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Some backends are fairly sophisticated and require extensive domain knowledge from designing databases that can be scaled, caching systems, security issues and

Some backends are fairly sophisticated and require extensive domain knowledge from designing databases that can be scaled, caching systems, security issues and so on. On the client side you may need someone who is an expert in C#, in 3d rendering and geometry and in audio. Finding someone great at both is going to be very hard, and frankly not worth the benefits unless you have a very small team. That said I believe front and backend should work closely together. There is no reason that the frontend should be blocked because the API design can be figured out before the backend is written and the frontend can mock out the missing features until they are available.

bitsai 11y ago
"That said I believe front and backend should work closely together. There is no reason that the frontend should be blocked because the API design can be figured out before the backend is written and the frontend can mock out the missing features until they are available." Came here to say exactly this. At my current workplace, one of the very first steps in any project that involves both FE and BE work is for FE and BE engineers to get together and design the API. Once that's done, work can proceed on both sides in a largely asynchronous and independent manner. And one of the first things to be implemented on the BE is API endpoints with multiple mocks that can be requested by the FE, so the FE can start integrating with the endpoints as early as possible.
matthewmacleod 11y ago
I don't think you need to find people who are great at both, but you may want to find teams that are great at both. The impression I took from the comment you replied to is that there should be no front-end and back-end team, but instead 'cross stack' feature-oriented teams, including members who have knowledge of all parts of the stack and can work on all parts of a feature together.

bitsai 11y ago

"That said I believe front and backend should work closely together. There is no reason that the frontend should be blocked because the API design can be figured out before the backend is written and the frontend can mock out the missing features until they are available." Came here to say exactly this. At my current workplace, one of the very first steps in any project that involves both FE and BE work is for FE and BE engineers to get together and design the API. Once that's done, work can proceed on both sides in a largely asynchronous and independent manner. And one of the first things to be implemented on the BE is API endpoints with multiple mocks that can be requested by the FE, so the FE can start integrating with the endpoints as early as possible.

matthewmacleod 11y ago

I don't think you need to find people who are great at both, but you may want to find teams that are great at both. The impression I took from the comment you replied to is that there should be no front-end and back-end team, but instead 'cross stack' feature-oriented teams, including members who have knowledge of all parts of the stack and can work on all parts of a feature together.