Neo systems are being developed as prior blog entries mention. We have customers on the other side of the planet. (Again mentioned in earlier blog entries.) None of the many goals we have could be met by chaining a single developer to a desk and feeding him a steady stream of energy drinks and fast food. It takes a team of people with the aptitude and desire to write quality code.
As developers here at Zipporah it’s true we spend most of our time developing for the Web. Its such a large part of what we do that its right there in our job titles. However it’s not all we do. Since there are people who use desktop applications that means there is work for us at Zipporah to do in that field. Whether on the Web or right on your desktop we work with technologies with a dizzying array of acronyms HTML, .NET, C#,SQL, RAZOR etc and probably a few back-ronyms too.
Zipporah developers come from a range of backgrounds. Mine is more years than I like to mention writing desktop software. Others have large amounts of web experience or come from graphic design backgrounds. This diversity has the useful side effect that whatever the challenge chances are someone will have an idea how to tackle it or better still there will be multiple solutions proposed informed by the varied experiences in the room. However much you know about one given technology chances are you will need to use some other technology that someone else in the room knows well. We have a well stocked shelf of books on a swathe of topics but perhaps the most valuable repository of knowledge is in the heads of the other people sat in the room.
An army of gurus with a narrow knowledge base may get a job done but over time it can lead to a collective myopia about the best way to achieve a goal. Diversity and exchange of knowledge are useful tools for any development team. They introduce us all to the newest technologies and if you are to continue delivering quality solutions to customers requirements it’s definitely a good idea to keep everyone learning new things. As they say 'Every day is a school day'.
Chris Habgood
Web Developer
