Web projects: questions to ask in order to choose the right development language

When it comes to web projects, what questions do you need to ask in order to make the right choice of technological tools?

One of the key components to the success of your web project is the choice of technologies you will use for developing your IT product.

Development technologies do not provide their own functionalities per se, but they will have an effect on many aspects of your web project.

The technology stack

Depending on your technical level, the question of what technologies to use can be approached in different ways. That being said, in the end, several development technologies can be selected.

A tech stack represents the different technological layers necessary for the development of a web application.

The tech stack is composed of three layers:

• The development language,
• Development tools (Framework, API, software solution, etc.),
• The database management system.

Criteria for choosing a development language

A list of criteria should be considered when making the choice of the development language most suited to your needs.

The software development industry is a fairly new sector that doesn’t have a defined and formal process for choosing development technologies. Despite this, the criteria outlined below provide guidelines for the points to focus on when appraising different development languages.

The provider’s experience

What is the service provider’s experience in IT development in the chosen development language(s)?

It is not advisable to start using a language in which your IT development resources have little experience.

The technical environment

What is the technical environment of the project?

What is that planned infrastructure?

The level of security of the application is another factor that can lead to one language being chosen over another.

Speed ​​of development

Depending on the goals of your project, the expected development speeds may vary. In the case of the realization of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) your imperative will be to develop quickly for a rapid test on the market. Twitter, to name just one, was originally developed with Ruby and Ruby on Rails. Then, in response to performance issues, Java and Scala were gradually integrated.

The basic takeaway: your application does not necessarily have to be developed using the same technology throughout its lifetime.

The ecosystem: tools and community

Taking into account the ecosystem that the language benefits from is another important point to consider. Its ecosystem includes the tools made available to developers, and the extent of the community that is engaged with the language and which participates in its evolution. Stable tools and an active community are definitely preferable.

The developer pool

Recruitment potential is another aspect to consider. Developers are a much sought-after resource for businesses. In the event that your project requires the intervention of a large number of developers, it’s definitely wise to consider a language that is used by many developers. In that way, it will be easier to find the skills necessary to build your team, rather than in the case of languages ​​where the profiles are rarer.

The composition of the development team will be a critical factor in your success.

Maturity

Finally, we suggest opting for a mature and stable language. A language that is too young will probably not allow you to cover all of your use cases. In order to ensure good productivity for your development team, select a language in which developers will not face too many obstacles.

Finally, apart from the points stated above: the planned infrastructure, integration into an existing information system, or even securing the application, are all factors that can lead to one technology being chosen over another.

At Bocasay, we put together tailor-made development teams. We have many developer profiles with expertise in different technologies.