Are you struggling to attract and retain developers and other tech talent? You’re not alone. According to our retailer survey in late 2023, a shortage of tech talent is the number one challenge for most retailers in Australia. And it’s one of the biggest problems retailers and brands face globally.
But without these crucial skills, omnichannel commerce isn’t possible. Many different systems host and make sense of large amounts of data. They help businesses operate as profitably as possible. Provide a smooth experience for customers. But what if those systems don’t talk to each other? What if a new system needs to be implemented? A business rule changed? The business needs to pivot quickly? Or an emergency issue arises? In almost all cases, you will need your tech team to work on a solution with your business team. But what if you do have enough developers to help? What can you do to attract, and retain these key team members?
The short answer? Give them modern, fun, cutting edge tech to work with. It removes boring work they have done a million times before and allows them to upskill and explore new ways of working.
The longer answer? MACH technology. Microservices, API first, Composable and Headless solutions. It is a modern approach to building and designing software applications, particularly in the context of e-commerce and digital experience platforms. Let’s look into why developers can’t wait to get their hands on all things MACH.
1) Flexibility & Autonomy
MACH architecture emphasizes modularization through microservices. This allows developers to build and deploy smaller, independent components. And that makes it easier to scale and maintain the application. Each microservice can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently. Why is that good? Because it provides much greater flexibility in managing complex systems.
Also, MACH’s microservices approach promotes the creation of small, cross-functional development teams. Each team can take ownership of a specific microservice, giving developers more autonomy. This also allows for a sense of accomplishment. Motivation. And shows how contributions directly impact the application.
Building smaller isolated components rather than digging into large monolithic systems allows teams to get results faster. And that provides more regular and sustained job satisfaction.
2) Faster Development
MACH encourages an API-first approach. Services communicate with each other through well-defined APIs. This simplifies development by allowing different teams to work on different components simultaneously. The result? Reduced development bottlenecks and a faster overall development process.
MACH architecture encourages continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) practices. Developers can quickly deploy changes to their microservices, enabling them to test ideas, gather feedback, and iterate rapidly. This iterative process keeps developers engaged and invested in the success of the project.
Moreover, the development environment is way easier to set up and manage. Tooling is leaner and the cloud toolset offered by cloud services providers such as AWS, GCP and Azure makes building microservices a breeze.
3) Cloud-Native Principles
MACH works in cloud-native environments. It takes advantage of the benefits of cloud computing such as serverless functions, queues and API gateways. Developers appreciate the seamless integration with cloud services, making it easier to manage and deploy their services. Every MACH solution provides a set of modern APIs and a list of events to handle the asynchronous communication between services. But that is not all. Events such as Order Created are automatically passed to the queue of developers choice, so all the boilerplate code and setup to get the events is already taken care of. Developers are focused on what really matters, business logic and connecting the building blocks together.
4) Operating with cloud providers
Wherever you look today, even in projects with big monolithic applications, you will find microservices being sketched onto whiteboards. Being able to leverage cloud providers’ (AWS, GCP, Azure) toolsets to build and maintain them becomes more and more important.Thanks to the variety of the providers and their growing and improved list of available toolsets, the ability to architect and operate with them is high in demand. The good news? These skills are available to everyone. There is a plethora of online training and courses available to get up to speed with those technologies and get certified. And employers as well as developers will reap the benefits!
5) Efficient Debugging and Troubleshooting
Microservices in MACH are typically smaller and more focused than monolithic applications. This granularity makes it easier to identify and fix issues as developers can isolate problems to specific services. Debugging and troubleshooting become more efficient. This in turn reduces frustration and improves the overall developer experience.
Lets not forget about the testing. Although it is still important to implement a test-driven approach to your services, the overall testing effort is way lower compared to monolithic applications. This is thanks to the isolations of the APIs and compartmentalisation of business logic. So much time and effort saved. Your team will love spending it on innovation and experimentation instead!
6) Innovation and Experimentation
Developers can integrate new technologies or services into specific microservices without affecting the entire system. This encourages innovation and experimentation. Developers can try out new tools, frameworks, or approaches without disrupting the overall stability of the application. Within the MACH ecosystem of vendors and implementation partners there is a saying: “Build Fast, Fail Fast”. Your teams can try out new ideas. And if those are not adopted by customers? You can abandon them without ruining your budget!
7) Code in your preferred language
MACH architecture empowers developers to work with a wide range of technologies, programming languages, and tools. This variety not only keeps their skills sharp but also allows them to explore and learn new technologies that interest them. This exposure contributes to their professional growth and makes development more engaging. Due to the isolation of your business logic and exposure of services as APIs, the actual framework and language used to implement the service is not as relevant and often not enforced by the project manager. That also means that the talent pool for such development becomes much larger.
8) Career Growth and Job Satisfaction
Working with modern, industry-relevant MACH technologies can enhance a developer’s resume and open up new opportunities. Engaging in cutting-edge practices can lead to higher job satisfaction, as developers feel they are contributing to innovative projects. More than ever it has become important for employers to retain and attract top talents. What can be better than allowing developers and IT teams to work with the most modern technologies available?
This is the present and the future of development. And every developer moving towards this technology stack immediately appreciates the benefits.
Want to know more about how MACH technology can invigorate your business and your developers? Get in touch today, we’d love to hear from you!
