Technology**. They provide their protege with code reviews, answers to questions and tips on the language and technologies worth learning. They also deliver learning materials and sources and share their best industry practices. 

- **Career path development**. A mentor shares information on where to search for employment opportunities and how to select job positions in order to fulfill individual short-term and long-term goals. They also provide advice on salary, negotiations, CV preparation and recruitment tips for the chosen career path.

- **Personality, attitude and soft skills**. Achieving your goals is not only a matter of hard skills - but it’s also about developing your personality and motivation. A good mentor will be able to support you with this and equip you with all relevant skills valuable in the IT job market.  

Working with a mentor is not ad-hoc support, but is based on building a long-term, close relationship. A mentor is not a friend, not a teacher and usually not an employer, but a non-formal advisor that voluntarily works with you in a structured and goal-oriented way. This is why trust and being on the same wavelength are crucial in the mentorship process. 

If you’re already wondering where to find such a person, stay with us. 

Having a mentor obviously has many benefits. Let’s name a few of them:

**Improving technical skills**

Although gaining hard skills is not the only aspect of succeeding in the IT field, you cannot be a good developer without them. With the support of the mentor, you can develop much faster and with lower effort as you will be directly provided with the best practices and tips coming from code reviews. No matter what your seniority is, there’s always a space for growth.

**Planning your career**

With a variety of options in the IT industry, you might be unsure about the direction you should head in - especially when you’re at the beginning of your path. A mentor can help you to figure out your individual, satisfying career plan and the way to achieve the goal.

**Boosting your confidence**

With a mentor, you will no longer be confused about your skills. Thanks to their individual support, you will always be aware of the things you know and things you don’t know. This will make you much more confident in the job market and allow you to reach more relevant and attractive positions.

**Developing faster**

Thanks to honest and careful feedback, you will be able to quickly identify your potential and areas for improvement and start working on them. As your mentor has probably been where you are now, they will know what kind of support you need to get where you’re heading to.

**Having access to resources**

A mentor can give you tips on where to find valuable materials. Thanks to them, you will save plenty of time on making research on your own and trying ineffective solutions. An experienced mentor will surely provide you with recommendations for workshops, boot camps and books.

**Improving your personality**

Last but not least, a mentor can help you to grow not only as a developer but also as a person. Believe us or not, personal growth is an equally important part of developing as a programmer. Shaping your mind and getting an appropriate attitude is an invaluable factor in achieving your set goals. Once you will be equipped with a proper mindset, it will be much easier for you to, build relationships, work in a team, and -generally speaking - operate in the programming world.

So, you finally made the decision: it’s time to find a mentor. But where to actually start and how to complete this mission?

Before you even start your research, you should find the answer to critical questions: 

- **What exactly do I want to achieve with a help of a mentor?** 

- **What motivates me to build such a relationship and what are my expected results?**

- **In what kind of fields do I need support (technology or career-related)?** 

This will help you to define the profile and set of skills and capabilities of your potential mentor. 

Moreover, deciding on short-term and long-term goals might be useful at this stage. Although you may not yet be sure of where you’re heading (this is exactly why you need a mentor, right?), having at least a foggy idea will be significantly helpful.

What are the examples of short-term and long-term goals? To make it easier for you, we collected a few ideas:
- **short-term:** improving coding skills in a chosen language, learning to write a clean code, starting to work on a specific type of technology or software, picking up a new language or framework, preparing for a job interview, etc.

- **long-term:** holding a managerial position in 5 years, developing a freelance business model, becoming an expert in a specific field, etc.

In order to define your goals, use your imagination. Where do you see yourself in one year, 5, or 10 years? What does your daily life look like, what are your salary and responsibilities? Then, start searching for a person who actually managed to get there at a particular stage of their career development. There’s no point in learning from a person who has never actually achieved what you’re planning to achieve.

Moreover, remember that your mentor cannot be random, but should be a person with a passion for teaching, coaching and guiding others. Even the most sophisticated technology skills will not compensate for the lack of empathy and interpersonal skills.

Once you know who you are actually looking for, it’s time to proceed to search. There are a few methods of finding a mentor - let’s check them out.

The easiest and most natural step is searching among people you already know. So, you can start by searching at:

**Your current company**

If you’re already employed, you may be lucky to find a mentor among your more experienced coworkers. They are aware of how you work, they know your strengths and weaknesses. Thanks to this, they will be able to provide you with appropriate support.

**Your network**

If you’ve already enrolled at university or attended boot camps, you may have a network of software developers. Think of whether you know someone who may step into the role of your mentor. If no one can do it themselves, there is still a chance that they know someone else who matches your criteria. This is how they can support you in your searching process and increase your chances of success.

However, if you didn’t succeed in finding a mentor among people you know, don’t worry. There are many other ways that you may try out in this case:

**Meetups, conferences and workshops**

If you’re planning to attend some boot camps or trainings, here you go! Once you’re interested in a specific field, there is a chance of finding a mentor among your trainers. Participating in workshops is a great opportunity to start relationships with a few experts in a field and check out how they work, what is their attitude and to verify whether you two click together. Moreover, they are people who are willing to share their knowledge and experience in general, so it’s really a good place to give it a try.

**Communities**

Open-source communities seem to be a perfect place to search for mentors. The space for exchanging ideas, sharing solutions, and asking for advice may lead you to a person that will be able to provide you with long-term guidance. There are plenty of meetups organized in big cities and tech hubs, so if only you have access to those related to your personal goals, it’s a place for you to go.

**Mentorship platforms**

Online research seems to be an easy and natural way for finding people to cooperate with. As having a mentor is becoming a strong trend, there are already some mentorship platforms where you can seek your “perfect match”. To name but a few of them, you can check out [CodeMentor.io](https://www.codementor.io/), [MentorCruise](https://mentorcruise.com/), or [CodingCoach.io.](https://codingcoach.io/)

Now, let's assume that you already found a person that could become your mentor. How to actually ask them for that? How to establish such a relationship? Do you need to sign any contract?

If you’re wondering whether the person of your choice has a will to become your mentor, there’s a simple way to check it - just ask. However, before you reach out to them, it’s good to be aware of some good practices.

**1. Start with building a relationship.** Approaching them directly, especially when they have no idea who you are, may not be successful. First, let them know you at least a little bit and let them get interested in your personality and career goals. So, better start with a call or a cup of coffee together in order to get to know each other. It’s always easier and more natural to ask when you already have something in common. 

**2. Share your appreciation.** You can simply explain that you’re at a particular stage of a software development journey, and they seem to be a person who could support you. Let them know that your common discussions are valuable to you and that the knowledge they share with you is insightful and helpful.
**
3. Ask for becoming your mentor.** Tell them what exactly you would like to learn and in which fields you would count on their support. Once they are well-informed, it will be easier for them to get engaged in the process and provide you with a more accurate advisory.

**4. Highlight benefits for them.** As mentorship is usually unpaid and based on a relationship, it’s important to make them aware of how they can benefit from mentoring. The benefit can be enhancing coaching skills, gaining a reputation, getting some recommendations and developing new career opportunities. 

When starting a mentorship, you don’t need to sign any contract (unless mentorship is provided by a formal institution, such as a university). Although structured, the relationship is usually non-formal and based on mutual agreement and trust. However, if the answer from your future mentor is positive, it’s worth setting a plan to make your work more effective. How to do it?

- Explain to your mentor how you imagine your cooperation and how much time you would need for meetings.

- Schedule one or two meetings right away to make sure you click together, and that there is a will to continue (sounds like going on a date, right?).

- Decide on how often you would like to meet and how (offline, online). Regular meetings are recommended, as it will help both of you to be more systematic, which will lead you to more satisfying results.

If the answer from your potential mentor is negative, don’t give up. People are busy, and it’s quite normal that experts are not available for extra projects and responsibilities. All you need to do is just try again until you find someone you can be really compatible with.



Once you have a mentor, you have to remember that their time is really precious. So, the last few tips are related to using this time wisely and effectively.

- Make sure that every meeting with your mentor is **structured**. Remember to prepare the **agenda** prior to the consultation and decide on the topics you would like to discuss. It will be easier to get straight to the point.

- Define and write down the **next steps** that you should be working on after every meeting. Combined with carefully selected indicators, it will be easier for both of you to monitor your progress.

- Before the online call make sure that you are in a calm, quiet place with a **stable internet connection**. Talking in a car or a cafe causes a lot of distractions, is disrespectful and make you both lose a lot of time. So, do everything you can to **stay focused** during your meetings, and in case you cannot make it - let your mentor know in advance and reschedule.

- Show off that you are **grateful** and that their advice helps you to grow. Their satisfaction is critical in the process and will help both of you to stay motivated. Also, ask whether you can help them with something and let them know that you are ready to support them on their projects with your time, skills and extra set of hands.

We hope that this article was useful and that you will start your great mentorship journey very soon. And if you need support or more information on how you can grow as a software developer, feel free to browse our blog posts and search for other interesting topics.



Why you need a mentor as a software developer and how to find one?

Does the pace of technology development stress you? Don’t worry - it’s normal. However, if you wish …

Does the pace of technology development stress you? Don’t worry - it’s normal. However, if you wish to be a top-notch programmer, it’s still really important to keep on track with improving your personal and technical skills. 

Let’s make it clear: it’s not only code writing skills that make you a good developer. To really boost your career, you also need to learn how to learn and improve your soft skills. Here are some tips on how you can grow much faster and stay attractive in the IT labor market. Let’s go! 



If you wanna dwell on the latest technologies and always stay updated with the recent trends, there’s a quite simple way to achieve it. Find the brightest industry minds online, start following their content or tweets and just learn as much as you can about how they develop their skills and business models. 

In addition, you will find industry knowledge on blogs and forums. You probably know websites such as [Stack Overflow ](https://stackoverflow.com/)or so, but there’s simply never enough reminding how useful are available free-of-charge resources.

What’s important, don’t stay passive - if only you feel like joining the conversation, do it! This is exactly how you can dig into the topic even deeper and contribute to building your expertise and visibility.



Yes, that’s right! Even though a software development job seems to be mostly about spending time in front of the screen, books are still a relevant source of knowledge and inspiration.

What’s even more surprising, not only reading technical books can positively influence developers:

- According to research, [reading sci-fi minimizes](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10400419.2013.783735) the need for closure, improves creativity and stimulates the development of new ideas and solutions. 

- In addition, the other[ research about reading novels](https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/brain.2013.0166) showed that reading improves communication and empathy which seem to be useful skills in a developer’s day-to-day work. 

- People who read [have a slower rate of memory decline.](https://www.alzinfo.org/articles/reading-alzheimers-bay/)

- Moreover, reading lowers blood pressure and heart rate, and relieves even [68% of stress after reading for only 6 minutes. Well, it’s useful, isn’t it? ](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/5070874/Reading-can-help-reduce-stress.html)

If you don’t know something, there’s a simple way to change it: ask.

If you have to deal with something you didn’t fully understand, don’t hesitate and go to ask those who are more experienced than you. Stay proactive and learn from everyone who is within your reach, and hang around whoever can lead you to a better understanding of code, environment, technology, or business requirements. Don’t be ashamed, as there’s no other way to learn - the sooner you will admit your lacks, the sooner you will improve.

And, by the way - remember that Google is your best friend, regardless of your seniority. That’s probably the only existing source where you can find answers to all your questions. Use it wisely.

Although it sounds trivial, your health plays a major role in your development process. Eventually, your body is the only one you will ever have. Destroying your well-being, spine or mental health right at the beginning of your software development path doesn’t sound appealing. So, how to stay in a good shape? 

Exercise regularly. Regular physical movement will help you maintain the good condition of your brain cells and mental health, reduce stress and leave you in a much better mood. Moreover, according to [Whole Brain Health research](https://www.wholebrainhealth.org/exercise-and-brain-health/?gclid=CjwKCAjwt8uGBhBAEiwAayu_9bayfSIH85-P51Hpix74gC9dvjDFQAJvfnNOmK0t9_fXIlZ2_3IMTxoCPtgQAvD_BwE), physical exercise stimulates neurogenesis in the hippocampus which improves learning and memory - and those are two crucial skills that you use in your daily tasks, indeed.

Sleep well. Getting enough (minimum 7-8 hours) sleep helps you to maintain your mental health and become more productive. With a proper rest, your brain is enabled to remember things easier and longer and help you stay focused, thus you will make fewer bugs and complete your tasks faster. To have a really good sleep, try to avoid blue light before going to bed for at least one hour and drinking caffeine in late hours.

Working in chaos rarely pays off. Although the open office was created to improve collaboration and creativity, and many companies still opt for this solution, the [research](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rstb.2017.0239) doesn’t prove that it works. In fact, excess noise creates a lot of distractions and it makes it difficult to fully focus on performed tasks. The next problem is [visual noise ](https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-you-cant-concentrate-at-work-1494342840)which is even more annoying than the regular one. 

So, having this knowledge, you can significantly improve your productivity by reducing the number of distractors. Put some time and effort into creating a comfy workplace. As in 2022 the majority of tasks can be performed remotely, why won’t you use the opportunity and switch to remote or hybrid model? Do as much as possible to improve your comfort - without a proper focus, you will never fully explore your potential.

Writing a code is not that complicated - but writing a good one might be truly challenging. Although some rules of the writing process seem to be tough or annoying, the sooner you will start to implement best practices, the better. Keeping your code well-structured, clear and understandable will save you from a lot of struggles and will make your day-to-day job much easier. 

Also, using agile methods can strongly contribute to your effectiveness and ability to teamwork. In fact, utilizing them will make you more collaborative and appreciated by your coworkers and clients. Using agile methods means for them:

- transparency in projects

- higher product quality

- shorter development time

- higher customer satisfaction

- reducing risks and technical debt

- faster ROI.

For you it’s also the opportunity to collect feedback and learn from it. Ability and readiness to work with agile methods will increase your market value and make you a more attractive candidate. 

Have you ever heard about the protégé effect? If not, it’s time to change it! 

The protégé effect is nothing but a method of learning by teaching others, and it’s proven to be extremely effective. Even if you still don’t consider yourself senior, you surely have a lot to share with programming adepts. How does it actually work?

- Teaching others helps to structure your knowledge and[ improves metacognitive processing.](https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000071) This makes you more aware of your learning process and more confident.

- Teaching [improves your motivation to learn](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10956-009-9180-4). It is proven that once you feel responsible for those you’re gonna teach, you’re ready for a greater effort.

- This method leads to the [development and use of learning](https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13421-014-0416-z) strategies and more effective searching for information.

- It [evokes feelings of competence ](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01421590701606799)and increases your value in the workplace. In fact, once you’re able to train others, you’re just one step away from taking leadership and responsibility.

So, if only you have a chance to train someone, use this opportunity and see for yourself how fast you can grow.

Although coding is probably a majority of your day-to-day work, you still need to boost your abilities with some industry knowledge. It’s as simple as that: the better understanding of business reality and requirements you will have, the better and more relevant code you will be able to write.

So, use part of your time to dig into the topic of the target industry as well as general business topics. It will help you to deliver not only a good quality code but a real business value. In the end, it’s the ability to satisfy your customer and contribute to their business growth that makes you a good programmer.

Well, every seniority level requires a knowledge boost. Finding a mentor might be the next valuable step on your way to growth that can significantly accelerate your development. 

Who is a mentor? It’s usually a senior developer who becomes your coach, career and technology advisor. Thanks to their support your learning process will become much more structured and planned, and you will gain competencies in your target areas much faster. Such hands-on guidance you will make you successfully boost your confidence and leadership skills, and equip you with everything you may need on your further career path. 

If you’re still a newbie in the programming world, trying to get hard programming skills on your own might not be the best idea. Joining a structured class or a Bootcamp might significantly accelerate your learning process, and let you catch whatever is important and dig into details much faster. The help of experienced trainers and a strict schedule may be particularly helpful for those who haven’t mastered self-discipline yet, but also for everyone who wishes to develop their skills as fast as possible.

Hearing praise is always great. However, if your aim is to become a really good developer, don’t be afraid to hear some criticism. Although everything in your code may seem clear for you, it may not be equally clear for others. How to know whether your code is good or not? The advice is simple again: ask!

Collecting opinions about your work might save you from writing unclear code and collecting a technical debt. Moreover, thanks to asking for reviews you will not only immediately improve the quality of your code, but also learn a lot from the feedback. Remember: the more honest the review is, the better for you.
 

No matter if you work as a freelancer or you’re a part of a software house, you will always need to communicate with someone - a client or a coworker. And as a developer, you can waste plenty of time on inefficient communication, indeed. There’s nothing more upsetting than coding mistakes that could have been easily eliminated if only the mutual understanding between developers and business requirements were better. 

Once we are already naming things that can help you to become a better developer, we simply couldn’t forget communication skills. The ability to understand others and express your concerns is definitely one of the things that your clients and coworkers will appreciate right away.

And how to improve in this field? Here we come with a few tips and best practices:

- Before you even write a single line of code, make sure you have all the necessary information and that you understand both technical and business requirements.

- Opt for establishing a single point of contact between the company and the client, and stick to this person in communication.

- Present the result of your job regularly with the rest of the team and inform them immediately about bottlenecks.

- Listen carefully and stay focused. Proactively rephrase whatever the other person says to make sure you understood it right. 

- Ask questions. Whenever you’re unsure about something, clarify it right away.

- Be polite. Never attack the person, but name the problem and instead of blaming others, aim to find solutions.

- Install communicators such as Hangout, Skype, or Slack, and get used to using them when working with your team or clients.



Last but not least, developing your skills in a specific field is always okay. However, if you wish to grow faster, it’s always a good idea to try out other areas, or simply get more experience. To achieve this, you need side projects. 

No matter what’s your seniority, it’s always a good deal to work with more clients, learn from their requirements and make some independent decisions. Having even small projects might help you explore your interests, learn new tools and simply become a more skilled developer.

Having side projects will provide you with plenty of benefits. It will help you to:

- Accelerate your growth as a developer.

- Gain additional skills in the same or different fields.

- Become more independent and get ready to switch to a freelancing model.

##### Do these ideas sound appealing to you? Or maybe you have your own methods for improving your software development competencies? Feel free to share your best practices and ideas.

 13 Tips on how to become a better developer

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