Q&A of Software Development

Many times, a browser does not support a particular website, but the other one does. The problem is not with the browsers, but with the website. However, the website is not actually broken in such type of a case, but it lacks compatibility with different browsers. Yes, this is true. In fact, not a single website looks similar on different browsers even if they are compatible to them all. Look at the images given below. Facebook at Chrome looks different than Facebook at IE. In terms of colours, fonts, graphics etc., many changes can be witnessed just having a glance at the site.  

Check another cross-browser compatibility issue with the image given below: 

What are most frequent cross-browser issues and how cross-browser testing helps to eradicate them? 

Besides Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla FireFox, and Safari, there are hundreds of other web and mobile browsers available on the Internet. Each browser has different versions. Inconsistent views of a website across multiple browsers create cross-browser compatibility issues. Let us have a summary of some of the common cross-browser compatibility issues: 

1. DOCTYPE Error –When the ‘doctype tag’ is missing in a webpage, it leads to faulty rendering. 

2. No valid HTML/CSS –Here, the error occurs when a tag is missed to be closed. Some browsers might auto correct it, some may not. Hence, HTML/CSS code validation is implemented. 

3. Absence of CSS reset –Browsers by default apply a design layout (CSS style) to a website. To implement a different design layout, the default one needs to be overridden. 

4. Vendor specific functions –New browsers mostly hide their latest CSS functionality in front of the vendor-specific CSS style. To avoid this issue, users should add the function without the prefix as well. 

5. Older browser –If you are using an older version of a browser, it may create the compatibility issues. The older version of Javascript does not run in the modern browsers and makes loading pages difficult. 

Cross-browser testingmeans testing your website or application in multiple browsers. This applies to both web and mobile applications. This testing method is used to know what is wrong with the website so that it can be fixed and enhance its efficiency and user experience. 

The two ways of cross-browser testing includes manual testing and automated testing to observe a website or application’s behaviour on different browsers and report a bug. 

Now, let us discuss about some of the best cross-browser testing tools that are popular among the users. They are: 

1. LambdaTest: 

This cloud-based testing platform offers manual and automated cross-browser testing across more than 2000 browsers, OSes, and devices for free (basic version). It is trusted by more than 100,000 users. As per my opinion, this tool runs genuinely faster than the rest, especially on the desktops. If offers really clean UI, and easy-to-use testing experiences. 

2. Sauce Labs: 

Sauce Labs is one of the leaders in cross-browser testing market. It is a selenium based cloud solution for test automation on more than 260 browser platforms and devices. The state-of-the-art mobile testing it offers is exceptionally better than the others. 

3. SmartBear: 

SmartBear software is a leading information technology company that delivers top-rated software testing solutions all across the globe. It offers cross browser testing solutions utilizing 1500+ browser configurations. 

4. Browsershots: 

It is a free and open source and screenshot-based testing software that works for 200 browsers and operating systems. It allows you to enable or disable Javascript and Flash, and it is good for simple content pages. 

5. Browserstack: 

Browserstack is one of the oldest players in cross-browser testing arena with a huge market share. It is a cloud-based tool that lets you test your website or application on more than 2,000 browsers. It does not require any specific setup, and can run on interactive devices as well. 

Now let’s compare these cross-browser testing solutions to know best about them. Refer the comparison chart given below: 

Final Verdict: 

Here, I have covered top-5 cross-browser testing tools, though there are many. Each of them differs in terms of budget, functionality and skill-set requirements. As per my personal opinion, you can try Browsershots, if you don’t want to invest much into a project. If you want to invest to get a higher degree of automation service, then Browserstack and SmartBear would be the best to choose. But for the real device-based experiences, you should definitely give LambdaTest a chance. 

I hope these details will surely help you in automating your cross browser testing efforts.

Opting out the best web application framework is not a simple task. There are different frameworks in the market, and each of them holds unique peculiarities. Some have strong as well as have the best scopes of implementation. An accurate selection of a framework can quicken the processes, while a hasty decision can cost you extra time, and budget. 

Let’s have a glimpse into the top web development frameworks trending in 2019. These frameworks are famous, universal in use, and can be useful for many types of projects:  

1. Ruby on Rails:
   Ruby on Rails is a highly prolific web application framework composed by David Heinemeier Hansson. One can produce an application ten times quicker with Rails than a typical Java framework. Moreover, Rails incorporates everything required to create a database-driven web application, using the Model-View-Controller pattern.  

Language: Ruby 

Latest Version: Rails 5.0.0.beta2 

Framework Link: http://rubyonrails.org 

Github Link: https://github.com/rails/rails  

2. Django:
Another framework that assists in building high-quality websites is Django . It was created to meet fast-moving newsroom deadlines while meeting the adhesive conditions of experienced Web developers. Django developers say that the applications developed with it are ridiculously fast, reliable, scalable and agile. 

Language: Python 

Latest Version: Django 1.9.2 

Framework Link: https://www.djangoproject.com 

Github Link: https://github.com/django/django 

3. Angular (previously known as Angular Js):
Angular is a framework developed by Google (formerly exhibited by Misko Hevery and Adam Abrons) which assists the users in creating influential Web Apps. It is a framework that is employed to develop large scale and high-performance web applications but is easy-to-maintain. Many different web apps are made with Angular and can be found here https://www.madewithangular.com/ 

Language: JavaScript 

Latest Version: Angular 7.1.5 

Framework Link: https://angular.io/ 

Github Link: https://github.com/angular/angular 

4. ASP.NET:
ASP.NET is a framework that is produced by Microsoft. It helps the users to develop sturdy web applications for PC and mobile devices. It is a lightweight framework that gives high performance in building web applications using .NET. In brief, it is a framework with power, productivity, and speed. 

Language: C# 

Latest Version: ASP.NET 5 (ASP.NET Core 1.0) 

Framework Link: http://www.asp.net/ 

5. METEOR:
Meteor or MeteorJS is another framework that provides users a thoroughly simple way to create real-time mobile and web apps. It supports speedy prototyping and offers cross-platform (Web, Android, iOS) code. It also covers the cloud platform Galaxy that greatly elucidates deployment, scaling, and monitoring. 

Language: JavaScript 

Latest Version: Meteor 1.2.1 

Framework Link: https://www.meteor.com/ 

Github Link: https://github.com/meteor/meteor 

The above mentioned are the top web frameworks that are flexible and adaptable to different types of projects. All of them are excellent, but which is the best web framework for your project? It all depends on the requirements and project specifications. So, consider the benefits and limitations mentioned in the below-displayed comparison table to pick the one that will curtail your time and money in the long run. 

There is no dearth of software companies around the globe but finding the right technology solution partner can be a challenging task. So, herein, saving your research time and energy, I'm sharing a consolidated list of top software development outsourcing companies for startup size firms. These companies are bagged by skillful people, easy public policies and service-based economies, making them favorable for mobile and web development. 

Moreover, they cater to a plethora of clients, including fintech, hospitality, retail, automobile, and so on. 

1. Code Brew 

If you're looking for quality software development solutions, then Code Brew fits the bill. It aims to provide top-notch quality services at the most affordable rates. Code brew comprises of diligent and enthusiastic app developers who act as building bricks of the company. They have their offices in India, US, and Dubai. 

2. ValueCoders 

Value Coder has been into offshore software company for 13 years now. Their skill and expertise into software development and proven methodologies make them an ideal partner. They are proactive, professional, and cost-effective. If you're looking to scale beyond local capabilities, then look no further than ValueCoders. 

3. OpenXcell

OpenXcell is a team of talented, passionate, and skilled software enthusiasts, technology enthusiasts, and creative designers. Established in 2008, it is a CMMI level 3 software development company pioneering in web and mobile app development, real-time systems, bot development, and IOTs. They are focused on delivering high-performance and scalable software products to different industries. Catering to a plethora of diverse clientele, they're maintaining successful software products, eCommerce portals, marketplaces, social networks, real-time business analytics, and composite sync and integrations. Openxcell has its development center in India. 

4. Intellectsoft 

It is a full-cycle software development company providing services to over 800 clients in more than 30 countries globally. It includes development, adjustment, and integration of complex enterprise-level solutions, advanced mobile and web apps. Not just startups, it also serves fortune 500 companies. You can connect with them Application Development, IT consulting, QA and testing, customer support, mobile app development, Web App development, and so on. Intellectsoft is headquartered in the US and the UK. 

If you want to find more such leading outsourcing companies, click here.

Advanced humanoid robots are capable of simulating humans in all respects. Like darwin’s theory of evolution, they achieved this milestone through technological evolution. This was possible because we are getting better in communicating with electronics through high-level programming languages like Python.  

A humanoid robot is just one of the instances; the magic of programming Python spans even to Galaxy. NASA uses Python to program its space equipment.  

Python is extremely easy to handle. It enables programmers to write fewer lines of code and make it more readable. Even non-programmers can learn the Python language with ease. But what it is there that makes Python the best programming language for Big Data.  

( Image source: MVHS)  

Big Data  

(Image Source: geekmusthave)  

The general misconception of Big data is that it is about the volume/size of data. But Big data is more than the volume or size. It is referred to the large amounts of data which is pouring in from various data sources and has different formats.   

Usually, you gather data in these formats.    

• Unstructured data: Audio, video files etc.  
• Semi-Structured data: XML, JSON  
• Structured data: RDBMS
     

Later, this data is made more meaningful with data cleansing technique and used for various purposes like business process enhancement, customer acquisition, improving user experience, etc. Take the example of Netflix, which uses Big Data analytics to make shows and movie recommendations to its users.   

There are few other sectors that uses Big Data involves Banking, Transportation, Health care units, Government Organization, and so on.  

Big data is also described with its 5V’s- Volume- huge amount of data, Variety- different formats of data, Value- extract useful information from data, Velocity- accumulating data with speed, and Veracity- analysing uncertainty and inconsistency in data.  

( Image source: edureka)  

Reasons why Python is best for Big Data   

1. Python does not need to be compiled as it is an interpreted language . Interpreter actually parses the program code for generating the output.
     
2. In Python, variable types are defined automatically.
     
3. It supports an advanced library to implement machine learning algorithms. This is an advantage for the science community that deals with the scientific data.      

• NumPy: You can call this a science-geek library. It supplies an extensive library of high-level mathematical and numerical functions  
• matplotlib: It is a multi-platform data visualization library and feeds huge amounts of data in an easily digestible visuals  
• Scikit-learn: Scikit-learn provides a range of supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms.  
• Pandas: It allows various data manipulation operations such as groupby, join, merge, melt, concatenation as well as data cleaning  
• Tensorflow : Developed by Google’s team this Machine Learning library is used for research in deep neural networks  
• PyBrain: It contains algorithms for neural networks.  
• Scipy:It supports linear algebra, interpolation, FFT, ODE solvers, signal & image processing that is essential for scientific and technical computing    

4. Hadoop is a popular open-source big data platform. Its inherent compatibility with Python makes it a preferred language for Big data
  

5. Scalable applications can be created with python programming. Python also has the ability to integrate itself with web applications very easily.
  

6. It is more preferable when data-analytics is required.

  

When it comes down to the management of hotel processes and operations, they require hotel management software in order to enhance and improve their guest experiences.  

Essentially there are numerous hotel management systems which are available. Most of them come in various versions such as cloud-based, on-premise, open-source, SaaS, paid etc. Some of the key and standard features of these software are: 

1. Staff Management 

2. Guest Management 

3. Reservation and Booking 

4. Maintenance Management and Administration 

5. Menu Management 

6. Kitchen Management 

7. Inventory Management 

8. Order Management 

9. Table Management 

10. Floor Management 

11. Catering Management 

12. Feedback Management 

13. Billing and Payment 

14. Loyalty and Membership 

15. Reporting 

Even though the hotel industry has certainly made considerable strides when it comes to providing the best services, still embracing as well as investing in various innovative and intuitive digital technologies will certainly provide additional advantages to the entire hotel business. Also, the major reason for this is the essential change in the particular requirements of the guests. At present, there is a distinct demand for more personalized experiences.  

This opens up new avenues for SaaS development. Latest technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence etc. will certainly allow the hoteliers to understand their guests much better easily. It allows behaviour tracking and understanding their daily habits which leads to providing them better services and gaining better customer satisfaction. 

Utilization of new technologies will certainly create opportunities for increased business revenue, reduce time, unlock new profits and also improve quality. A lot of hotel management software come with an intuitive, interactive and user-friendly dashboard providing enhanced security as well as protection to their entire customer data.  

Along with an excellent backup facility, different systems support the management of real-time information too. Along with this, various software systems also come with multi-currency support as well as tax settings. Also, they come with training as well as round the clock support. A custom software development company should consider all these vital features in custom hotel management software development.

Data Visualization : Data visualization is the graphical representation of information and data. By using visual elements like charts, graphs, and maps, data visualization tools provide an accessible way to see and understand trends, outliers, and patterns in data.

Before we discuss the two main BI tools below, it is important to take a moment to understand why these tools can help your organization.

Business Intelligence is part of data analytics. BI uses data to help organizations make smarter decisions based on past results. Because of this focus on the past, business intelligence is often called descriptive analytics since it describes what already happened in the organization.

The main benefit of BI tools like the ones below is they aggregate the data in a central visual dashboard. Businesses can share these dashboards with their management teams as reports.

Many BI tools today have expanded past the basic visual dashboards they were in the past to include predictive analytics features. Predictive analytics predicts enterprise’s future events based on past events and artificial intelligence. As organizations send more data to their business intelligence solution, its power of prediction increases.

By looking at the organizations’ story, executives can decide the best course of action. As BI tools improve, they learn how to help executives improve their decisions. This is called prescriptive analytics.

Prescriptive analytics examines the possible outcomes from each recommendation and then offers what the computer believes is the best outcome possible.
 

Tableau vs  Microsoft Power BI

Tableau

Description- Like the other BI tools we mentioned above, Tableau transforms data into actionable insights. They have a great tool for creating ad hoc analyses and visual dashboards.

Benefits– The Tableau Creator has great visualization features and is easy-to-use. They started offering free services for a year to teachers and students with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Other features and benefits include:

• Easy-to-use drag & drop products
• Integrations with spreadsheets, databases, Hadoop, and cloud services
• Web and mobile dashboard share features
• Data preparation and governance add-on

Challenges– Unlike the other BI tools, Tableau can only do reporting. They do not have any ETL features. Therefore, they are not as dynamic when it comes to data transformation.

2. Microsoft Power BI :  

Description– Part of Microsoft’s Power Platform, Power BI gives everyone in an organization the ability to design applications and manage data without having a master’s degree in IT. Furthermore, Microsoft Power BI Services presents information in a specific format.

Benefit– Because Microsoft owns Power BI, it is a core part of the Microsoft product ecosystem.

For example, we helped an Australian family-focused NGO set up a Power App where remote team members could enter valuable data about program attendees. We connected the Power App to Power BI, so they could analyze each program’s success in one place.

Organizations value the powerful data visualizations that help them improve their decision-making. Other benefits and features include:

• Better, flexible insights
• Reduced Cost (Available in E5 plan or as a standalone tool)
• Built-in AI capabilities
• Excel, Teams, SharePoint, and other SaaS integrations
• Prebuilt and custom data connectors
• Enterprise level security and data loss prevention capabilities
• No or little technical experience needed
• Automate data prep and reporting processes
• iOS, Android, and Windows mobile apps
• Certifications (new feature)

Challenges- While anyone can use Power BI, there is still a learning curve. Often, it helps to have a Power BI expert. Additionally, the basic standalone pricing starts at $9.99/mos. However, some of the advanced premium versions are too expensive for many SMBs.

Also, complex business use cases might not be able to use this program due to the table relationships, rigid formulas, and interrelated Microsoft 365 tools.

Conclusion:  All the data visualization tools serves the same purpose but Microsoft Power BI comes with some additional features than tableau even if you are looking for more advanced predictive analytics than you should go for Microsoft Power BI.

IF your still not sure Get in touch with us for Free Consultation 1 Hour Demo

Let us take a look at the best ways to hire software developers & bring out the best in them ensuring quality!

Hiring talent is a multifaceted skill that lies at every crossroads of social networking, technical acumen, process management, and intuition. Particularly challenging is the fact that the hallmark qualities of exceptional software engineering candidates are extremely difficult to evaluate!

There are two major mistakes that managers make in hiring software developers. First, they assume software development is an engineering discipline, and thus they look for engineers. Second, they assume that the current skills a candidate has are important.

The issue is the rational methodology of hiring is designed for building things like bridges, machines, etc. which are 20 percent design and 80 percent construction, whereas software development is 95 percent design and 5 percent construction, i.e., the daily or a weekly build procedure. Just as we would not use the term “art engineers,” or “music engineers” to describe artists and composers, we should not use the term “software engineer” to describe software developers, which is the same type of discipline.

A common resulting pitfall for any HR is to instead focus too firmly on technical minutia, rather than evaluating the candidate’s ability to solve a problem, to think creatively, and to work compatible with the rest of the team.

Many people in the selection process give more emphasis to the developer’s coding skills. However, it is not the most effective way to hire developers. Alternatively, you should give him a real-life technological related problem that has occurred within your organization and ask how he will handle and solve such a problem in the least possible time. This will essentially give you a shrewder idea about his skills and creativity and how he will work on a project when he joins your company.

Hence, in this way you can come to know whether he is the best fit for doing the projects in your company or if his approach to resolve real-life problems is different than what is required in your company.

Today's software engineers and development teams want more than a good salary and benefits. To retain employees for the long haul, you'll want a work culture that offers intrinsic motivators as well as extrinsic motivators.  

The best way to bring out the best in your software developers is to offer them all the space they need for thinking of new ideas and putting it to work. Not merely giving them space but giving them a push to become a better version of themselves is essential. Pushing them to go beyond their limits is what will help them succeed in life.

Give your employees the freedom to grow and treat them in a manner that they never want to go!

For a product-based business managing every individual order from multiple sales channels may become a troublesome task. Also, the manual process of managing order may eat up a huge portion of your valuable time, which could be used to strengthen the sales strategy.

An order management system is a comprehensive ecommerce solution and best for product-based business - that tracks your sales, orders, inventory, order fulfillment, and much more. (In short, keeps track of all).

All successful companies that have streamlined their inventory process flow and a lean resource organization methodology are usually based on a strong order management system. Here are some cool and useful features which an order management software possess:

Real-time Order processing

You as a vendor can monitor the order from the ORDER PLACED to the ORDER COMPLETED in real-time (within seconds) with the order management system.

For example, Sellers show on each platform their complete inventory as stock to get the greatest amount of orders. Each sales platform will have data stored in an order management software. So whenever an order gets placed on one platform, the system automatically reduces the product count on the rest of the platforms by that quantity.

The order management software can constantly match the number of orders with the available inventory with all the stock information available in real-time. Eliminating the FOMO – that orders will not be fulfilled, the confirmation of excess orders or the experience of stock-outs, especially when most needed. This software also helps sellers to manage customers from multiple sources, making it easy for you to quickly gain a hold on the buyer's database.

Multiple sales channel order management

The most important thing is that the best order management software should allow you to work with multiple sales channels. Sales channels can be anything such as Amazon, eBay, Shopify store or physical brick and mortar.

Running a business on a few different e-commerce platforms usually means a large number of daily “log in” and “log out” tasks. Multi orders found an answer to this - integrations with multiple sales channels. All you need to do is connect your different accounts with the software and as a result, you will have all your clients and their orders in a single platform. Moreover, you can modify each of their inventories and fulfill their orders.

Bulk Operations You can perform bulk operations on orders by simplifying and automating the monotonous task such as confirming the order, shipping it, generating invoices, export/import orders in bulk and etc.

With bulk operation in order management software , you can add or update various default and custom order fields for orders in bulk. Hence for orders to which you want to add the same details in the fields like line item, tax details, salesperson, payment method, etc, you can do that in one go without individually updating details to each.

These are some of the unique features that not all order management softwares have. However, they are a “must-have” feature for any order management software.

Agree with Krishna. Slack is a great tool for software development firms. But you need to allocate some time to set it up to fit the need of your team. I'll share some small tips.

The main advantage of team messaging apps like Slack is the usage of public channels instead of direct messages because direct messages can lead to miscommunication and can leave a client and other team mates in the dark.

Slack works perfectly for such needs. I suggest creating different channels inside the workspace. Every channel can have its own purpose. Don't forget to create channels for off-topic discussions, supporting people and sharing memes. In our team, we have more than 15 active public chats for different needs. Here're some of them:

• #general - main channel for greetings, from which you are informed who and when is available. We publish retro results and general inquiries here. Also we publish there important company updates.
• #dev - technical discussions. Clients usually mute notifications from there, but are still able to see all the discussions if they want to.
• #product - here we discuss high-level requirements like product related questions, strategy, competitors, features and bugs.
• #random - a watercooler chat for non-project discussions, memes, and jokes.
• #animal_therapy — we share photos of our cute pets.
• #cooking — photos of the food we cooked. Sometimes we guess what others are cooking from the photo of ingredients :).
• #ihateremotework — support each other during the pandemic, while we can’t work from cafes, co-workings or other places.
• #media — share music we love.
• #playground — play computer games together.

In our team, we always write results and important points in chats after offline discussions or video calls so that everybody is informed about changes. It’s also a good practice to save these notes somewhere to return to them later or refer to them.

It’s convenient to monitor changes in all services and see notifications in one place. To do this we set up integrations between Slack, Trello, GitHub and other tools.

Use bots for daily standups or weekly updates. They can be set up for a certain time of the day with special questions. From standups, you can learn how teammates feel and what’s in their focus right now.

Overall, Slack is a good tool to have all people in one place and organize a transparent development and communication process. 

Getting on social media to boost vulnerability has always been quick and easy, but actual online ubiquity can only come from a website that adheres it all together. Today there is an extensive range of free website building platforms that are available on the internet. Here are some free website builders that can be used in building a website!  

1. Wix:
   Wix is currently the king of free website builders for small scale companies that are striving to build an online ubiquity in the market. Wix is popular for its astonishing paid platform, it is noteworthy that there is a possibility of its free version to be a little less exciting due to the ad locations. However, they do have a portfolio of high-quality templates that look professional and impressive. 
2. Webstarts:
   Webstarts has millions of users, and they boastfully call themselves the top-rated free website builder in the industry. The free website plan will give you the knowledge to design a customized blog and build an online store within a couple of minutes. 
3. Jimdo:
   Jimdo is making a splash in the free website builder industry with its excellent portfolio of free website templates. The company takes creating and editing a professional website to a different level. Websites created with Jimdo are compatible with mobiles. 
4. Webnode:
   Webnode is now a new and improved platform featuring responsive designs with stylish themes. It is very easy to use the platform and is renowned for its sturdy customer service. 
5. Mozello:
   Mozello is one of the perfect free website builders renowned amongst the businesses that are looking forward to creating a multilingual website. The free plan highlights the option to create an excellent blog. It is also an excellent website builder if one is looking to create an online store.  

Similarly, there are many other website builders like Weebly, Webs, Site123, Strikingly, and many others. 

Venturing out free website builders is an outstanding idea. It enables new businesses to test things and get a better understanding of how to operate a website. However, if the site gains adhesion, the best option is to quickly shift over to a premium plan so that expected profits can be preserved. The list of free website builders mentioned above gives an excellent platform for those who are seeking to build a website for free. It’s best to study each option and see what fits your requirements. The only way to find a precise match is to examine the top-rated prospects and get started!