What is a tech stack and How one from a non-technical Project and Product manager must understand?: EP 4
User: Hey God, what is tech stack? I am PM should I care for it?
God: Ok! Let me tell you a story to make the dish as customers request in the restaurant and what is exactly happens.
So,
Here is the thing go McDonald’s buy a triple stack cheeseburger. Now we have ingredients for this burger (Chicken or Aloo patties, Slices of American cheese, tangy pickles, mustard, and chopped onions) to create this mouthwatering delicacy.
Similarly to experience such delicacy in technology in form of an application we use two components are front-end and back-end stacks. These stacks also shape the role of the developer who builds the product.
As a project or product manager, our job is to meet the client’s requirements. Where the dish prepared by the developer must satisfy the client’s appetite.
again, we should know what are front-end and back-end
Front-end Tech stack
This is where the major interaction happens between the users and machine, an understanding of the application with use-able workflow and user can navigate to as what is trying to solve the use case
There are 3 main recipes that define a Front-end stack
- HTML: This helps in creating the content or document on the page… this is for real! Believe me …
- CSS: This helps in making the page look cool in color and style-wise
- Javascript: This is responsible for the making application interactive.
Being expertise in the above items one becomes a Front-end developer and they commonly expertise in Angular or React and call server APIs built by other developers(Back-end one)
and this,
Back-end Tech stack
This is where the response or of the action of the button you access in the developed application. For example: Think of it as the electric power stations that generate electricity for your home. They may seem invisible in the background, by they are important to keep the operations running smoothly.
Major elements in the dish to be delicacy:
- Programming languages: This creates the logic for apps and websites which link the database. Example: JavaScript, PHP, and Python
- Frameworks: This happens to work along with the server-side, which majorly takes care of the authorization and authentication. MVC comes in-pictures Model, View, and Controller this helps in coordinating with the application
- Web servers: This helps the overall show running with this you will see a 404 error
- Database: This is a warehouse where the inputs entered by the user is stored here
If you are well experienced in the above cool stuff then you can call yourself a back-end developer
User: What will I do know all these tech stacks?
God: Please re-enter the password.
User: WTF! God?
God: 404 error. Please retry clearing cache.
User: Okay?!
God:
Top Tech stack models:
In order to make a Triple cheeseburger, Chicken biryani, or Polav we need proper ingredients to make it these ingredients are already there, and it’s been updated, updating… Period! Duh! aka endless?
GOD: hey be a LAMP and get me a burger.
User: What?!
GOD: Microsoft’s favorite child (ASP.NET)
GOD: I created this!!! Isn’t wonderful? (MEAN stack)
User: Better than Bing! lolz
GOD: Some book guy or meta guys responsible for this technology(MERN)
User: maybe be they have stolen from someone you-know-who.
God: This is also cool stuff developed by Japanese guys for fun programming (Ruby on Rails )
User: Can I do some fun, here is the list
God: Python is used in data science to make cool business decisions.
User: How come science is involved in a business decision, it is nothing but facts and stuff.
GOD: We make money with facts by manipulating them.
Basically, as a PM you will need to understand the expected dish by the client and need to elicit the client properly and let see what the client might in their bucket.
And definitely, you have to take SME or Tech Architecture
It will be a disaster for the company on selecting the wrong tech stack for the use case for the safer side to go with MEAN. Deciding to use Ruby on Rails because it sounds fun is a bad idea that will just slow you down.
God: There are people around who can tell PM which tech stack can be used based on the use case
Here are some useful links.
Link 4 (Please google yourself)
Author: Ideally, the PM job is “ Manage stuff” ask why everywhere possible scenario. If you understood what tech stack and types are…. then by now you also are thinking to create one. Actually, we can but it involves a great workforce involved in development. But one company called Zoho have their own Back-end code to manage DB. Just understand it and ask respective developer questions in Scrum call or Sprint planning
In later future, I will be writing cool stuff related to the Product manager and project manager coz I am one.
Thanks and Regards,
Venkatesh
P.S: Write me to at m.venkateshvaran@gmail.com, subscribe to the blog.
