To Hire A “Full Stack” Developer or Not? That Is the Question.

The concept of being a “Full Stack” web developer is starting to be heavily debated over the past year. The deeper I emerge myself into a developer’s mindset, the more I begin to challenge my original thoughts on the effectiveness of a Full Stack Developer. So how do you know what type of developer to seek out and hire at your company?

First off, let me define the term “Full Stack”: A developer who has experience with each development layer. The layers include:

1. Server, Network, and Hosting
   2. Data Modeling
   3. Business Logic
   4. API / Action / MVC
   5. User Interface
   6. User Experience
   7. Customer or Business Needs

Here are some pros and cons to hiring a full stack developer vs. an expert in a particular layer:

PROS:

• Full stack developers provide a full package development functionality, and are comfortable with developing within all stack layers.-- they are a sort of ‘Jack-of-all-trades’
• Full stack developers are masters of none, but knowers of all. This is an important skill set for a development team with a tight budget.
• Depending on the level of development expertise, 1 full stack developer is worth the price of 1 front end and 1 back end developer-- definitely worth the cost-savings!

CONS:

• With the current full stack skill-set, the margin of error is much greater, being that there are 7+ layers to the stack. -- Peter Yared¸ founder and CTO of Sapho, points out that “development has gotten far more complicated in recent years, and that a full stack engineer won’t cut it anymore and that an expert is required at each layer in the process.”    

• Most full stack developers do not have experience with Automated UI testing including libraries (i.e. Cucumber, Selenium)
• A true full stack developer must be an expert in the art of learning, not just an expert in a given development technology.
• Not all full stack developers have design experience. The full stack includes the ability to see the big picture, this includes creating a (mental) model of the business and the development technology that best fits the process.

CONCLUSION:
When hiring a developer for your team, it is important to remember that each development layer has its own challenges. Federico Ulfo, one of the more experienced Senior Full Stack Developers at Grovo, makes a great analogy using food terms: “…You can be good at cooking or good at baking, but mastering both takes time and experience. And I’m not talking about following a recipe, anyone can do that. I’m talking about having the ingredients to prepare something truly good.”

-Nick