Tag: Team

Best Resources For Laravel Developers

Posted on by Volodymyr Khitsiak

Being one of the most popular PHP systems since early 2015, Laravel framework becomes a must-have for both a full-time or a remote PHP developer and also for software engineers at unicrew. Sometimes, it even becomes a technology of choice, conquering Symfony, CodeIgniter, and Yii2, or being at least at the same competitor level. This post reveals the best sites to stay updated with everything happening to Laravel, not to mention the latest advancements in technology.

But before we jump into today’s post, we’d like to stress that despite the fact that there are a lot of sources out there to help you, we have divided them into two main groups: for beginners and experts. So, if you feel like earning the decent laravel developer salary, take a look at the suitable group and make sure you know those resources. 

Best resources for a junior laravel developer

This group covers the laravel 5 tutorial information target at intern and junior level laravel developers as well as at everyone who googles the laravel developer meaning. Typically, the links provided here offer you some basic information on this PHP framework, its features and help you get started. Still, some prior experience with PHP is required.

The official Laravel site is the first site to visit. Here, you can find out everything you need to know before you create a laravel project. System requirements, basic installation and configuration tips, it covers everything.

The Linkedin’s Laravel group is well worth checking out. Currently, there are 2,000+ people there with 150 novel discussions taking place every month. You can easily search for or check the already available helpful and intellectual discussions regarding your queries. So, it’s a great medium for learning and picking up practical tips.

The Laravel Community on Reddit covers all the fundamentals like installation and database setup through examples.

The Laravel blog tutorial will teach you not only Laravel essentials, but also how to add business value.

Best resources for Middle/Senior Level Laravel Developers

The second group will be appealing for those who are already aware of how to install laravel windows and want something more exotic.

Laravel.IO aimed squarely at the developer community, makes a smart way to go to stay updated with the latest framework happenings. It covers the latest resources, news, secret hints regarding the Laravel PHP framework.

Laracon.us this year deserves an honorable mention. The 2017 seminar will arm you with the latest technical knowledge. It would be appealing not only to a senior Laravel developer from the USA, but to any other technical expert worldwide as well.

Laracasts.com will help you remain competitive in the Laravel development niche.

Github laravel sounds all too familiar. Indeed, here you can find anything already existing about this smart PHP framework.

Anyway, if the laravel link to a route is not just words for you, it’s wise to keep these key links in mind. But please don’t limit yourself to the world of today’s Laravel resources, always look for the novel sites to sharpen your skills.

Know other sites which can get real-time updates on laravel htaccess and the stuff like that delivered to you? Thank you for sharing below.

What is the difference between Junior, Middle and Senior developers/software engineers?

Posted on by Volodymyr Khitsiak

Today, when it comes to desktop, web, mobile, and app development, we have a logical gradation of developers’ level of expertise:  junior, middle, senior and lead.

But do you know what’s the difference between them? We all know that junior app developer is the entry-level to the world of developers, but can you name the edge between a junior developer and a middle one? When it’s time for your team member to become a middle developer and which skills should the lead have? How do you know whether you need a middle developer or a senior one?

To make it more epic, the terms “developer” and “engineer” and “ programmer” are often used interchangeably, but they might differ for many cutting-edge software development companies. So, it’s obvious that it might be hard to determine which kind of job position your company needs. This post will put light into these issues, covering at the same time some tips on how to properly choose the specialist with the required technical expertise.

So, let’s get started with who are and how  Junior, Mid-level, and Senior developers differ from each other.

A Basic Look At Junior, Middle, Senior And Lead Developers & Expectations From Each of Them

The level of software developers’ expertise is subdivided into the four mentioned software engineering degrees in order to define a potential employee’s professional capabilities – what field of responsibility they can take on, how skilled they are, and how able they can be as a whole when it comes to stress load and emergency working situations. A clear definition of a particular developer role in a job description for an interested specialist is crucial. A future recruit must know for sure what they are about to handle occupying a certain software engineering position. 

Key requirements for the role.

Junior developer posses:

  • 0 – 1.5 years of experience
  • Intrinsic passion for learning
  • 110% work ethic
  • Excellent basic knowledge about Information Technology from both a software and hardware perspective
  • Computer programing basics.
  • The ability to learn how to use the tools.
  • Knowledge of at least one programming language with the ability to write basic program code.

What level of tasks can be accomplished?

A junior developer can:

  • Fix small, less important bugs
  • Work on internal or “admin-side” tools/features
  • Work on defined features – i.e., those with previously delineated by senior software developers general concept and markup
  • Focus backend in minor aspects
  • Assist initial project planning
  • Get comfortable with the codebase without doing anything too crucial.

A competent junior software engineer is usually a backend-focused assistant in defining common obstacles and clarifying the workflow progress, who is also at the stage of reasonably adapting to existing working conditions.

Things to have in mind when hiring a junior developer

  • Is likely to produce code with bugs, so he or she requires more iterations on code reviews
  • Is not aware of or has no experience in the best practices and latest technology concepts
  • Will require twice as much time as a Mid-level specialist
  • Should be supervised
  • Is not in a position to liaise with customers or gather requirements.

The bottom line to hire a junior developer: hiring junior developers is an investment in their long-term potential rather than an immediate payoff.

Key requirements for the role

A middle developer:

  • Has 2 – 4 years of experience
  • Has an intrinsic passion for learning
  • Is 110% work ethic
  • Has experience in several projects
  • Can work alone and in a team
  • Is competent in at least a couple areas of the SE “lifecycle.”
  • Can set up the dev environment on their own
  • Can mentor junior developers of a team
  • Demonstrates initiative and ways of solving different tasks

What level of tasks can be accomplished?

A middle developer can:

  • Code in such a way that other people can easily manage it
  • Change code to make it more efficient
  • Break major tasks down into smaller sub-tasks
  • Compose testing plans and schedules
  • Find major bags in code
  • Review code in close detail
  • Work on bigger chunks of code at once
  • Set objectives for junior employees
  • Perform several tasks for several projects

A middle degree in software engineering means that a specialist is able to roam about their area of expertise in engineering programs more freely. They take direct responsibility for operational moments and occasionally instruct juniors.

Things to have in mind when hiring

A Middle developer:

  • Still may need the support of the mentor as he or she may not have experience in solving tasks of all levels of complexity independently. So you have to get ready to help them if any questions occur;
  • Is likely to have a fixed mindset.

The bottom line to hire a middle developer: Hiring middle developers seems like a good option if you need to get the job done quickly, but your budget does not allow you to hire another Senior developer.

Key requirements for the role

A senior developer possesses:

  • 5-8 years of experience
  • Intrinsic passion for learning and self-development
  • 110% work ethic
  • Experience in solving problems and tasks of different complexity
  • Can work as a scientist to experiment/test, validate assumptions and connect the dots to reach a conclusion
  • The ability to develop and mentor the middle developers of the team
  • The understanding of the full scope of the project required that his team is responsible for and can delegate tasks in an effective manner
  • Has the profound view of the project development and suggests the best ways to develop having in mind the final market goal  

What level of tasks can be accomplished?

A senior developer :

  • Can take up a full-on ‘development-deployment-launch’ workflow process
  • Composes tech specifications and terms of reference
  • Defines initial risks in working on large projects
  • Is responsible for mentoring junior and middle team members
  • Do regular code reviews for less experienced colleagues
  • Can independently solve different problems due to past experience
  • Can distill complex problems through the application of design patterns
  • Can manage a team of guys doing simple- to mid-level tasks

Apart from bringing advanced software development skills to the table, seniors must usually take managing responsibilities when working in a diversely-skilled team.

Things to have in mind when hiring

A senior software developer:

  • Has to be well-paid
  • Is sometimes too self-confident

The bottom line to hire a senior developer: a senior developer can bring numerous benefits to your product, but ready to pay for them.

Key requirements for the role

A lead developer possesses:

  • 8,5+ years of experience
  • Intrinsic passion for learning and self-development as a manager
  • 110% work ethic
  • 8,5+ work experience in the industry
  • The ability to justify business value using data and convince others to join him
  • The ability to raise the software bar across multiple teams
  • The knowledge and experience in all aspects of software engineering: requirements acquisition, validation, and management; architecture/design; code and other artifact development; integration; and testing/QA.

What level of tasks can be accomplished?

A lead developer can:

  • Adapt design patterns to fit the needs at hand through thoughtful analysis of the problem space
  • Be trusted with architectural problems involving many systems, not just coding problems
  • Conduct technical interviews with candidates to make sure they have the technical skills to complete the job
  • Be trusted to take on problems without a defined approach.
  • Be trusted to generate ideas and software that provide quantifiable business value.
  • Think about the challenges the team will face in 6 months to 1 year and is already working with management to solve those problems now
  • Build and implement a system from scratch

These are full-scale project architects, whose software engineering skills allow them to work on major both backend and frontend patches of significant projects and knowledgeably set smaller tasks.

Warnings/Red flags/Thing to have in mind when hiring

A lead developer:

  • Requires a high wage level. Usually, it is worth to hire a lead developer for a really big team and complex system development.

The bottom line to hire a lead developer: hiring a lead developer can become beneficial for your company if it has a team of junior and middle developers and you need a reliable, professional lead to manage and lead your team to success. By the way, many companies prefer to hire a senior developer that would do some management.

Needless to add, one person might be considered a senior developer with respect to the .NET development platform and a junior at Node.js and other related technologies.

Meanwhile, now let’s review the basic differences between software engineers, developers, and programmers.

People often get confused when it comes to the difference between programmers, engineers, and software developers. Indeed, these terms are used interchangeably and the line here is pretty thin. But let’s figure it out – formally:

  • A programmer is more of a technician that completes the given tasks without much of an involvement in other aspects of the project, give or take. Simply put, programmers write software code and that might be the end of their responsibilities.
  • A software developer is more diverse professionally – on top of being able to write and review code, they are also tasked with technical documentation creation, testing planning, and professional summarization of all development cycles.
  • An engineer is, usually, an officially-qualified, in-depth expert with a degree that not only can code but also knows some ways around complex programming issues and setup thorough development strategies with best practices.

 However, many people still regard these three terms as equal.

Technical skills, experience, and expertise do matter when it comes to finding the best employee for your business. Still, since skills can be acquired over time, it’s not the only quality to look for and often not the most important one. So, how to hire the developers with the right level of expertise for your project?

It depends on your project requirements, budget, and scope of work needed. You are supposed to hire a team of junior developers and only one senior or lead developer if you wish to save money and develop the professionals tailored to your product in the long run. Still, bear in mind that will take time.

Meanwhile, if you need to get the job done in a quick, reliable, and most efficient manner, hiring several senior-level developers is a smart way to go.

Finally, you might want to hire a lead developer if your team consists of several juniors, middle and senior developers, and your senior-level developers are either too busy or too professionally immature to lead the team of developers.

Some other things to keep in mind:

  • A real expert’s best motivation is work & challenge – according to statistics, a majority of software developers are best attracted by the availability of exciting, challenging tasks and that should be your unique selling point when hiring
  • Resumes are great, but the practice is a decisive factor – put your potential hire to the test from the get-go, by giving them a practical task
  • Don’t confuse expertise levels with personal professional ability degrees – junior doesn’t mean a ‘developing weakling’ and lead doesn’t mean an ‘all-mighty’ ace, it’s just that each works on certain areas of the development and can be a top-notch expert in their niche  

Key Takeaways

Technical skills, experience, and expertise do matter when it comes to finding the best employees for your business. Developer levels do differ, but the expectations along with the salary for a junior software developer and a senior developer differ as well.

Since skills can be acquired over time, it’s not the only quality to look for. Upon choosing which developer your project needs depends on your requirements and budget. Some companies hire a team of junior developers and only one Senior or Lead developer to save lots of money, but that does cost lots of time. To get the job done in a quick, reliable, and most efficient manner, others choose to hire several senior-level developers. You might need to hire the lead developer if your team consists of several juniors, middle and senior developers, and your senior-level developers are either too busy or too professionally immature to lead the team of developers.  

Moreover, there are some basic things to keep in mind upon looking for the best candidates for your team. Intrinsic passion for learning along with a 110% work ethic, for instance, are the qualities every developer regardless of his or her level should possess.

When it comes to the differences between a programmer, engineer and developer, there are differences that were described above. Still, there are people who regard these three positions as equal. In a nutshell, even when you’ve got a big HR team to build and hire the best staff for you, knowing a thing or two about the specifics of each role can prove to be highly beneficial.

Summary

Hire junior if:

  • There are small, yet important in the long run tasks, like minor debugging, required to be handled
  • You are ready to invest in an ambitious specialist’s growth
  • An expert’s professional passion is more valuable to you than their initial technical expertise

Hire middle if:

  • Your project lacks an experienced, yet affordable expert ready to manage certain development areas
  • You have sufficient juniors and need someone a bit more knowledgeable to mentor them
  • You value mid-level integrity of a professional who is more universal

Hire senior & lead if:

  • You already have a team of lower-level software engineers to manage
  • You can afford highly-experienced, qualified aces
  • Your project is of an in-depth manner and requires a narrow, strict approach
  • You are gathering a team of experts but don’t possess proper expertise for efficient interviewing

Unicrew Awarded Top Development Company in Ukraine

Posted on by Volodymyr Khitsiak

Here at Unicrew, we’ve cultivated a talented team dedicated to our customers’ success. We know that each business is unique and requires an individual approach, so we work with our partners to bring their ideas to life. With an emphasis on building true partnerships, our philosophy has helped us deliver more than 120 successful projects worldwide. 

Proven to generate results, our team has been named a top development company in Ukraine by Clutch! 

Clutch is the leading global platform that publishes verified B2B reviews, providing useful information that helps businesses connect with the best agency for their upcoming project. Helping build buyers’ confidence in who they choose to work with, Clutch analysts select top-performing agencies by evaluating their market presence, previous experience, and most importantly, customer ratings. 

With dozens of our partners prepared to vouch for our services, we have a perfect 5-star rating on Clutch!

It is an honor to receive industry wide recognition for the quality of our work. We would like to thank our wonderful partners for the time they’ve taken to provide our team with feedback. 

You can see for yourself how we became the best of the best by reviewing our profile on Visual Objects. A catalog of collected portfolio items from top creative agencies around the world, buyers can trust that the results of their project will be top-notch.

Uncover more about the services we provide by visiting our profile on The Manifest, where we’ve been highlighted as a top software developer, or by contacting us through our website. We’re ready to help you launch your idea.

Unicrew Bridges. Communicates. Delivers. SEO

Posted on by Volodymyr Khitsiak

The team at Unicrew prides itself on our exceptional service: From web and software development to our unfailing commitment to quality, Unicrew has the expertise, drive, and passion to ensure that our clients receive the solutions and products that they deserve – exemplified by our extensive portfolio.

We are happy to announce that in line with our consistent success, Clutch recently named Unicrew as a market leader within the entire software development industry in all of Ukraine! This accolade as a top software developer in the Ukraine and a top web developer in the Ukraine speaks volumes about our capabilities and client satisfaction, and Unicrew greatly appreciates this recognition.

Clutch bases its reviews and rankings of firms on an extensive methodology that considers qualitative and quantitative aspects of how small and mid-market businesses like Unicrew perform. From market presence and prior experience to digital development and client satisfaction, Clutch compiles and analyzes data to produce rankings of companies, as well as national and industry-wide comparisons of the top firms within a certain field.

In addition to the professional evaluation and recognition of Unicrew from Clutch, we also want to highlight some of the feedback that our clients have had regarding their experiences partnering with us and their satisfaction during and after our collaborations. Unicrew attributes much of our growth and success to clients, and we thank our customers for their support!

“We’ve seen a 15-20% increase in revenue, which is through the efficiency gains and the ability to accurately track time on a permanent basis rather than just by a quarter hour or an hour,” shared one client on the improvements that resulted from our work. “It’s been really good working with them. They’re very responsive. In the initial stages, they were proactive at finding solutions to issues I wasn’t aware of that would come up in the development process. It was good to know that we’d be crossing those issues off before we had the system fully built. Communication was always really good.”

“Even though Unicrew didn’t have a background in this area, they learned quickly and repurposed technologies they’d used before in order to solve the business problem. I was very impressed with this ability, as most of the people we contacted before implied that they’d need to spend a lot of time trying to understand our business logic. I have a lot of roles in terms of this project, and I was happy to be able to rely on Unicrew’s skills and expertise to do what needed to be done,” mentioned another client, outlining our flexibility and resourcefulness. “I can’t point to anything that Unicrew could do better.”

More than a dozen full-length reviews can be found on our Clutch profile, and we again thank our clients for their time, support, and positive remarks on our collaborations. We appreciate the recognition from Clutch as a premier industry presence in all of Ukraine, and Unicrew looks forward to connecting if you have a partnership in mind for the future!

Top 10 characteristics of the professional software engineer

Posted on by Volodymyr Khitsiak

Great software engineers are not only valuable employees, but also productive contributors and the key to the success of your online project. These days, becoming a programmer has become a boom and as a result, you can find hundreds of software engineers out there. In fact, today, there are around 26.4 million software professionals in the world. But how to determine which candidate should you hire for a long term cooperation? What distinguishes a great programmer from a general programmer?

Unicrew, the custom software development agency with a proven experience, has hired and worked with dozens of developers.  And now we are sharing our expertise regarding how to determine a great programmer with you and how to differentiate the great experts from the bad software engineers. We have collected 10 characteristics your ideal professional software engineer should possess. For your utmost convenience, we have also attached How to test this skill section so that you could test every of the mentioned above features. Let’s take a closer look.

Characteristics of a good software engineer:

  • Expertise in the particular area. Without a shadow of a doubt, the key thing in hiring a good software engineer is his or her experience in the particular area, not in general. Everything is pretty simple: if you need a .NET developer, make sure that you are hiring a person that has a proven experience in .NET development. 

    How to test this skill?

    • Ask for the best work samples and request at least some previous job referrals. Even when you are not too tech-savvy to properly evaluate the technical side, you may have a glance at how those samples look like and what the person’s previous colleagues think about him or her. Usability and performance are the main things to pay attention to.
    • Prepare some tests your candidate should be able to cope with. Today, there are dozens of Internet sites where you can find tests for IT specialists. However, it’s of key importance to ensure that you are giving the assignment, which is suitable to the candidate’s level. You simply can’t expect a junior-level developer to successfully handle tasks, which not every A-level developer can cope with.
    • If you have a friend or a colleague, who is a skillful developer with a time-proven experience, ask him or her to conduct the interview with your candidate. Definitely it is not always a great way to go, to ask a person who is not that much into your business to check the abilities of other developer. Just for the record, this step is not essential to follow, that is only a recommendation.
  •  Team player, but can work alone as well. A good developer always acts as part of the team and strives to make his or her code as clear and consistent as possible so that any member of the team could understand it. That is especially true for big projects. But the ability to work alone is also highly appreciated. How to test this skill?
    • Ask if your candidate has helped his/her previous team members and if yes, ask him or her to describe those situations in details. Luckily, there are dozens of team player texts out there where you can pick up useful questions to reveal whether the particular person is a team player.
    • Imagine that you are already working with this person and ask that person to share some innovative, out-of-box thoughts about the project. A good team player is usually open to communication and can calmly express his or her vision.
    • Sociability and ability to work alone are highly appreciated if the person is a team player. The working alone ability can be tested by asking the person to choose whether he or she prefers to conduct the assignment, which involves others or requires more time if acting alone, alone or in a team. All you need to do is simply to ask.
  • Seems attractive to you. Follow your gut a little bit. Everything is pretty straightforward here – if you like the person, you can hire him or her, if the person doesn’t seem attractive to you, pass by this person as you won’t be able to effectively work with that person in the future. How to test this skill?
    • Ask yourself if you like this person and whether you wish to work with him or her. Be mindful of that.
    • Ask your software design colleagues if they share your vision about the candidate.
  • Healthy skepticism. Good software engineers do more cross-checking and sanity checking, finding subtle bugs. Even skillful programmers make mistakes, and it is a good sign when the person can acknowledge that he/she, too, may commit these mistakes. How to test this skill?
    • Ask your candidate to find and check errors in the code. If the person offers a long-term solution instead of a one-time or short-time reprieve, it’s the one you should hire. Of course, before testing your candidate, you should prepare such a test, which involves long-term solutions and a short-time reprieve.
    • Show your candidate some code and ask him to tell you what he or she thinks the reasonable time frame for it is. Compare with what other IT specialists say.
  • Creative and innovative. Creative and innovative developers are those who are constantly looking for the novel ways to solve the already solved issues. Sometimes, it’s better to spend a lot of time to find expiration to create something really catching than to follow the generally accepted steps.  To put it simpler, a creative developer can offer really amazing solutions because he or she thinks out of the box and sees everything from different sides. How to test this skill?
    • Give your candidate an assignment, which involves creativity and check how she or he can cope with it.
  • Tech and computer addictive. A good developer should enjoy everything that is connected to technology and novel tendencies. He or she should be always willing to find out something new about novel technologies and should be updated with the latest Tech news. Such a person will always stay on curve and can offer the best solution to any problems. How to test this skill? 
    • Ask which computer and tech-related resources the candidate knows and reads.
    • Ask how the person finds solutions to the unknown problems.
    • Ask your candidate to tell you about the latest technology that has excited him or her the most (for example, self-driven cars, virtual headsets, or other things like that).
  • Ability to learn. A person who has a great ability to learn is like a treasure to your company, remember this. Nobody can do all because things and technologies keep changing, and very few can learn to do. It’s so true now – rapid change requires rapid learning. That’s why learning ability is always among the top-performing hires. How to test this skill?
    • Find a good learning ability test. Luckily, today there are hundreds of similar tests on the Internet.
    • Show your candidate how to do something in the sphere he or she specializes or in general and ask him/her to repeat this. Make sure you show something that the average person with a good learning ability can repeat from the first time.  Of course, a person who can’t program in Python, won’t repeat even simple things if he or she doesn’t know anything about this, so find a good test to check the learning ability.
  • Detests bad code. Bad code brings different kind of problems, we all know that. A good software engineer admires good code and hates its bad versions. Great engineers tend to simplify the problem instead of making something really complicated. How to test this skill?
    • Ask your candidate to show the example of a good code and a bad one. And let him/her explain why. He or she should clearly understand how to distinguish between good code and its bad analogue.
    • Give your candidate an assignment, where there are two ways out – a short piece of code and a long one. A short one, in most cases, is more difficult to make as it requires more skills and competence in the area. Check how he or she can cope with finding the short one.
  • Remains excited about what he or she regularly does. To efficiently cope up with routine tasks is a necessity for any programmer, but very few remain excited about what they do. How to test this skill?
    • Ask what your software developer likes best in his or her work and why. You can hear how passionate your candidate is about what he or she is doing.
  • Competitive. Competition drives success, it’s a well-known fact. Healthy competition ensures quality of work and promotes learning and self-improving. But to remain healthy-competitive, a candidate should be self-critical. How to test this skill?
    • Check the market and determine if the candidate wants a competitive salary for his devoted work.
    • Check how self-critique your candidate is: ask him or her to tell you about the main weak and strong points.
    • Ask your programmer to tell you about the problem he or she has previously faced and how the person handled it and what conclusions were made. Ask the related questions to help your candidate.


The bottom line

These are the most wanted characteristics your ideal software developer should possess. If you find someone with more than half out of the mentioned above qualities, consider yourself very lucky.

First Time Outsourcing

Posted on by Volodymyr Khitsiak

Calling all business owners who consider outsourcing service for their development! It’s truly an art to get the right outsourcer: to benefit from this kind of product development, you need to make sure that you have chosen the right IT partner or you risk to run into nothing but trouble.  

Wondering why? Below, you will find the most common pitfalls business owners might face if they are not launching a profitable home-based business, but happen to choose the wrong outsourcing software development company for their projects. So, please have a more detailed look.

[NAVIGATION LIST]

Key pitfalls the improper outsourcing can bring:

  • Horrible bugs that results in application errors and customers dissatisfaction
  • Lack of realization of expected cost savings
  • Poor process automation
  • Unhelpful customer service, which is constantly unavailable
  • Big project delays costing you lots of time and money
  • Lack of proper communication in the team, which results in misunderstanding or unwanted changes within the project

With this in mind, we have to admit that’s only the tip of the iceberg. There can appear more serious problems should you contact the wrong company. So, it’s obvious that you need the right software development partner. Save big when you outsource the right way, preventing most unforeseen problems. To help you with that,  below we have handpicked some tips to consider when launching a profitable business with an outsourcing team.

Your business can easily surpass competitors failing to see the advantages of the proper outsourcing should you outsource the smart way. Major considerations for effective, smooth, and result-driven first time outsourcing are as follows:

  • Define your clear project vision and state major requirements. Never start outsourcing until you know what you need. You have to fully understand what your product requires and how the outsourcing development team can help you. Have each and every requirement listed in a detailed fashion.
  • Set realistic expectations. Who would mind having the cutting-edge business-centric solution delivered tomorrow? But we all know that is hardly possible. To eliminate pitfalls and common risks, make sure you always set realistic deadlines and scope of work for the given period of time.
  • Know your team. Get to know more about every member of the team you are going to work with. Hand-picking candidates for your project is a smart way to go.
  • Determine the required budget and do not overdo it. Before signing the contract with the outsourcing partner, ask for a free project development calculation and make sure that all needed features are included. Once stated, follow your budget and never exceed it.
  • Monitor, control, and evaluate all the processes. Stay in the know with everything happening to your product during development, testing and deploying.
  • Mind the time and culture differences. If you outsource, your development team might be sleeping while you are awake or vice versa. Bear in mind the time difference when deciding upon vital meetings. Sometimes, it’s better to double check that the outsourcing team manager has understood you correctly than to believe he or she has.
  • Think outside the box. To take your projects from average to amazing, both you and your IT partner have to think outside the box. Remember that when choosing the right people to work with.
  • Invest in the training and development. Ensure the people managing your campaign remain competitive, update their competencies in all skills needed on a regular basis.
  • Collect some information about your outsourcing partner. Check its case studies, find what people think about it, make sure its site is easy and fast to navigate. By the way, if you want grandiose, partnering with Unicrew is highly recommended. It’s an expert software development company boasting customer-centric thinking, which helps businesses find their sweet spot of creativity, productivity and making money. Time to achieve something really unique and meaningful with Unicrew, which is featured by many independent resources as a top software development company!

Top 10 PHP Tips For Developers

Posted on by Volodymyr Khitsiak

The time goes by and PHP is evolving steadily providing developers with more intricate and efficient tools. In this article, we attempted to gather the most profitable php tricks and hacks both for newbies and more experienced website makers. Let’s go! 

PHP Advanced Programming for Everybody

  • Work With Sessions 

The newest version of php enables session_start() to accept an array of options to define php.ini configurations. One of the advanced php techniques is to use session.lazy_write option for rewriting session data automatically and read_and_close function for preventing changing them. 

  • Enable Error Reporting

One of the php tricks for beginners, which are known but underestimated by professionals. These two lines should be included into all advanced php programming tutorials: 

error_reporting ( E_ALL ) ;

ini_set ( ‘display_errors’ , 1 );

Save your time and effort just by adding them in the beginning of your code. 

  • Handle Ternary Operator

The ternary operator, as it’s claimed in advanced php books and advanced php w3schools, in some cases is exactly what you need to write an efficient and lightweight code. However, the advisability of its use depends on the variable’s data size. If the operand is a sizable structure it will be copied which may lead to memory leaks. In some cases it is better to use the “if” operator. 

  • Improved Generators

In PHP7 there are several new advanced php topics and tricks concerning generators, namely the return statement and generator delegation. These features allow returning the very last generator’s value or delegate the values of one generator to the other using yield from. 

  • Anonymous Classes

Advanced php concepts claim that an anonymous class as a can be generated from new class if you need a one-time class and its object does not make sense. Such php programming tricks are described in advanced php topics tutorials and help to use resources advisably. 

  • Forget MySQL Driver

It’s time to follow php advanced concepts and switch to PDO. This extension helps to connect various database managers to your website. You can simply find an advanced php tutorial with examples on the Internet (try to enter advanced php tutorial pdf or php tips and tricks pdf) and start working with state-of-the-art tools. 

  • Utilize .htaccess

Clean URLs are great for SEO, so do not hesitate to improve them using .htaccess file:

RewriteEngine On

RewriteRule ^([a-zA-Z0-9]+)$ index.php?page=$1

The method is adopted form advanced php books. This would improve redirection performance either. 

  • Improve isset()

In PHP7 a ?? operator was added. It returns the first operand if it is set and is not NULL, and in the opposite case returns the second operand. It’s very convenient in a combination of a ternary operator and the isset () function, which is stated in many php advanced concepts with examples. 

  • Avoid Using require_once/include_once statements

All php tricks ratings are shouting at coders not to use *_once language constructs in the code, and so do we. By the idea, these statements should help to save the server resources and this is a exactly a case in simpler apps, but at high-load and mission critical servers these constructs’ often lead to the reduction in efficiency. Most of advanced PHP tutorials recommend using the traditional require()/include() functions using the relative paths instead.

  • Keep Your SQL Safe

The developers of all levels often ask how to become a good php developer. Our answer is: learn to write secure code. That’s why we recommend always adhere to simple SQL injection prevention rules. Escape any variable that you’ll use in the database:

$query_result = mysql_query (“SELECT * FROM WHERE Ex_table ex_field = \” ” . mysql_real_escape_string( $ ex_field ) . ” \ ” ” ) ; 

Afterword

Usually, php coding tips contain universal pieces of advice or ignore new implementations. Our php tips and tricks advanced further and tried to find the freshest solutions to improve php coding. Hope it will be useful for you!

How to Find the Right Web Developer

Posted on by Volodymyr Khitsiak

Need to find a developer for an app? Wondering how to find who designed a website? Urgently want to find a startup partner? Don’t have the needed technical expertise to check your candidate? With so many options and alternatives on offer you simply don’t know how to act, right?

First and foremost, stop feeling overwhelmed, here comes the way out! Check this!

To make your products or projects worth bragging about, you need to find the right team who can put all your ideas into reality. With thousands of web developers on market, the main concern you might face today is how to find not only the top talent but the right team for your needs. Below, we have handpicked the list of things to do before you get started with the hiring process. By performing these steps you’ll be able to find web developers for startups or already existing businesses without any hassle.

But before we go further, consider this: these suggestions will be useful both for those who need to hire a freelance web developer or a team member on a day-to-day basis.

And now, let’s dive in! 

Steps to follow to find the right candidate for your project

Determine your ideal candidate:  to help you with that, take a look at any web developer profile sample and analyze which skills your ideal candidate should have, professional and personal. The better way is to have a consultation of the web agency, analysing your particular case, they will be able to recommend the most optimal skillset.

State the particular position requirements: think about all duties and responsibilities the individual should be able to cope with. Think also about the roles of quality assurance engineer being involved into the development.

Decide upon the preferable way of cooperation: decide whether you need to hire staff on an hourly or ‘per project’ basis. For saving reasons, it’s recommended to hire a dedicated developer.

Don’t work directly with the freelancer if you feel you are not enough tech-savvy: we are not joking! Please take this issue seriously since a person might provide you with a good looking piece of work containing multiple bugs or internal errors which you’re simply not aware of. Choosing an outsourcing company not only eliminates those unwanted surprises but also simplifies the whole process of staff finding and hiring.

Get the full picture of the person you are hiring: browse the candidate’s CV, have a look at the Linkedin web designer profile description and company’s profile. Plus, it would be wise to take a peek at the freelance web designer portfolio.Having a closer look at his or her list of implemented projects also seems like an important way to go. Don’t forget to check the Upwork web developer profile.

Make sure your future team member is reliable enough and suits your business needs: It goes without saying, but we remind you to ask the candidate you would like to hire or a company to provide you with the recommendations from  their clients.


Anyway, these are the key steps to follow if you really wish to find a freelance developer or a dedicated developer that will suit your needs. Meanwhile, whilst looking for the perfect candidate can be a daunting task, one thing remains clear: to erase unwanted fears and worries in the stormy sea of web developers for hire, you should choose a reputable outsourcing agency, such as unicrew. Our technical talent has the needed experience and expertise to guarantee you the highest-quality software development services on time and on budget.

unicrew Has Joined Lviv IT Cluster

Posted on by Volodymyr Khitsiak

unicrew (former Artelogic) was founded in 2012 and since that time provides a full spectrum of software development services to its customers. Company’s portfolio consists of more than 5 years of experience, more than 100 completed projects, most of which have become profitable and continue extending their functionality.

Two startups were sold for $3 millions in total value in an early startup stage. This year the company has also launched its own startup. But the main pride of unicrew is its team of professionals whose day-to-day work allows for building a genuine technology partnership with customers and partners all around the world.

unicrew’s engineering expertise is not industry or country-specific, but the top vertical markets the company deals with are logistics, healthcare, finance, and data management. Among customers are companies of different sizes and geographical locations, from startups to established enterprise corporations.

Currently, unicrew is represented in 4 countries with offices in the US, Poland, Singapore and the HQ and development center in Ukraine.


“We are glad to become a member of Lviv IT Cluster, as we believe in the power of partnership towards achieving broader goals. Beyond doubt that a mutually shared idea can unite and empower people to shape a better future, and with all our efforts we endeavor to be the part of the community that advances the IT industry in Lviv to new exciting opportunities” – comments Tural Mamedov, CEO and co-founder of unicrew.

In Client's Shoes

Posted on by Volodymyr Khitsiak

They say you will never understand a man until you walked a mile in his shoes. A couple of weeks ago we needed financial advice and service. That was a professional consultation on how to pay taxes in the US to be sure we are on the same page with rules and do not misconstruct them. We published a request online and within one day received, just imagine, two hundred and something offers. Yes, surely that was not the first time of outsourcing for us, but two hundred and something, and we had to make a choice!

Being a cofounder of the IT business and someone who has been working with many businesses for more than 9 years, I am aware of the competition rates in our field and all the challenges IT vendors face while applying for a contract. But at that moment, we were the ones who had to decide with whom to partner and to whom say thank you for the offer.

We have read every letter and offer as knew that behind each of them there was a person or a team who’d put some efforts to succeed. Someone more efforts, someone less. After a day of reading and evaluating, we felt walking in our clients’ shoes. But I would say we have learned much from that. We had this feeling, what on earth are our clients are thinking about when they’ve received hundreds of offers.

Nothing new in this story, just a well-known statement is repeated once again. Be sure, if we all spent a day in our client’s shoes, we would improve the skills to understand each other and to be more effective on both sides of the deal. This is a win-win deal for both.

Do you think we have made a big opening on how to choose a vendor and will share a secret key with you? That is not so, as well as it is impossible to reinvent a wheel. Intuitively we all know how to. After all, we have decided on working with a team who approach our request thoroughly. They were the last ones we received the offer from. I do not know whether the reason was they spend some more time to visit our website and learn more about us, but the quality of communications and then the experience they have was the one we expected. I was reading the letter which was addressed to us and I could clearly understand what benefits and values they would bring to our company. In other words, what I will pay for.

At that moment, I remembered one my colleague who pays high attention to the CV cover letters, when hiring an employee for his department. He said the more clearly specialists can express their thoughts, the more effective people they are. It is simple, but true. Translating this into a business language, if you can provide service of a high quality, you should be able to deliver a message to your client in an appropriate manner too.

To make a long story short, I’d say Unicrew is on the right way paying so much attention to the communication at each level of software development cycle. Transparency, trust, and interaction are our baseline. Otherwise, no one will know how good you are in software developing.

To that end, we have only one advice. If you are an IT executive of a large or a small business, your company is probably among those, that outsource IT service or are looking for a technology partner. Each time you have such need, ask, should it be like an outsourcing or rather a partnership, bringing business value to your table?