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Technology Stack Selection

A technology stack is a set of technologies and framework that are used (or in computer science term: stacked) together to create a software. A technology stack determines the type of software developers can build, the level of customization they can perform and the resources needed for development. We will now briefly explore some of the criteria involved in choosing a tech stack for software development and some of the commonly used frameworks in the development world.

Selecting an appropriate tech stack for your software project depends on several factors including the project budget, the target audience and platforms, the project size, the documentation, community support and scalability of the development platforms.

Project Size

Start by quantifying the size of your project depending on the project’s goals, ambitions and the target user base. Most projects can be classified as small, medium-sized or complex.

  • Small Projects: characterized by simple requirements and relatively fast development cycles and turnaround times e.g., building a web-based project using WordPress.
  • Medium-sized Projects: require a higher level of technological commitment that calls for the use of multiple programming languages tool and frameworks. The project requirements are also more involved and the user base is sizeable e.g., building a single-page application using Next.js.
  • Complex Projects: characterized by complex features and stricter scalability requirements. These projects often require several application servers running simultaneously to handle the substantial flow of user traffic e.g., building a cross-platform mobile application that is open for any users.

Documentation and Community Support

Documentation is crucial to developers regardless of experience. With the help of clear and concise documentation, developers can easily learn and apply the various features of the used programming languages and frameworks in addition to easily debugging bugs and issues

Scalability and Updates

The project owners provide constant updates to frameworks while maintaining good security practice in usage. Ideally, the framework should be scalable in the future, that is allowing different levels of integration or customization e.g., a UI library should allow developers to adapt its components to different devices (desktop or mobile).

Budget

As a rule of thumb, always use frameworks that fit your project budget. In this context, the budget also includes your team’s expertise, that is developers’ current level of familiarity with the considered frameworks and tools. Training developers on new frameworks, tools or programming time will considerably lengthen your development cycle. If a project is highly time-critical, choose more intuitive frameworks so developers can easily familiarize themselves with these tools and build a functional product while providing proper maintenance support for the product.

When setting up your software project, you will need to choose the appropriate frontend and backend frameworks for your project.

Frontend Frameworks

Frontend frameworks focuses on the visual aspects and the user interface of your project i.e., the user-facing part of your software that your users will see and interact with. Popular frontend frameworks for web development include React and its derivates, Material UI, Bootstrap, etc. These frameworks are often used in conjunction with the JavaScript or TypeScript programming languages.

Backend Frameworks

The backend is the server side of the website. Backend frameworks handle storing and organizing the data in addition to enabling the various functionalities of the software by manipulating its structure and logic. Users do not interact directly with the backend of a software project. The frontend of a software allows users to perform a curated set of actions that are handled by the backend frameworks. Popular backend frameworks include Flask, Django, Express.js/Node.js, etc. Databases in the backend are often managed using a relational database management system like MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL or SQLite. The main benefit of a relational database is the ability to link data from various tables to retrieve information or manipulate the data using SQL queries.

If you would like to learn more about the process of selecting a tech stack for your project, please consult our Technology Stack Selection learning module.