Article published in TechAspect’s digital cum print edition of internal company official magazine TechTunes October 2015 issue (Vol 1, 2015)
Rapid and ever-growing browser technologies are a boon to internet users. At the same time, these cutting edge innovations present the developer community with a new set of opportunities and challenges. The autonomous nature of the internet produces conflicting opinions in many areas, such as standards bodies, un-finalized specs, browser differences, and so on; growth of mobile device use further adds fuel to the fire.
Challenges
The ‘party’ is no longer server side but rather now inside the browser, which is controlled by the user. In other words, the browser is the new OS. Frontend developers often find themselves in unexplored territory. The shelf life of frontend technology has shortened considerably in recent years, calling for
developers to realign our strategies.
Impact on Project Success
Our success rate increases if we identify frontend risks well in advance. It is very easy to miss a CSS incompatibility, which results in a broken home page layout. The contents and underlying DOM are so dynamic they may be overlooked.
Mitigation
To avoid costly mistakes, it is important to understand frontend volatility, and to perform due diligence, even though it is challenging. It is also essential to understand clients’ requirements, select the right
technologies, accurately estimate UI costs, and select the right resources.
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