When it comes to difficulties of software development, it’s important to understand that sometimes, without true expertise, it is impossible to properly assess the core of the problem.
There are situations when ‘good‘ or ‘very good’ is not enough. Sometimes, you may find yourself in a position when your software project does not necessarily go according to plan due to some unexpected technical hurdles. Or – let’s use another scenario – you aim to build not just a solution, but the software solution that will stand out on the market and give you competitive edge. Either way, the skills to define the core of the problem and solve it with joint effort of the whole team is definitely something you would always want to have in your project.
In the above, and in many other cases, technical expertise comes to the rescue.
Technical Expertise at Future Processing
Technical Expertise is a highly specialised internal department of Future Processing. Its mission is to ensure that clients are satisfied with the quality of technical solutions that we developed.
The main activities of Technical Expertise are:
- Overseeing The Best Practices in Software Development used across development teams at Future Processing
- Accelerating knowledge sharing between engineers and architects through conferences, training, meetups, etc.
- Driving technological development of the company – maintaining Future Processing’s Technology Radar
- Ensuring our best engineers are part of the most challenging projects
The team is made up of approximately 30 Technical Experts – 5 Principal Software Engineers, 26 Lead Software Engineers and the Head of Technology.
Who is a Technical Expert?
Technical Expert is not just a software developer. It is a person that has competencies way beyond a senior dev and can either be a subject matter expert, who specialises in solving immensely intricate and rare technology problems or a solution architect, with broad knowledge, able to propose solutions for an entire IT system.
The superpowers of a technical expert are the abilities to deal with ambiguities, embrace possibilities and solve extremely complex issues. They add significant value to a project through their knowledge and substantial experience. As they dealt with a number of similar cases in the past, they developed an ability to help teams solve technical issues.
Their goal is to oversee the entire process of software development in a project in order to ensure that the solution which is being built will meet the highest standards in terms of quality, usability, security and business needs.
The guidelines of knowledge and experience
In their job, a technical expert focuses on three main activity areas:
- exchange of technical knowledge,
- communication with the development team and clients to help them achieve their business goals,
- technical consultancy and development.
Practically speaking, a technical expert assist a development team with:
- technical support and expertise,
- technical training and advice,
- problem solving in a way that teaches the team how to deal with similar situations in the future,
- ensuring that The Best Practices of Software Development are followed in every project,
- understanding business requirements and quality attributes,
- designing system architecture,
- well-developed communication skills.
Additionally, they provide support through their holistic, engineering perspective.
The frosting on the cake
But there is more to technical expertise than in-depth knowledge and the ability to solve complex tech problems. Technical experts have well-developed communication skills, a can-do attitude and the power to motivate. The way they influence the development teams really encourages them to explore more and strive to remove any obstacles on the way to project success.
With a deeper, more specialised knowledge, a technical expert brings new energy to a project and a view that is fresh and expert at the same time.
Analysis & Design for a more holistic view
When you want to look beyond the highly technical issues related to your software, it is worth considering to talk to our Analysis and Design team who are experts in the topics of discovery & strategy.
Their role is to help clients get software products that are well adapted to their business environments thus reaching their business goals. This is done through workshops with key stakeholders, gathering requirements and design of a full solution with a roadmap for delivery.
To sum up – whether you’re dealing with issues of technical or other nature, one thing is clear – the stronger the team you choose, the better the outcomes, regardless of discipline we’re talking about.