In the world of project management, accurately estimating the time needed for a project is a difficult but necessary task. According to recent surveys, 78% of project managers need help estimating project time. In addition, a study by the US Project Management Institute underscores the need for accurate time estimation because projects that are delivered late or on time can hurt the bottom line.

In this article, we’ll share our project manager Erik Kalmykov’s tips for accurately estimating how much time a project will take. We’ll also show you how to avoid common mistakes and manage project timelines more effectively. You’ll also learn how to manage project deadlines and avoid common mistakes.

What is Time Estimation?

Time estimation is the process of determining how long a project will take to complete. It is an essential part of project management and can help project managers better plan, manage, and complete projects on time. An accurate time estimate allows project managers to plan for potential risks or delays, and to better estimate the resources and people needed to complete the project.

Why are time estimates important? Time estimates are important for several reasons. First, by providing a better understanding of the resources and manpower required to complete the project, project managers can better plan and manage projects. It also allows project managers to identify potential risks and delays and make plans to deal with them. Finally, accurate time forecasting enables project managers to better plan for the people and resources needed to complete the project, which helps them manage project budgets more effectively.

Types of Time Estimation

Expert Judgment

Leveraging the knowledge of others in an area where you lack experience is simply innovative business. We can’t all be experts in everything. When it comes to time estimating, there are additional benefits to using the expertise and knowledge of an expert to help you develop your estimates, because the expert you contact is likely to have helpful advice for the project as a whole and may be able to identify problems that have plagued similar projects in the past. Having a professional help you develop more accurate and reliable estimates can help you achieve your goals more efficiently and cost-effectively. By leveraging the expertise of an experienced individual, you can ensure that your goals are met on time and within budget.

Pros & Cons of Expert Judgment 

• Pros: The method enables the consideration of certain elements that cannot be taken into account by an automated analysis.
• Cons: This strategy necessitates individual judgment. As a result, the outcome frequently exhibits bias. 

Usage

Expert judgment is constructive for managers who lack knowledge and is most appropriate for large projects where quantitative estimation alone is not sufficient.

Analogous / Comparative

It is possible to estimate how long it will take to complete a task or project by comparing it to similar ones. This approach focuses on “analogical” or “comparative” reasoning to make an estimate based on knowledge and experience.

Pros & Cons of Analogous / Comparative Estimation

• Pros: Comparative / Analogous estimation is one of the quickest and easiest methods for estimating resources.
• Cons: It has a poor track record of accuracy and has a significant danger of incorrect results.

Usage 

This method is particularly useful for standard projects with similar task requirements. It is often used in the early stages of a project to get a rough idea of the number of resources needed.

Parametric

A parametric time estimate is a technique that uses a predetermined formula to determine how long an activity or project will take to complete. This formula often requires the input of certain criteria, such as the number of people assigned to the work or project, the complexity of the task or project, and/or the skill level of the people involved.

Pros & Cons of Parametric Estimation

• Pros: This method is reasonably accurate since it considers the complexity of the work or project as well as the skill level of the persons involved.
• Cons: The parameters’ values may not always be accurately determined using this procedure, which takes longer than other methods. It also disregards any adjustments to materials, methods, or technology that can impact how long it takes to finish a task or project.

Usage

Parametric time estimation works best on projects with standardized work packages and repetitive activities. Therefore, it works best in less inventive industries where project parameters are relatively easy to estimate early in the planning phase.

Top-down

The top-down methodology of project estimation is based on breaking down project activities into large blocks, projecting how long they will take to complete, and aggregating the estimates. As managers acquire more information in the later stages of project planning, these generic, large blocks of project work can be broken down into smaller pieces and then estimated independently to provide more accurate forecasts.

Pros & Cons of  Top-down Estimation

• Pros: As it takes into account the difficulty of the work or project and the expertise of the persons involved, this method of estimating may be rather accurate.
• Cons: It might be challenging to precisely divide the activity or project into manageable portions using this methodology, which takes more time than other approaches. The time needed to accomplish the activity or project is also not adjusted for advancements in technology, business practices, or material availability.

Usage

In project planning, when quick results are important, the top-down project estimation approach is widely used. It is most useful in the early stages of project planning when a rough and quick estimate is needed.

Bottom-up

Bottom-up estimating is a method of determining the price and time required to complete a project by breaking it into smaller jobs and estimating each one independently. This method is useful for projects with multiple jobs or components that need to be estimated.

Pros & Cons of  Bottom-up Estimation

• Pros: High result accuracy and little differences between resources that were estimated and used.
• Cons: This method takes a lot of time, effort, and skill to master.

Usage

Large software development projects, where multiple activities and components must be estimated independently, are most likely to use bottom-up estimation. Other project categories, such as construction projects or large industrial activities, may also use this strategy.

Three-point

Three-point estimating is a project management method for estimating the time, cost, and resources needed to complete a project. This process uses the idea of “triangulation” to create an optimistic estimate, a pessimistic estimate, and a most likely estimate. The expected value of the project is then calculated from these estimates.

Pros & Cons of Three-point Estimation

• Pros: Compared to most estimating procedures, which tend to concentrate just on one point throughout the computation process, the method is more complete. It is risk-oriented and aids managers in reducing the risk of budget and schedule overruns brought on by unanticipated circumstances.
• Cons: Large volumes of data and careful attention to detail.

Usage

Software development and other large initiatives often use a three-point estimate. The time, effort, and resources required to complete a project or task can also be estimated using this method.

Time Estimation Statistics in Project Management

In project management, time estimation statistics are used to assess schedule accuracy. They provide statistics on how close a project was to being completed on time. Time estimation statistics are used to identify areas where the project can be improved, as well as areas where the project schedule was successful and accurate. The number of activities completed on time, the number of tasks delayed, the number of tasks completed ahead of schedule, the time saved due to resource efficiency, and the time added due to unforeseen complications are all examples of time estimation statistics. These statistics can be used to determine if changes need to be made to the project schedule or if additional resources need to be allocated to ensure that the project is completed on time.

Why Are Accurate Time Estimates Crucial to Project Success?

The success of a project depends on accurate time estimates because they give the project manager a better understanding of the time, effort, and resources required to complete the project. In addition, project managers can use them to coordinate with key stakeholders and set realistic goals for their team members. Accurate time estimates can help with resource allocation, on-time task completion, and project budget stability. Knowing how long the project will take to complete can help project managers make better decisions about resource allocation and schedule management. Accurate time estimates also help reduce the risk of project failure by providing a basis for assessing progress and identifying potential problems before they become serious difficulties.

Cost overruns

Cost overruns occur when a project goes over budget. Many factors can cause cost overruns, including poor project management, underestimating the number of resources needed, and unanticipated scope changes. Cost overruns can be problematic for the project team because they can lead to delays or even cancellation of the project. Project managers should continually develop accurate time and cost estimates for their projects, monitor progress, and make changes when necessary to minimize cost overruns. They should also ensure that their staff is well-trained and prepared for any scope adjustments or unexpected issues. Finally, project managers should strive to create a culture of accountability and communication so that issues are identified and addressed before they become major problems.

Tips for Estimating the Time Needed to Implement a Project

1. Define your goals and objectives: Consider spending some time defining your aims and objectives before beginning the project estimating process. You may determine what has to be done and how long it should take using this information.
2. Break it down: Break your project down into smaller, more achievable activities that may be estimated independently after you have determined the general objectives.
3. Gather data: After you have divided your project up into smaller jobs, collect information for each one. This might consist of time estimates, cost estimates, and any other pertinent data that will enable you to estimate the project properly.
4. Assess risks: Consider the hazards involved with each activity when you assess them.
5. Compare estimates: Compare your estimates to industry norms and the estimates of other experts. This will assist you in ensuring the accuracy of your estimations.
6. Keep track of changes: Keep note of any scope or time frame modifications as the project develops and modify your estimations as necessary.
7. Get feedback: Ask for feedback from stakeholders and team members throughout the estimation process. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the estimates are realistic. 

Summing Up

A clear understanding of time estimation is essential for successful project management. With the right technique, you can be confident that your estimates are accurate and valuable to you and your team. Time estimation is the ability to accurately predict how long a task will take to complete – using time estimation methods can help you take the guesswork out of your estimates and allow you to have more confidence in your time management and the time frame in which your work can be completed.

Time estimation is a critical component of project management and can make the difference between a successful project and one that is on budget and schedule. With the right plan and methodology, project managers can accurately predict the time required for any project. Using the advice in this article, project managers can develop a time estimation plan that will help them manage their projects more effectively and ensure successful project completion.

The post 5+ Secrets Time Estimation Hints in Project Management appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

According to a recent survey conducted by Zenhub, about 50% of developers spend less than 20 hours per week on actual software development.

As a developer, there are many things to juggle at once, and at times there are endless repetitive tasks that keep you busy and become the biggest challenge to your productivity or something that significantly contributes to your work. 

Sometimes it could be tracking things to do and your progress efficiently, which takes a toll on your daily workability. Or it could be poor collaboration or a confusing work environment that jeopardizes your productivity. 

So today I’m going to share some of the best developer productivity tools that help you work efficiently and make you more productive. Let’s have a closer look at each of these developer productivity tools listed here and how they help you.

We have divided these tools into the following categories –

• Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Tools
• AI Code Generation Tools
• Bug Tracking Tools
• Project Management Tools
• Time Management Tools
• Miscellaneous Productivity Tools
• Relaxation Tools

Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Tools

The first category in our developer productivity tools is integrated development environment aka IDE. IDEs help developers work more productively by providing different functionalities such as source code editing, debugging, testing, etc. in one platform. Let’s take a look at them.

1. VS Code

Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code is an integrated development environment for Windows, Linux, and macOS. 

It provides features for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code completion, snippets, code refactoring, and embedded Git. Using the free LiveShare extension, you can collaborate remotely with your colleagues, teachers, or classmates. 

In addition, you can edit and debug your code in real-time and use the chat and call features to ask questions and discuss ideas with others. You can use breakpoints, call stacks, and an interactive console to debug your running apps.

Key Features

• Command line
• Command palette
• Customization
• Zen mode
• Split view
• Change language mode
• Git integration

2. IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA is an intelligent, context-aware IDE for developing applications in Java and other JVM languages such as Kotlin, Scala, and Groovy.

IntelliJ IDEA is designed from the ground up to deliver a seamless user experience. It gives you quick access to all of the features and integrated tools that are essential to your work, as well as a plethora of customization options. 

Everything can be fine-tuned to support your workflow: create shortcuts, install plugins, customize the interface, and more.

Key Features

• Developer ergonomics
• Standard and custom themes
• Deep code insight
• Intelligent code completion
• Project-wide refactoring
• Live templates
• Plugins

3. CodeStream

Beyond your bubble, it is critical to streamlining team workflows and activities to produce valuable work. Thankfully, there’s CodeStream for all your code-related discussions, which takes the effort and frustration out of code reviews. 

CodeStream supports every programming language and allows you to discuss code with your team without ever using a pull request. To resolve an issue, simply highlight a code block and type a comment. 

The tool also facilitates regular group problem-solving by allowing developers to discuss code directly in its environment, ultimately strengthening the quality of your code base.

Key Features

• One-click navigation
• Code editor
• At-mentions 
• Collaboration
• Chat (Messaging)
• Version control

4. Sublime Text

Every developer who wants to be productive should use a good code editor, and Sublime Text is one of the best in the market to get your hands on. It is a cross-platform code editor that supports a wide range of markup and programming languages.

Sublime Text allows you to quickly navigate through lines and files, make changes to multiple areas of your code at the same time, and switch between projects.

This code editor even has a distraction-free mode, so you don’t have to rely on willpower to stay focused while working. This mode displays your editor in full-screen mode, with all UI Chrome features disabled.

Key Features

• Quick navigation
• Command palette
• Simultaneous editing
• Project-specific preferences
• Extensive customizability
• Cross-platform availability 
• Python-based plugin API

AI Code Generation Tools

The next category in our developer productivity tools is AI-based code generators. These tools help you complete the code when you are writing them with the help of artificial intelligence. Let’s have a closer look at them.

1. GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is a new tool from GitHub. Copilot, known as an “AI pair programmer,” uses artificial intelligence to generate code in your editor. You can use it as an extension with Visual Studio Code, JetBrains IDEs, and Neovim.

GitHub Copilot is more than just an autocomplete tool. It suggests lines and even entire functions. It allows developers to create tests, explore APIs, and solve problems faster without looking elsewhere for solutions.

Moreover, when you start using the GitHub Copilot plugin, the tool adapts to the way you write code.

Key Features

• Collaborative coding
• Code suggestions
• Codespaces
• Discussions
• Pull requests
• Public repositories
• Code search & code view

2. Tabnine

Tabnine, an AI code completion assistant, now provides developers with long snippet suggestions and focused line code completions directly in the Visual Studio Code or IntelliJ Idea IDEs.

Tabnine covers 11 programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, and Java, in line with its mission to automate the more mundane and repetitive parts of programming.

Tabnine predicts and suggests your next lines of code based on context and syntax. It helps you with whole-line code completions, full-function code completions, and natural language-to-code conversion.

Key Features

• Code completions & suggestions
• Code-native models 
• Automate repetitive coding
• Self-managed AI server
• Private & secured
• Advanced Reporting

3. dbForge SQL Complete

Speed up your SQL coding with intelligent completion, formatting, and refactoring with dbForge SQL Complete! It is a powerful SQL database development, management, and administration tool.

This add-in solution for Visual Studio and SSMS provides good autocomplete capabilities. You can write, enhance, and refactor your SQL code and increase productivity with unique features found in SQL Complete but not in SSMS and Visual Studio IntelliSense.

dbForge SQL Complete supports SQL Server 2022.

Key Features

• SQL autocompletion 
• SQL suggestion 
• T-SQL formatting 
• Code standardizing 
• Code refactoring 
• Productivity extension

Bug Tracking Tools

The next category in our development productivity tools is bug tracking. Bug tracking tool also known as issue tracking system helps developers track bugs and issues during the application development process. Let’s take a look at some of the popular bug-tracking tools.

1. Jira

Jira is a real-time project management tool that allows teams and project managers to plan, assign, track and review projects.

Jira was created to track bugs during the software development process. The software includes a bug-tracking template that makes it easy to track, record, and fix bugs.

Because all issues can be viewed in one place, determining which bug needs to be fixed first can be done with a single click. You also get excellent reporting capabilities, allowing you to gain actionable and detailed insights in real-time.

Jira is popular among software development teams for bug tracking and project management. However, it has quite a complex interface and is a bit costly. You can also consider various Jira alternatives such as SmartTask, Asana, ClickUp, etc.

Key Features

• Bug tracking
• Issue management
• Agile development
• Customization and templates
• Time tracking and reporting
• Roles and permissions

2. MantisBT

Mantis Bug Tracker, also known as MantisBT, is an open source issue tracker that facilitates project management and effective team collaboration.

It is built on PHP and has a user interface in 50 different languages. The tool allows you to customize the workflow for dealing with bugs and user roles efficiently.

This cross-platform bug-tracking system sends email notifications to your team about issues. You can specify the type and severity of issues that MantisBT should notify you about.

It tracks changes to issues so that you can easily track them down for analysis.

Key Features

• Bug tracking
• Progress tracking
• Tagging
• Product road mapping
• Project time tracking
• Role-based access control

Project Management Tools

As the name suggests, project management tools help developers keep track of ongoing development projects, to-do lists, important deadlines, and files. These tools also help devs to communicate with their team members, share files, and keep everyone on the same page. Let’s have a look at them.

1. SmartTask

Nothing is more aggravating than not knowing who is doing what and when. Add to that, people tend to forget things, especially when the task is not urgent. 

SmartTask is an excellent tool for tracking all your development projects and tasks, streamlining workflows, managing teams, and increasing team efficiency. 

SmartTask enables you to assign tasks to each team member, set deadlines, and communicate with one another, thereby avoiding long and clumsy email threads. The tool includes a plethora of useful features, including, project portfolios, workload view, time tracking, Gantt charts, custom fields, custom charts, and a CRM systems. 

Another note-worthy feature of SmartTask is its productivity scoring, which provides a visual representation of how productive you and your teammates are at completing tasks.

Key Features

• Multiple task management views – list, board, calendar, timeline
• Project portfolio management
• Resource management
• Task comments & mentions
• Video conferencing, voice calling, group chatting
• Automated check-ins 
• Productivity scoring
• Time tracking & estimation
• Analytics & reporting

2. Zenhub

Zenhub enables software development teams to plan their work, track project progress, automate agile processes, and measure their team’s productivity in one app. 

Zenhub integrates with the team’s codebase to prevent tool sprawl, keep devs focused, and update the project with data straight from the codebase, while still enabling non-technical team members to view project progress. 

With real-time roadmaps, teams can better predict their project completion dates in real-time, and with planning poker, they can quickly and asynchronously estimate agile story points.

Key Features

• Automated sprint planning 
• Workflow automation 
• Planning poker
• Agile reporting
• Real-time roadmaps
• Browser extension for GitHub

3. Asana

Asana is a project and task management tool that helps software development teams streamline their work as well as communication.

Asana is designed for workplaces of any size to analyze progress and address issues in a single location, eliminating the need for constant meetings, email updates, and memos. You can create lists or boards to host entire projects – these will detail all of the initiatives, meetings, and programs associated with said projects.

The tool is highly customizable, allowing users to divide projects into tasks and set clear goals for teams. Asana also integrates with hundreds of other business apps, such as Google Drive and Outlook.

Asana recently shifted its focus toward enterprise clients. However, if you are a startup or small business, you can consider different Asana alternatives such as SmartTask, Wrike, ClickUp, etc.

Key Features

• Project and task management
• Customizable dashboards
• Activity feeds
• Focus mode & individual task lists
• Subtasks assignment
• Prioritization
• Collaboration
• Custom calendar
• Notifications & reminders

4. Plaky

Plaky is a free project management tool that helps developers to organize their work, assign tasks, and track progress—with the flexibility and customization needed to support any type of project. 

Whether you’re a small agile team or a large dev studio, Plaky can adapt to your needs. It doesn’t limit the number of users who can join an organization in any way—so your workspaces can always scale to accommodate the growth of your development team.

The primary focus of Plaky is on task management and workflow optimization.

Key Features

• Task management 
• Bug & issue tracking 
• Product roadmap and backlog 
• Time management 
• Reporting

5. nTask

nTask is another task management and project management platform that allows developers to make sure that all of the tasks and processes that they have to perform as part of the software development process are tracked and managed.

Key Features

• Task management
• Project management
• Risk management
• Meeting management
• Team management

Time Management Tools

The next category in our developer productivity tools is time management. You can’t work productively if you don’t plan how you want to spend your time. These tools help developers plan, track, and manage time effectively.

1. DeskTime

DeskTime is an automatic time-tracking app that logs how much time you spend on your computer and what you do throughout the workday. 

It helps you see how productive you are, can prevent overworking and burnout, and functions as proof of work. With functions like project time and document title track, you can see how much time goes into certain tasks down to the second, which can help you bill your customers more accurately. 

You can efficiently manage your teams and projects, boosting your productivity and minimizing business losses at the same time.

Key Features

• Automatic time tracking
• Offline time tracking
• Productivity analysis
• Project tracking
• Shift scheduling
• Break-time reminders

2. TimeCamp

Logging work hours manually is a waste of resources in developers’ work, but using an automatic time tracker like TimeCamp solves that problem. 

TimeCamp works in the background and automatically fills timesheets with time entries and, if you choose, daily activities. It also provides time reports, the easiest way to analyze work performance and estimate project profitability. 

What’s more, with the billable hours and invoicing features, you can easily bill your customers and send them invoices based on the time registered for their project. Besides, the tool integrates directly with popular dev tools like Jira or Azure DevOps.

Key Features

• Automatic time tracking
• Time reporting
• Budgeting with estimates
• Invoicing and clients
• Billing rates
• Dev tools integrations

3. Clockify

When you’re working, you don’t want to have to deal with the hassle of clocking in and out of your work. You want to be able to focus on what you’re doing. 

With Clockify, you can do just that. Using this software, you can track your time, coding activities, and progress of the project throughout the week. This will help boost your productivity levels, improve your performance, sharpen your time management skills, and beat procrastination and distractions.

Key Features

• Time tracking
• Visual reports 
• Create projects and reports
• Task management
• Data exporting

4. WebWork

WebWork is a time tracking and productivity monitoring tool that aims to improve time management. It tracks your work time automatically and provides you with detailed reports. These include your tracked time, app and website usage, activity and productivity levels, and more.

As a result, you see how productive you are, what exactly you spend your time on, and what takes much time or even wastes your time. This way you can work towards improving your time management skills and see the improvement as well.

WebWork also takes care of your work-life balance. It has a feature that monitors your work process and opens regular pop-ups reminding you to dedicate time to the things you want to do more of and not to overwork.

Key Features:

• Time tracking
• Productivity monitoring
• Activity level tracking
• Work-life balance
• Reports
• Task Management

Miscellaneous Productivity Tools

I need to create this category because I have added a variety of productivity tools for goal tracking, distraction blocking, pair programming, communication, and much more. Let’s see them one by one.

1. Tuple

Nothing is worse than attempting to pair-program some code over a video call. Tuple is an integrated remote-pair programming app for macOS that allows for real-time collaboration.

It allows you to talk and code simultaneously without consuming your CPU. This application includes a handy screen annotation feature that lets programmers draw or highlight code on their partner’s screen to direct their attention.

Tuple also lets you use both a mouse and a keyboard. This means you won’t have to wait for your coding partner to finish before you can start. You get to code, and collaborate, at the same time.

Key Features

• Generic screen sharing
• Remote control
• Low CPU usage
• Crisp audio and video
• Collaboration
• Annotation and markup tools

2. F.lux

Programming can be hard on the eyes, so coding responsibly is essential for long productive periods. F.lux, as a tool designed to reduce eye strain while sleeping, contributes to resolving one aspect of this. 

Working across Windows, Linux, Mac, and iOS devices, it intelligently adapts your screen’s display color to complement different times of the day. You only need to tell it what kind of lighting you have and where you live, and it will handle the rest automatically. 

When it detects sunset, F.lux will make your display mimic your indoor lighting; when it detects sunrise, it will adjust your set-up to sunlight settings. Everything can be adjusted to fit your work schedule, including selecting colors that help you stay alert.

Key Features

• Blue light filter
• Color temperature modes
• Time scheduling
• Color control
• Simple installation
• Backlight brightness control
• Scheduling

3. AutoHotkey

AutoHotkey is a scripting language automation tool specially built for Windows. It is a free and open-source tool for creating scripts for various tasks such as macros, fillers, auto-clicking, and so on.

This automation tool allows you to create simple hotkeys with just a few lines of code. You can also define your hotkeys for the mouse and keyboard, as well as remap keys or buttons to your liking. The tool is simple to use for beginners because it includes easy-to-learn built-in commands.

Aside from supporting imperative, it has a flexible syntax that allows programmers to focus on the main task at hand rather than worrying about the minor details that frequently distract us.

Key Features

• Auto-scripting 
• Key remapping
• Flexible syntax
• Built-in commands

4. Slack

Good communication and team collaboration equal better productivity and efficiency. And when it comes to team communication, Slack is the first tool that comes to mind. 

You can create chat channels that serve as rooms for topic-based conversations. You can share and collaborate on project information with individual team members, form groups and sub-groups, and hold one-on-one discussions.

Slack also allows you to create time blocks in your hours and indicate to others when you are available to talk based on your current status, rather than dealing with multiple emails that come and go throughout the day.

Key features:

• Instant messaging
• Team and personal channels
• File sharing
• Video and audio calling
• Guest access
• Slack communities

5. Habitica

Unlike other dull and menial productivity apps, Habitica is a cross-platform tool that encourages you to stick to your goals using a gamified approach.

So, instead of checking boxes for your goals, you turn your project life into a game where you overcome the hurdles by completing tasks, getting motivated, and leveling up.

You can also invite friends to join you on quests, which creates accountability and allows you to win loot to spend on rewards.

Key Features

• Adventure and advancement
• Creating & deleting custom rewards
• Multiple task filters
• Group tasks
• Task reminders
• Common-Interest Groups and Challenges
• Shared quests 

6. Cold Turkey

Cold Turkey is a distraction-blocking tool that encourages developers to focus on the task at hand rather than wasting time on unimportant online activities.

The tool improves work efficiency and aids in the development of self-control practices in the user. After compiling a list of websites and desktop applications to block, you can specify a blocking schedule.

You can use Cold Turkey to block websites, domains, specific URLs, or the entire internet. For example, you could restrict access to social networking and video streaming websites during the workday. You can disable work-related apps as soon as the workday is over.

Cold Turkey also allows you to manually toggle blocking on and off.

Key Features

• Domain, URL, internet blocking
• App, file, and folder blocking
• Block scheduling
• Block locking using a timer
• Pomodoro timers
• Pause for a cause
• Analytics and Reporting

Relaxation Tools

The final category in our developer productivity tools is relaxation. Yes, you heard it right. The job of a developer is a bit stressful but music can heal any stress. That’s why I decided to add this category. Hope you’ll enjoy the next two tools.

musicForProgramming

musicForProgramming is a collection of mixes created with programming in mind to aid concentration and output. The playlists vary in length, and the majority are instrumental, which is great for boosting productivity and focusing on work.

The platform provides the appropriate level of cognitive load to occupy areas of your brain that would otherwise be free to wander and cause distraction.

Its interface is similar to that of a code editor; if you go to the page to change the track, you’ll be more likely to stay focused on your coding activities because you’ll be visually linked to this website with your work.

Key Features

• Code-editor-like interface
• Music for better focus
• Field Recordings
• Podcasts
• iTunes integration

Brain.fm

Brain.fm is a music streaming service that helps you work, read, relax, or sleep better. 

Brain.fm provides music for the brain that assists you in focusing, relaxing, and meditating by utilizing a combination of bimodal tones. It provides brain music that improves cognition within 10–15 minutes of use.

The AI engine generates an infinite amount of music with the rhythms required for audio brain entrainment. It includes a base level of white noise shushing, various bird tweets, and a quiet electronic drone, among other things. This service’s music is all original, and it’s only available for a limited time.

Key Features

• Provides relaxation music
• Automated music streaming
• Noise shushing

Wrapping up…

Being a productive developer entails more than simply concentrating on the code. It all comes down to finding the right tools and automating your software development processes.

And this list of developer productivity tools contains a mix of coding, collaboration, project management, personal management, and relaxation tools that can significantly help you boost your overall productivity.

So, identify the area in which you require assistance and select the tools that meet your needs.

That’s all. Now grab your coffee and get ready for a productive coding session…:) 

Author Bio

Shyamal Parikh

Shyamal Parikh is the Founder of SmartTask, an online work management/automation software that helps teams streamline their processes, whether sales, hiring, customer success, or projects. He actively shares strategies and techniques that improve a team’s productivity. 

Find more tips for increasing productivity as a developer:

• Free Open-Source CRM Software For Small Business
• AI-Generated Roles and Permissions to Flatlogic Generator
• Decline in Coding: Web App Developers Writing Code Drops to 36.02% in 2024 – [Research Results]
• Exploring the Future of AI Web App Generators
• AI Web App Generator to Make Apps in Minutes

The post 25 Best Developer Productivity Tools & Apps in 2023 appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

With physical products, an item is created then passed on to the marketing team, which then passes it on to the sales team. With software product marketing, the actual product is more complex. 

The problem lies in the disconnect between sales, marketing, and product teams. The creator may have a great product but not know what to do with it. Or the sales and marketing teams may have some great ideas but not know exactly what they are working with.

In this article, we will explore the best ways to bring your teams together as part of a successful software product marketing process. These include: knowing your product, finding your competitors, creating your marketing strategy, and measuring your success.

1. Know your product inside out

As the creator of your software product, you will know its features better than anyone else. But looking at it as your project is not the same as seeing it as a marketable product. You need to know its marketable features and user benefits, as well as any weaknesses to work on later down the line.

Sales enablement

It’s not only you who needs to be an expert. Anyone working with your software must know it inside out too. For example, if a marketing team is promoting a manufacturing proposal sample as a free software product, what do they need to know about it?

• Key features: How would it be useful for customers? What is it used for? Is it user-friendly?
• Hidden costs: If you are marketing something as free to customers, they won’t want to find hidden costs later on.
• How it relates to the rest of the company: How does this free product lead to paid-for products later? What will make the customer choose to pay for items in the future?

Sales enablement ensures that you can show the value of your software product to potential buyers. Your marketing team needs in-depth information for successful software product marketing. They need to know your software product’s functions, features, strengths, and unique selling points (USP).

Free to use image sourced from Pexels

2. Get to know your target audience

Before you begin any software product marketing, you need to know exactly who your target audience is. Market research is the best option to find this out. This can be quantitative research, collecting data, and analyzing numbers. It can also be qualitative research, observing and asking questions to find more in-depth information.

Market research

Your first port of call should be existing customers, as they are already familiar with your brand and products. You can then use this information to widen your research area. 

These are some types of market research you may find useful:

• Sales analytics: Looking back at past sales will give you your target audience from similar software products sold in the past. This will be useful when looking at how to market to your current target audience.
• Keyword searches: Keywords relating to your product will give you an idea of what your potential customers are currently looking for.
• Competitor analysis: Taking a look at your competitors’ customer base is essential to your market research. They are your competitors either because your products or your target audience are similar, so you can learn a lot from them.
• Focus groups: This is where a group of people discuss a product before it is launched. These are especially useful as you are not only getting feedback, you can listen to a whole discussion about your product. This usually brings up points you may not have thought of.
• Customer surveys: You could ask current customers to fill out surveys for feedback on current products and find out what they want (or expect) from your company in the future. You can also show them images or videos of new products and ask for opinions. 
• Free samples: These can be sent out in return for feedback on your product and how you are marketing it. You can ask for opinions on anything from how user-friendly it is to how it is presented.

Free to use image sourced from Pixabay

Your typical customer

The essential information you should know about your target audience includes the average age, gender, job sectors, income levels, and location. You should also look into things like their education and interests. This will create a picture of your ‘typical customer’.

Knowing who your typical customer is will guide decisions such as how to price your products. But one of the most important things you need to find out is where to find them. Your software product marketing strategy will focus on where to market your product, just as much as how.

A different type of consumer

Creating software products means that you are not always dealing with average customers. But you’re not just selling to businesses either. 

Interest in marketing to software developers is steadily rising. But marketing to developers can be difficult. They don’t want to be sold with gimmicks or pushed into buying. They want to be clear about what they are buying and see exactly why it would be useful to them.

For example, when looking at a digital signature Canada may not be the first place you think of. But in Canada, 95% of documents and transactions can be verified electronically, according to Canadian electronic signature law. Giving this small piece of information to developers means that they may decide to try your electronic signature software.

3. Get to know your competitors

No idea is unique, so your products will always have competitors. But you can use this to your advantage. These competitors can give you the information you need for a successful software product marketing campaign.

The first thing you need to do is identify your main competitors. They will either be selling similar products to your company or will have a similar target audience. Most of the time, it’s both. 

Once you have found your competitors, you should do a SWOT analysis. This will help you to highlight your strengths and weaknesses.

Free to use image sourced from Pixabay

4. Create a vision statement

When you are ready for your software product to be seen by the world, it’s time to create a vision statement. But before you start looking at software product marketing strategies you need to decide on your positioning within the market.

Positioning

• What does your software product do? What problem is it solving?
• Who is your software product for? Who is your target audience?
• What makes your software product different from others on the market? What are its strengths? Does it have a unique selling point (USP)?

With all this in mind, it’s not just about what your product does; it’s also about why you created it. What is your vision for it? Vision statements can be used in pitches, adverts, and on promotional material, so they need to be straightforward and captivating.

Think about what you want people to be saying about your product. You can then create a message – your vision statement – that will become the vision of the company or your specific software product.

Message

• Short, sharp, and to the point: This description isn’t in-depth. It can be a short phrase or a couple of sentences.
• Looking to the future: What do you hope to achieve with your software product?
• Pitching your product: You should be focusing on the benefits, not the individual features.
• Your tone: Does it match the tone of your company? Or for new software products, what tone do you want to create?

Famous vision statement examples

Microsoft: We strive to create local opportunity, growth, and impact in every country around the world.

Disney: To be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information.

Tesla: To accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.

Free to use image sourced from Pexels

5. Create a pricing strategy

Before you create your software product marketing strategy, you need to think about pricing. How your product is priced will affect how you will market it. 

Pricing a software product is a little different from pricing other products. There is no physical product to touch. But software product marketing usually excels when the product’s features are successfully highlighted. 

You can choose to charge for each product individually. But this isn’t always the most effective way to price software products. 

Subscription services are very popular with businesses and consumers. This is usually a monthly fee to use a company’s products or have access to their software. Similarly, some companies offer a free software product with the option to upgrade to their monthly price plan.

For example, you can use a PandaDoc sponsorship contract template from the website for free. But to use other features customers must sign up for a monthly or annual plan.

When creating a pricing strategy these are three important things to look at:

• Levels of pricing: Pricing levels mean you can market your software product to a wider audience. Think of how you will market different levels to consumers.
• Value for money: Software product marketing needs to show consumers that the product is worth the price.
• Competitive: Can your product be found somewhere else for cheaper? If so, why should consumers choose your software product over others?

Upgrades vs. updates

Your product should be updated and upgraded as needed. But this brings up the issue of whether you choose to charge customers for these additions.

Software product update: This is a ‘software patch’ that makes the current product better. It usually covers minor upgrades and sorts out small problems with the software. 

Software product upgrade: This is a less frequent change to your software product that makes major additions and fixes. In some cases, it is essentially a whole new product.

For example, when you buy a game for a games console, you can set it to update automatically. These updates are completely free and usually just fix minor bugs in the game. But if you wanted to upgrade your game to the new edition, you would have to buy it.

These upgrades and updates can be used as material for software product marketing. Announcing minor updates after a product review shows consumers that you have their interests in mind and are keeping up with new technology. An upgrade of a popular product would be of interest to returning customers.

6. Develop a marketing strategy

According to a Statista survey (shown below), the most effective digital marketing techniques in 2020 were content marketing and automation. But before you start creating content, you need to create a complete software product marketing strategy. 

This will be based on your sales goals, your target market, and your vision statement. Your vision statement will be at the center of your marketing strategy as this is your overall aspiration for your product.

Image sourced from statista.com

Planning your strategy

This is the basic outline for your software product marketing strategy:

• Vision statement: Keep this in mind throughout the whole marketing process
• Target audience: Equally as important as the vision statement
• Objectives and KPIs: Set realistic targets with measurable KPIs
• Marketing channels: This includes who will be working on each channel. Try automation where you can, as this gives you time to focus on other tasks
• Creating content: This could be blog posts, social media posts, imagery, videos, landing pages, infographics, ebooks, etc
• Timeline: Your strategy needs a set plan with specific timeframes and dates 
• Launch date: If you have a planned date use this to work backwards
• Analytics: Decide how you are measuring your progress
• Ongoing planning for marketing: Marketing doesn’t stop once the product is launched; it is an ongoing process

Marketing channels

Many companies are looking to omnichannel marketing for success. Consumers are no longer sticking to one platform so you shouldn’t either. The main channels you will be working with are your website, blogs, social media, and emails.

Your website may be the place to purchase your product. But how are you going to lead consumers to it? Organic views from Google searches will only get you so far, so driving traffic from your other marketing channels is key.

Whether it’s your own blog or guest posts, interesting content will draw in potential consumers. Guest posting on blogs with a similar audience to yours is free and easy advertising for your software product. That said, avoid clickbait articles, and instead ensure you create information-based content. You can then subtly link back to your website and products.

There are so many social media channels nowadays that you need to pinpoint exactly where your target audience is. Don’t just choose the most popular channels. Use your research to find out exactly where your customers are, and look at what kind of content your competitors are posting.

With social media taking over, email marketing often gets overlooked. But if your target audience is using email, you should be too. Look at email marketing automation software such as Evalance to streamline your software product marketing process.

Screenshot of Evalanche’s dashboard

7. Measure your success

Before you launch your software product you need to decide how you will measure the success of your software product marketing campaign. If you created a marketing strategy you should already have an idea of your goals or objectives.

When creating measurable goals for your product you need to ask yourself three things: 

• Are they realistic? 
• Are they aspirational? 
• How will I measure them?

Realistic goals

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are realistic, measurable goals that support the overall vision of your product. Using KPIs will help your marketing team work together towards the same goal. They also allow you to see what is working and make adjustments when strategies are not working. An example of a KPI is: ‘Increase customer satisfaction rates by 5%’.

Aspirational goals

If you are hitting your targets too easily you may want to rethink them. Goals are created to make sure your software product reaches its potential. It won’t do this if they are not ambitious enough.

If you are struggling to create aspirational goals you may want to try using Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). With this, you create a clear goal that can be achieved using measurable key results.

For example – Objective: ‘Increase click-throughs to website from social media’

Key Results:

• Post twice a day on social media with links to the website
• Write 2 guest posts including at least 1 link to the website
• Create a blog post using keywords relating to the product

Keep track of your goals

The progress of goals and objectives must be constantly monitored to ensure they are on track. This may include looking at sales figures, new customers, lead-to-sales ratios, or clicks on your channels.

It’s important to have transparency with data and analytics when working with a marketing team. This can be done using a template or dashboard for tracking KPIs or OKRs. 

If you and your team can see what is working and what isn’t, you can work together to tweak your strategy. It is also useful to keep data as research for future projects.

Free to use image sourced from Pixabay

Summing up

Now you have read our top seven tips, you are on track for a successful software product marketing campaign. Make sure you do your research before making any major decisions – in particular, you need to know your target audience and where to find them. Then once you have created your vision statement, you’re ready to go.

If you are not quite at the marketing stage with your software product, check out our guide on the software development process.

About author

Yauhen Zaremba – Director of Demand Generation

Yauhen is the Director of Demand Generation at PandaDoc, an all-in-one document workflow platform to streamline, create, and use ready-made templates including this PandaDoc residential lease rental agreement. He’s been a marketer for 10+ years, and for the last five years, he’s been entirely focused on the electronic signature, proposal, and document management markets. Yauhen has experience speaking at niche conferences where he enjoys sharing his expertise with other curious marketers. And in his spare time, he is an avid fisherman and takes nearly 20 fishing trips every year. 

Headshot: Image

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Before getting into the skills, let us talk about the career scope, salary package, and needed educational background. 

Payscale of an iOS developer

As per the average salary scale mentioned on the Glassdoor site, it is about $1,04,413 per year. For an iOS mobile app developer, it is $73,134 annually. On the other hand, $99,906 is the average yearly salary of an iOS software developer. 

Career scope of iOS developers

Apart from the handsome salary package that even a fresher iOS developer receives. There is a wide range of career scopes that this field can offer. If you are up for challenges, learning, and growth, the opportunities will be innumerous. You can be an application developer, application designer, tester, and data access manager and take part in user support and app maintenance. 

In the initial phase of joining as an iOS developer, you will be working with teams where you might be allocated with following responsibilities.

• Writing clear codes for developer iOS software.
• Support app-building tasks like idea generation, designing, releasing, testing, and maintaining. 
• Taking part in bug fixes and troubleshooting.
• Collaborate with the team for any changes and improvements.

Educational background

If you have discussed your passion for being an iOS developer with your friends, you might have been demotivated by the response that if you don’t have a bachelor’s degree in computer science you cannot take up this profession. But believe me, this is not. Job opportunities and the perception of employers have now changed. Now they don’t look for certificates but are more curious about practical knowledge and learning. So, even if you do not have a computer science degree from your high school, you don’t need to worry.

However, you need to complete your graduation. And the most important thing that you should reflect on is your love for the subject, coding, and learning. Also, if you are from a computer science background and planning to do your master’s, I would suggest you strengthen your portfolio as a developer and upload unique projects on GitHub. Don’t forget to add your resume for easy access to employers. Apply for the role of junior iOS developer, gain some years of experience, and then go for masters. This way it will help you to clearly understand the topics. 

Skills required

Technical skills

Core programming language- Objective-C and Swift

Every developer should know some other programming language. In the case of iOS developers, they need to learn both Swift and Objective-C. However, in the initial stage, you should know the logic behind codes designed with Objective-C and Swift. Even if you are not designing your own codebase, you should be able to understand how things work. This is why knowing the fundamentals of the programming language is mandatory. 

Get your hands on the theoretical concepts of generics, automatic reference, Cocoa Touch, Cocoa, and APIs. 

Source control

Learning the skills of Source control can help you to track and organize changes within code. When you will work with a team of developers, this will let you collaborate with the software development process and work on a single codebase. Also, it speeds up the release velocity. 

Version control

With Version control, you can easily detect errors in the codebase. Even if you are working single-handedly, it will be helpful. Using version control, you can also make the code human-error-free. Detecting bugs, and being responsible towards your development is what you need to grow within yourself. You can cross-check the codebase. 

Networking

Networking is the exchange of information through Hypertext Transfer Protocol. While developing an app, you need to establish connections with different web servers. Thus you should learn about the concepts of networking. For this, you have to learn about the Alarmofire, NSURLSession, RestAPIs, HTTP, and others. 

X Code

You need to learn about the toolset, and XCode to build applications for iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Thus skills in navigating XCode are important. Apart from this, learn about the tools and process of debugging. XCode can be used to measure the performance of applications and run tests. Thus you should be able to acquire these skill sets. 

iOS Concurrency

Concurrency in iOS is defined as the state with which programmers can execute multi-tasks independently. It is related to multi-thread programming. With this skill, you can identify bugs, and errors and get a clear idea of the code logic. Moreover, extend your knowledge about updating UI, networking, and data fetching. 

Algorithm and app design patterns

Knowing about the algorithms and the software design patterns is important to understand the architectural design of apps. It is possible that during your professional journey as an iOS developer, you will come across the same architectural issues. In this case, you will be able to brainstorm the problem and solve it if you understand the logic behind the concern. 

In most interviews, you will be asked about the algorithms on the provided codebase, you cannot avoid the fundamentals of iOS app algorithms. 

User testing

Every developer irrespective of the segment they are working in has a strong knowledge of user testing. With this, they can test the functions and interface of apps, services, or websites. 

Consider a regular example. You are developing a product. Before handing it over to customers, you must require it to test the product based on its usability. Here, the skills of user testing are needed. 

Reactive programming

Reactive programming is a crucial part of iOS development. However, for this, you have to first learn the logic of asynchronous programming. Given that reactive programming is based on asynchronous programming, you will be able to manage real updates to static content. 

Soft skills 

Communication

If you are a developer, there is no way that you cannot avoid communication with team members, clients, and supervisors. So, if you are an introvert and don’t like to interact with others, get over those practices and learn the skills of communication. It will be needed when you want to explain your work to others. 

Resourcefulness

A developer should always be resourceful for his/her team. With this, you can be innovative in finding solutions to any code errors. 

Teamwork

Software or app development is all about teamwork. It is a cyclic process that involves designers, app testers, developers, and others. Every one of them has to interact with others. Also, while working with a team, conflict or argument is inevitable. Thus you need to acquire the skill of teamwork to adapt to the work process. 

Coachability

You have to be flexible while seeking feedback from team members, clients, or supervisors. This is what the skill of coachability does to a person. It makes a person positive and imbibes a sense of learning and growth. 

What is the average duration of becoming an iOS developer?

The average duration of becoming an iOS developer is 9 months to 12 months. However, this depends on your consistency. If you want to be an iOS developer in 9 months, you should consistently dedicate 3 hours daily to learning technical skills. I would suggest you not spend a long time learning theoretical concepts. Focus more on practical learning and start building your project portfolio. Read more:

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• Decline in Coding: Web App Developers Writing Code Drops to 36.02% in 2024 – [Research Results]
• Exploring the Future of AI Web App Generators
• AI Web App Generator to Make Apps in Minutes

The post What are the top skills required to become an iOS developer in 2022? appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

In this article we are going to discuss 10 recommendations on how to make the development work more efficient and how to improve developer productivity!

But first, let’s clear up what productivity means.

What is Productivity? How Can it be Measured?

Productivity means that you get more work done with the same resources or during the same period of time. Different companies can use different tools and metrics to measure developer productivity. Usually, it is based on how many lines of code, features, or tasks a developer could do. For example, you can use as metrics quantity of lines of code, code reviews, bugs fixed, number of commits, finished tasks, or number of deployments or releases. You should also keep in mind that measuring developer performance requires more transparency in products and processes. The way of measuring what your manager or company chooses can depend on objectives, business goals, the size and structure of the company, and so on. It can also be a team or individual measuring. But anyway, the main idea is to improve these metrics by improving developer productivity.

How can we describe modern IT developers?

Also, before we start discussing recommendations on how to improve developer productivity, we would like to define the audience. 

Ten or fifteen years ago, when we discussed developers or software engineers, we would have imagined socially awkward, stereotypical geeks, similar to the main heroes from classic IT series and movies like Silicon Valley, The IT Crowd, and so on.

But nowadays this stereotype is fading into reality. Now we can find absolutely different people working in web development. We are going to propose common tools that can be useful for all types of personalities (and even not only for developers!).

The IT sphere is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. The quantity of employees is significant. According to statista.com, the number of full-time employees increased from 52 million in 2019 to 65 million in 2022. And the demand for IT professionals is still growing! And the level of professionals and competition for a good offer is also high. So you should do your best to improve your skills and productivity at work. We are going to help you with this! So here goes!

Find below 10 tips on how to improve developer productivity:

1. Develop yourself first!

It may sound like a banal piece of advice, but it is absolutely effective and true. If you want to be a productive developer, you have to increase your base of professional knowledge, commercial experience and so-called hard skills. Deep knowledge of your stack, tools, libraries and so on will help you to find the right solutions faster and easier. 

But what is more important to all developers is their fundamental knowledge. You can go deeper into algorithms, systems architecture, or devopsing. And a good understanding of these things will definitely help you to feel more confident at any project you work on.

Stay a constant learner all your life to keep your brain working at the most productive level!

2. Create an optimal environment

The ideal developer workspace may look different for everyone, but the basic idea is to minimize distractions and make it comfortable for you.

Working on the beach with a laptop looks perfect only in pictures on social networks. In fact, an ergonomic workspace with a desk, a quality chair, and proper lightning is crucial for developers!

What is most important in your working environment is the right hardware! For all IT-specialists and especially for developers equipment plays a significant role in making their workspace convenient and their work productive.

Don’t forget about your online workspace. It is worth mentioning that there are also tools which are not software-related, but can help you much with planning, organizing and managing your performance, tasks and habits. Some of the most common project management and time tracking systems are Jira, Asana and Trello. There are also tools like F.lux to help reduce eye strain while looking at screens. There are plenty of other applications and tools to improve developer productivity and make your work more comfortable and efficient. Just if you feel like you need to improve something in your working environment at the office or your home office, be free to ask your manager and justify the importance or try to improve it yourself. Optimal workplace helps to improve developer productivity and performance as well!

3. Decrease the quantity of distractions 

If you ask developers what is the most annoying thing for them, most will answer that it is getting interrupted in the middle of a difficult working process. Because after being distracted, it is hard to catch that flow again. But distractions can be everywhere and affect everyone. So how can we avoid them?
One of the first and easiest ways is to turn off notifications in messengers and applications. You can read messages when you’re ready for a break. It will definitely save you hours of interruption for you. 

• Use noise-canceling headphones and mute your phone.
• Focus on one task at a time. Multitasking is not what developers should practice much, but sometimes it is an essential skill they need. But to switch effectively between tasks, you can plan ahead and split your work day into some sessions.
• If your company uses apps like Slack, turn on the “Do not disturb” feature before starting your work session.

4. Communicate!

Regular communication among the team helps to share important information that’ll impact how effectively you get your work done. Some ways to provide more frequent communication include:

• Slack channels
• Daily standups
• Team lunches
• Project boards

It’s important to keep meetings and calls short and only include the people who need to be there. Speaking of Slack, it’s best practice to save group chat for communication that applies to all members, and use DMs for personal one-to-one discussions. 

Regular communication and feedback lead to more engaged customers and stronger customer relationships, but it can also help to improve developer productivity. Feedback gives a team proper information to help them decide what features and requests to work on and when. 

But don’t overdo it! 😉

Communication is useful, but like many other good things, you can overdo it. Too much communication can negatively impact productivity and reduce working time and energy available to get the main tasks done. 

5. Set reasonable deadlines

To set deadlines that are reasonable for you, you first need to determine the scope of the project. Deadlines are great if they motivate a team and help them plan and prioritize tasks and plan for dependencies. But too much or too early, and they can become overwhelming, negatively impact concentration, and cause stress. When setting deadlines, you should provide a reasonable estimate of how long the task will take, and take into account unforeseen bugs and roadblocks, as well as other priorities that may arise.

If you are using project management software, be sure to monitor it regularly when you work on your tasks.

6. Implement healthy habits

This tip is 100% suitable for all, not just developers. 

Drink more water, pay attention to mental health, get enough sleep, eat healthy food, and ventilate the room to breathe more fresh air. Make sure your other muscles get some work to do and not only your brain! 

Healthy habits lead to a better level of energy and as a result they will help to improve developer productivity. Take care of yourself first!

7. Design before you implement

You should understand the task clearly because uncertainty will lead to procrastination and wasting of time. Your first goal should be to understand a task clearly and define the tools and strategy you will use.

It is a common beginners’ mistake to jump right into writing the code, without first mapping the nature of the problem and the logical paths for creating the solution.

The best way to follow this tip is to keep a notebook and a pen nearby. Draw maps, outlines, flows and schemes. Write down all the comments and ideas that come to your mind during the process. It will definitely help you not to lose the thread of your logic when you get distracted by something, for example.

8. Find your flow state

Just as a muse comes to writers or artists, so do developers who can catch the “wave” and be fully involved in the process and even do not notice how the time goes. It’s a magical feeling when your knowledge, motivation and concentration align to produce maximum performance. Try to feel this condition and use it to be productive to the maximum. 

It is necessary to learn more about yourself and analyze when you are the most productive and what you need to create this “magical flow”.

Due to this reason, remote work and flexible working hours are so important for most developers as you are more flexible and have the opportunity to work when you feel most productive.

Being productive doesn’t mean sitting at your desk from 9am till 5pm. These days many developers think about their work issues and work even when they commute, do sports, relax at home, or have important conversations with peers at a local cafe or a bar. Flexibility is one of the main advantages of remote work. Being flexible with when and where developers work allows them to work smarter, innovate and be more productive. But there are some threats to working remotely, and to prevent them you can follow the tips in our previous article in the blog about remote work.

9. Keep your code blocks clean and short

Nothing is worse than trying to figure out what you did some months ago and how it needs to be changed. When you have massive methods and classes, it can be very difficult to figure out what the original logic was. To implement this rule you can follow some effective principles.

The first principle is DRY. It means “Don’t Repeat Yourself” and was first mentioned in the book The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas. The second principle that we recommend to improve developer productivity is the attractive KISS principle. This abbreviation means “Keep it simple, stupid!

It’s important that your code can be understood by you and other developers, even when it has been written a long time ago. Optimize your code for readability and understandability.

There is a popular and demonstrative quote by Albert Einstein: “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it well enough yourself.” Don’t forget it while doing your work as a developer, please!

The KISS principle is also offered in two other forms (for those who don’t feel good about the inclusion of the word “stupid”):

• Keep it short and simple
• Keep it simple and straightforward

As you can see some words may be changed, but the sense of the principle stays the same.

10. Don’t ignore the code reviews

You might be the smartest guy in the room, with the best time-management and knowledge of all the key bindings in the world, and, still, there will always be room for involving others. Everybody makes mistakes and we want to have at least a second pair of eyes to look over a solution before it goes into production. Invest in yourself and introduce pairing programming, code reviews, or some other collective practice to your development process.

‍One of the best types of code reviews is when you have a good programmer who is only a little familiar with the project looking at the code. If you need to explain all the details, you’ll learn your code better, and sometimes an outsider will see problems that you, as the insider, missed. Code reviews cost you nothing but time, but often save you much more than it takes to do it. 

Code review is an essential part of workflow, also for sharing best practices with your team. This is connected with our first tip about improving professional knowledge to improve developer productivity. 

Bonus Tip

Outsource some of your projects or use Flatlogic Products to save time and improve developer productivity!

We offer a platform with starters/templates, CRUD app generator and hosting, all combined to make a perfect solution for web development. To learn more about it, you can follow Flatlogic.com website.

Productivity is about doing more. But it’s important to make sure you are working on products and features you or your customer need, because this won’t add any value to the business. That’s why productivity is always best combined with efficiency. It’s not just about getting the job done more quickly, but focusing on the right things and producing quality work.

It can take years of discipline and practice to be productive. So, don’t push yourself too hard and expect perfection in the beginning. But we hope that following the tips from this article will help you to improve your productivity.

If you work remotely and feel like your motivation and productivity decrease, you can read our previous article Why Does Remote Work Make Us Paranoid? And What To Do About It?

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