Implementation doesn’t happen in a vacuum. A significant amount of collaboration is required with a product team before we can begin our work. Negotiating API contracts, working within the confines of a products roadmap, and accounting for backend engineers availability can add significant overhead before we write a single line of code. Even when our work is done, there may be other considerations with a product's release cycle we need to account for in order for our work to ship. We are always learning and finding ways to be better partners to our product teams.
Issues collaborating with Product Teams
- Switching between products requires adapting to each of the Product Teams' needs.
- Each Back End team has a different understanding of how the API contract is defined, leading to confusion.
Collaboration best practices
- Advocate for the Front End / Back End split by clearly defining the needs of the UI from the API.
- Take the time needed to get up to speed on the needs of the product before beginning to code.
Tools that will make us better collaborators with Product Teams
- Front End Team Dashboard: Provides a holistic view of what each team member is working on, making timing collaboration with product teams easier.
- Stoplight: Will provide a shared platform that the Front End and Back End teams can use to coordinate the API contract.