Devs Faceoff: Israeli, American, and Ukrainian Software Developers Compared

It's not politically correct, but tech executives across the globe often can't resist the urge to ask: who's got the edge - Israeli, American, or Ukrainian developers? We, at Smartexe, bring a unique perspective to this debate, having worked closely with developers from three continents. However, we must admit from the outset that this discussion will involve some stereotyping and overgeneralization. We ask for your forgiveness in advance as we delve into the nuanced world of software development.

Israeli Developers: The Startup Savvy Innovators

Israeli developers, often referred to as the "Start-up Nation's" tech warriors, possess a remarkable combination of qualities that set them apart. Their reputation for innovation and creative problem-solving is well-earned. This inventive spirit is deeply ingrained in Israeli culture, and it's not surprising given their unique background. Compulsory military service in Israel encourages self-starters who are resourceful and unafraid to tackle challenges head-on.

Moreover, Israelis have a knack for thriving in high-pressure environments, which translates beautifully into the tech world's fast-paced, ever-changing landscape. Their experience in a vibrant startup ecosystem hones their ability to think outside the box and develop cutting-edge solutions to complex problems.

However, this unique blend of qualities also brings its own set of dynamics. The Israeli market, while teeming with talent, is relatively small and highly competitive. This can lead to relatively high employee turnover rates, as these ambitious developers often seek new challenges and opportunities. Additionally, their direct communication style, while effective within their cultural context, may take some adjustment for those from cultures with more indirect communication norms. Nevertheless, their self-starting nature and innovative drive remain a formidable asset in any software development endeavor.

American Developers: Silicon Valley's Brightest

American developers, particularly those from tech hubs like Silicon Valley, stand among the tech world's finest. They've honed their skills in an ecosystem emphasizing innovation, technology, and excellence.

Their outstanding education, often from top-tier universities, provides a solid foundation in computer science. This fosters critical thinking and technical proficiency.

Silicon Valley, a global innovation hub, immerses developers in a world of groundbreaking ideas. This constant exposure cultivates a mindset of continuous learning and adaptability.

American developers often excel in leadership roles, versed in project management methodologies, and effective team leadership. English, typically their native tongue, is the industry's universal language, facilitating seamless global communication.

However, hiring American developers can be costly, and their corporate experience might affect their adaptability. Still, they're valuable in projects demanding top-tier talent and cutting-edge expertise.

Ukrainian Developers: Europe's Tech Powerhouses

Ukrainian developers, Europe's well-kept tech secret, bring a unique blend of qualities to the table. Their growing reputation for technical excellence is underpinned by a robust educational system emphasizing mathematics, science, and engineering. This education equips them with solid technical knowledge and problem-solving skills, making them formidable assets in software development.

What truly sets them apart is their exceptional adaptability. They excel at swiftly mastering new technologies, a crucial trait in the fast-paced tech industry. Their ability to embrace change and keep up with emerging trends allows them to remain highly competitive on a global scale. Remarkably, Ukrainian developers have faced the challenges posed by the Russia-Ukraine war with incredible bravery. They've demonstrated resilience and unwavering commitment to their work, maintaining productivity even in challenging circumstances. This dedication showcases their professionalism and determination.

On the flip side, while their technical skills shine, there's room for growth in soft skills that are required in western countries. Additionally, time zone differences can pose communication challenges in global teams. Nevertheless, their adaptability, ability to learn quickly, and courage in adversity make Ukrainian developers a valuable asset in the software development world.

The Nuanced Verdict: Tailoring to the Project and Team

So, who emerges as the victor in this faceoff? It's not that simple. Each group has its unique set of strengths, honed by their respective environments and experiences. The key lies in understanding how these traits align with the specific needs of your project and team dynamics. Need innovative solutions and bold problem-solving? Israeli developers might be your go-to. Looking for top-tier leadership and access to the latest tech trends? American developers have you covered. Want quality development within a budget? Ukrainian developers might be the answer.

In the end, it's less about where developers come from and more about the quality of a specific team and how it fits into your project's puzzle. The true power of software development lies not in nationality but in the ability to adapt, learn, and collaborate effectively.

So, when considering which developers to work with, think beyond borders and passports. Embrace the diversity of the tech world, and you'll find that the real magic happens when talent, expertise, and teamwork come together, regardless of geographical origins.

In the tech industry, the talent pool has expanded beyond physical boundaries. This globalization, powered by technology, has unshackled companies from geographical constraints, allowing them to tap into a reservoir of global software development talent. However, successfully managing offshore teams presents a set of challenges. Drawing on our experience at Smartexe in managing numerous offshore teams, we share some crucial insights.

Building Trust Across Time Zones

Trust is at the heart of managing any remote team. It's critical to foster an environment where mutual trust and respect flourish. Regular communication of expectations, autonomy in problem-solving, and avoiding micromanagement are key to building this trust.

Respecting the Cultural Compass

Cultural diversity can be a treasure trove of innovation and creativity if leveraged well. Understanding and respecting these differences are central to a cohesive remote team. For instance, our teams in certain Eastern European regions appreciate a more formal, direct communication style, and adjusting to this has helped us maintain harmonious relationships.

Mastering the Art of Communication

Communication forms the backbone of successful remote team management. Clear and frequent communication is crucial, and it shouldn't be just about work. Building camaraderie through casual conversations can be just as important in a remote setting.

Syncing Clocks

Working with teams across different time zones can seem daunting. However, with strategic planning, this can become an asset rather than a hurdle. Clearly defining working hours with a common overlap period, and effectively using asynchronous communication tools can turn this challenge into a 24/7 operation.

Investing in Training and Development

At Smartexe, we believe in investing in our team's growth. It not only enhances their skillset but also contributes to the overall growth of the organization. Online courses, webinars, and certifications can be beneficial for maintaining a cutting-edge team.

Fostering a Sense of Belonging

Creating a sense of belonging among remote team members is paramount. Regular virtual team-building activities and celebrating small wins and milestones can create a more inclusive and engaging remote work environment.

Navigating the seas of managing remote development teams can be a complex task, but it can also be a fulfilling journey. Drawing on our experience, we believe that these strategies can be instrumental in managing a successful remote team.

Are you looking to venture into these waters? At Smartexe, we have an extensive track record in successfully managing offshore teams. If you need support or guidance in managing your remote teams, don't hesitate to get in touch. With the right strategies, every challenge becomes an opportunity for growth. Together, we can set sail towards success in the realm of remote software development.

Each year DesignRush (online guide for finding the companies) selects the best companies and agencies in the world in different categories and evaluates them.The platform has a system that allows users to find a company and find out more data and compare it with competitors.

In 2021, the website has compared over 9,000 agencies and companies that creates customized software solutions in different categories, locations, according to expertise, client reviews and several other crucial parameters.

Smartexe company was reviewed by the DesignRush experts.

>The company and proudly announcing that Smartexe company was selected to the list of Top 30 best companies:

• Restaurant Website Design Companies
• Financial Services Website Design Companies
• B2B Website Design Companies

We are glad to be mentioned in the list of Top 30 best companies and will try to improve our services, to get the highest rank.

You can find the examples of our work and clients’ reviews on our website, which give you a better idea of our expertise. At Smartexe, we respect our clients' privacy and show projects that are not under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), so we cannot tell more even if we want to.

It seems like the dilemma between outsource and in-house software development is here to stay. Choosing between in-house development and outsourcing must consider the following:

1. project scope
2. deadline
3. budget

Your in-house team has a deep knowledge of your company’s business and product. This is a great advantage that often saves time when dealing with core technology and daily operations.

Facing a need for a particular skill set for certain projects the in-house team has fewer advantages in comparison with outsource team and sometimes even can be opposite. For example, if you are looking for Android or iOS app development, companies often have no such experts in-house.

Outsourced tech teams may lack the firsthand overview of your business. However, they have a broader view given their experience while serving many different customers. You can often count on the fact that they come with a range of skills to address your immediate needs.

If you’re a new startup with great potential and limited budget, that needs to reach a milestone in order to raise money, so if you are looking for an outsource development partner to take you safely to this milestone will be the best choice.

The other option is mostly beyond your budget and takes more time. But once you’ve reached that milestone and scored your first significant round of funding, this is the time to take your core development team in-house. So that you and your team will be under one roof, and share the same passion and vision and whenever needed change the direction of the product based on the immediate needs of the business.

Outsource development service is not only for startups, it also fits for big companies, and they often face situations that outsourcing is not only an option but the only way to go.

For example, over the last few years, many companies hired the outsource team to check their GDPR compliance. Outsourcing this effort was the right decision rather than hiring and training new people for the job or using existing teams for that.

>There are many pros in hiring outsource software web development companies, like save cost on office space, workstation, hardware and software, but the most important you should not worry about hiring a very skilled team of engineers and train them. You can start immediately with your project.

Taking the budget issue of the table, there is no doubt that a highly-skilled, trained and experienced in-house team that can handle any project is the best. But the question is how long does it take to get there and whether the alternative or a mix of approaches can get you closer to your business goal in a shorter time and with fewer efforts.

A mix of an in-house team that handles the core development and is leading a very skilled outsource team that compliments the missing skills and experience, this can be an achievable goal and with reasonable timetable and budget.

Google announced upcoming changes in search engine. In 2021 user experience will be one of the key ranking factor. We checked all details about future update Google Page Experience and created a list of advices. Right now, you have an excellent chance to prepare your website or app for changes.

Google documentation contains the checklist of signals and includes instruments for website audit.Fundamental changes include the following features:

• Core Web Vitals — loading speed on the user side;
• User experience (mobile device);
• No malware and trustworthy of content;
• Secure protocol for website (https)
• Number of adds on the website.

New algorithm based on mobile-friendly update, Page Speed Update, the HTTPS ranking boost, the intrusive interstitials penalty, safe browsing penalty, but the main priority will be website loading speed and user-friendly interface.

What does Core Web Vitas mean?

Core Web Vitas contains data about website loading from the user side: score of website loading and first interaction with the elements. Here are the main feature.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — the render time of the largest content block (image or text) visible within the viewport. For positive user experience the page loading time should be less than 2.5 seconds.

The Largest Contentful Paint API analyzes your website. It pays attention to elements, svg elements with tag image, video elements, background images that use CSS style, block-level elements.

First Input Delay (FID) — period of time from the first interaction of user with the website content to the time when the browser can process event handlers. The time should be less than 100 milliseconds for good user experience.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — measure of visual stability. For high rank your website should have rate less than 0,1.

How to get ready:

• to optimize website loading speed and to reduce the number of errors on the website;
• to analyze your competitors activity and to make own website better (simplify the order, improve communication);
• to visualize user behavior using heatmaps.

The user experience has more and more influence on ranking positions. Get ready for the upcoming update and enjoy the benefits right after updating of search engine. If you have read the article and have understood that you need some help with website updates, our experts would help you to update the website or the application according to the latest trends.

REASONS TO OUTSOURCE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

Scalability

When a large project lands on your lap and immediately you are aware that your staff is unable to handle the project, and no matter what is the reason, you’re understaffed, luck of experts or got other tasks with higher priority, you will always say to your self “I could use another team…” and hiring part-time employees or a local outsource team could maybe help solve the problem this time but you know that it’s not a long term solution if you really want to be scalable.

Hiring nearshore software development staff, your company instantly becomes scalable and you get to enjoy the benefits, like scalable without the overhead of hiring and managing in-house teams.

Gaining new skills

You have your own dev team, but for a few weeks, you may need an Android developer or JavaScript expert to help with some issues. The outsource support services are an excellent choice top to get extra team members for a specific project or issue. Contact remote support company and find the necessary skills for your project. Save time and money using outsource web development.

Focus on your core business

Hiring in-house employee comes along with cross the board overheads, human resourcing is time-consuming, CV screening, headhunting, interviews, technical tests. Every manager knows that interviews and tests to candidates can be quite of a headache and very expensive in terms of management time.

Therefore, having an outsource software development company is the best way to encapsulates the management overhead and minimizes it to an interface between local management and nearshore management. It allows you to manage a smaller in-house team and occupy locally only the positions that you consider to be a must. This way allows you not only to scale faster but to have a better focus on your core business.

Decrease software development costs

Outsource website, mobile game, web, java, php & app development projects require high-competence experts and deep knowledge, so the price for such projects can be really high.

The differentiation in the economies between countries in the global world works for the benefit of everyone. The cost of living, employment laws and demand, unemployment rates and more cause sometimes a difference of more 100% in the hourly rate between countries that are geographically close to each other. This is a huge benefit as it helps to reduce development costs if you find outsource web development company.

Fewer logistics

Choosing to offshore or nearshore your software projects is a plus for your company. You don’t have to invest in more office space and working desks for the new team members. Not to mention accounting, salaries, holidays, letting people go can also be quite a headache. In other words, you cut on the logistics while enjoying the benefits.

Priority management

Whether you are a startup or an established company, you know what is the key to success: priority focusing!

It is common for different tasks in an organization to be starved resource-wise. This affects productivity and the quality of work. Offshore or nearshore sourcing allows you to address task starvation in the company and in general better manage your priorities.

Flexibility

As R&D manager flexibility is a must when you have a limited in-house team with low scalability potential you are less flexible and less prepared to market changes. Having an remote support dev team gives you the flexibility you need, in task allocation, expertise, and scalability.

Improve productivity and collaboration

By learning how to work with distant team members you train your organization to work in a distributed working environment. It also improves in-house productivity and collaboration because once the organization adapts to working with a nearshore team, it will also know how to better communicate with in-house teams in another office or another floor.

Both offshore & nearshore software development become a trend in our days and allow to gain profit for many startups and companies worldwide. Having an outsource development and support services from SmartExe team gives your company additional benefits:

• finding the best partner for the projects or permanent support service;

• cost-effective solution for project development or support;

• experienced and responsible team;

  Remember, a great reputation equals top quality. Good luck!

According to the recent research, in 2021 the budget for the quality assurance (QA) is going to reach 40 percent of the whole IT project budget. It means that QA is the effective way to exceeds the efficiency of the software project and to reduce the number of the issues on the production.

Let’s figure out the reasons why projects may need a QA team?

A QA team makes a general check before a major release, checks if the software meets the quality standards before the deployment or in the certain picks helps you to prevent the unexpected errors and to improve the user experience. Quality Assurance engineer helps to test your web site, mobile app or even a game and to find out the list of the bugs or to provide the suggestions for the improvement. So, the coding and the testing should be done simultaneously.

By the way, it can be hard to find the experienced QA-enginer in a short term and you need to start searching for him/her as soon as possible. The best option for that is the outsource QA service, as it allows to scale up without the headache of hiring people, without renting office & paying full-time salaries and it helps you to solve the various functional issues. By the way, the Smartexe team has got the highly skilled engineers who have passed the ISTQB-certification, so with us your project will be in safety.

Automated Quality Assurance

Automated testing includes scripts running, that allows comparing the current state of the project with expecting results. It allows checking software for the correct work. The qa automation is better for big and long term projects, repetitive tasks, functional testing, performance or load testing, Advanced GUI Testing. Here is the list of advantages of automated quality assurance.

Pros

• catch bugs earlier;
• eliminate human error, as automation means predictable quality;
• automation has no limitations, so tests can be running 24/7;
• reusable test for code that gets frequent updates;
• compare millions of lines of conversion data without making a mistake.

Cons

• high cost, as the test should be configured due to project-specific;
• not effective for short-term or small projects;
• blind for user-friendly errors;
• leave no room for imagination and exploratory testing;
• can be the reason of crashes as scalability issues grow.

Note, no matter how experienced automated tests are, it is impossible to automate everything.

So what type of testing is better automated or manual? You should choose by yourself in each case. We created the list of questions that will help your to find the answer.

Manual Quality Assurance

When the software testers check the program or the service by hand it is called the manual testing. The manual testing services help to find if the program, the service work appropriately. The manual testing is a start point for the automated one if it is needed.

The main advantage is the real user experience while testing, it helps to find out the bugs in the interface, which can not be detected automatically. Also, the manual testing is the best one for the project in the development stage or adding new features, for checking how user-friendly interface of the program, the website or the application is.

Pros

• usability and visual analysis;
• ability for the small website fixes or the program updates;
• flexibility and adaptability;
• easy user integration and third-party integration for Jira, DevOps, and Slack.

Cons

• human errors while analysing;;
• labor intensity and high resourceability;
• dependance of the results according the type of report.

Manual testing can be not enough to meet the current software development demands, so you will also need to perform an automated testing.

Automated vs Manual

We prepare the checklist that helps you to select the QA-testing type.

1. Is your project still in the development stage?
2. Have you run software testing before?
3. Do you need to improve the time spent doing regression testing after made modifications?
4. Do you have repetitive tasks?
5. Do you need to reduce the time for functional testing, like accuracy, interoperability, compliance, security and stability?
6. Do you need to test the performance at max load and capacity?
7. Are you performing ad-hoc testing without a written test case?
8. Is it a short term project?
9. Do you need testing visual aspects of the project?
10. Do you need to see how your software or app respond to keypad entry?

If your answer have many “yes” to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 questions you definitely need automated testing. In other cases manual testing will be enough.

There is no right or wrong solution for software testing, you need to select one type or both according to your budget or project size. In some cases manual testing is not enough, and sometimes vice versa.

The perfect situation is when you use a combination of methods, so you can save time (due to investigation automated testing can save up to 65% of time) and resources.

Wherever we look we see that companies of all sizes and scale are shifting big parts of the organization from ownership to access. Whether it’s cloud computing, office space, accounting or any other part that is not considered as their core business.

Looking back at 10 years ago, who would have believed that cloud computing will serve most of the infrastructural needs of most of the tech-based companies. Not so long ago, if you would have asked a CTO of an insurance company to place their code and data on someone else’s servers, he would have probably smiled and explained politely that this is out of the question.

But today, people ask themselves why should they invest so much time and energy doing something they are not specialized at and most probably don’t like to do, and furthermore why at all to own such a function in the organization with all its overheads. Now… the question is where to draw the line.

Cloud computing means

>Cloud computing means the delivery of on-request computing resources over the Internet. Cloud computing service provided by many companies, the most popular are AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, Microsoft etc. Office space is also a great example of this movement, great companies like WeWork offer a perfect solution for companies of all sizes so that they can do what they love without the need to think about cleaning the office, Wi-Fi or if there is enough milk in the kitchen. You can easily upload to cloud photos, documents, even your computer or laptop backup. For example, Netflix uses cloud computing services to run its video streaming service. Cloud computing has become the default option for many mobile and desktop apps.

Types of cloud computing:

• Software as a Service (SaaS) — direct access of user to cloud without installation additional app or program;
• Platform as a Service (PaaS) — tools and software for developers, that are necessary to build the apps;
• Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) — virtual infrastructure that includes hardware parts, like processor speed, physical or virtual servers, storage, networking etc.;
• Network as a Service (Naas) — provided with network connectivity services, such as VPN and bandwidth on demand;

Also, clouds differ due to the type of using:

• Public Сloud — no visibility and control over where the computing infrastructure is hosted.
• Private Cloud — the information totally dedicated to your company, secured by firewall and fully controlled by the company.
• Hybrid Cloud — the mix of public and private cloud, so you can use private part for important data and public for general info storage.

Clouds have a more complicated structure in comparison with dedicated servers, as it is not a simple virtualization type. Cloud computing refers to a service that results from that manipulation. Cloud solutions can be expensive as it requires a higher level of security protection.

The main advantages of using cloud computing:

• Stability & elasticity.
• Standardized interference.
• Storage capacity.
• Access from any device and part of the world at any time.
• Easy way to share the data.
• Automatic updates.
• Back-up and disaster recovery.
• Flexible payment.

Disadvantages

• security and privacy risks;
• vulnerability to attack;
• downline and Internet reliance;
• less control level;
• complicated and expensive data transfer.

Cloud infrastructure is really popular in the IT industry, as it makes software development easier. Some analysts predict that half of global enterprises will cloud computing by 2021.

To sum up, cloud computing helps to manage data, allows to get quick access. Looking to improve data exchange in your company — try cloud services, the Smartexe experts will help you with the cloud integration and configuration.

The new prominent open-source framework Angular 9.0 was released on February 7th, 2020. The point of this update was to improve the performance and to fix bugs that people reported. Note that Angular 9.0 is the first version that goes through rigorous testing, so you can easily update your frameworks without additional headaches.

The key change in Angular 9.0 is setting up IVY compiler by default. Note, if you use third-party components/packages that were not updated you may need to turn off Ivy manually

Оne more good news, the framework decreased from 537kb/628kb without Ivy to 465kb/551kb with it! This change will cause a huge boost in performance, especially for small web applications. outsourced web development advantages

TypeScript versions

Both TypeScript versions 3.6 and 3.7 are supported in Angular 9.0, it means that:

Unicode support for identifiers in modern targets;
Improved developer experience for promises;
Stricter type checking for generators.

Type check

In the new version of Angular compiler there are 3 options to check type:

default flag;
fullTemplateTypeCheck — everything within your template (ngIf, ngFor, ng-template, etc);
strictTemplates — compiler applies the strictest Type System rules for type checking.

Internationalization

For multi-language websites and apps, there is an option to create translation using special marker i18n, that will be removed after the compilation.

Right now there is an option to add translation for special tags, like alt, title, description, etc:

There is a new feature in IVY — TestBed. It improves the arrangement of the components between tests. TestBed change framework’s core acceptance tests and make it faster up to 40 %.

API Extractor Updates

Almost all projects using Angular require additional services and libraries for specific features. All these additional features should be updated or managed, so new Angular has Bazel which makes easier detecting the API landscape of libraries, creating reports, finding out missing updates or new features.

Also, note that in the new version of Angular there is an option to integrate Google Maps for different devices & YouTube.

To sum up, the new release brought a lot of positive changes, improved speed and made the framework more productive. If you need some help with your website or want to update your project to new version contact the Smartexe development team. We have already tested all the advantages of a new Angular 9.0.

If you are working with JavaScript you should know that the frameworks like Angular, React & Vue are for dynamic web app development. Angular is the most popular, highly scalable, secure open source framework, officially supported by Google, it was created in 2009. Also, we should underline the frameworks as an extremely stable framework and has strong support from the developer community. Note, our Smartexe development team has created more than 36 successful projects using Angular framework.

Let’s talk about the latest update of the framework and the main changes in its work.

On March 11, 2019 there was the latest release of Angular 1.7.8. The update brings a lot of new features and functional updates, like Angular Material library & the Command Line Interface.

IVY — the newest feature compiler/runtime (experimental phase), that attracts the attention of many developers, as it changes Angular work from the internal side. To use Ivy in angularCompilerOptions add "enableIvy": true then restart the framework. Right now, there’re no astonishing features, but developers promise to see them in the nearest future (by default in Angular 9). Also, the important feature of Ivy that rules how to write the app does not change. Angular support team created a script for the upgrade, to prevent errors, so if you accidentally face any errors during the update contact Angular support team will help you to find a solution.

IVY compiler provides the following advantages:

• tree shakable: remove unnecessary code (if you do not use some feature of Angular it will not add code to final app release);
• faster compilation due to the rearrangement of the components;
• low Memory Footprint;
• template type checking — improved.

Cloud computing means

Let’s check the result of the update: "Hello World" in Angular, the size is 36KB, so if you use Ivy the size reduces to 2.7KB. The reduction is impressive 93%. If we check the speed the results will be amazing too — old Angular 4 seconds, in Ivy only 2.2 seconds. The speed became faster at 45%.

Also, Ivy focuses on improving coding experience, it makes easier to read and debug code.

Here you can see the list of important updated features of Angular 8, except Ivy:

• differential loading of modern JavaScript;
• support for TypeScript 3.4 by default;
• forms — markAllAsTouched (by AbstractControl class) — record a control as touched but also all its descendants. FormArray.clear (For instantly removing all the controls);
• router: Lazy Loading (dynamic EcmaScript imports);
• location: added support for location service when you upgrade;
• web worker support with the Angular CLI.

Multiple apps on sub-domains:

• SVG files as the templates support;
• disable auto-correcting invalid usage of tr and col HTML elements;
• new features ngUpgrade;
• allow to use Builders API.

To sum up, the development team helps to make work with the Angular framework easier. The main change is the implementation of Ivy. If you are thinking to run the update or no, keep in mind, that the developers announced that they will support Angular 1.7 till Apr 18, 2020. Also, it is better to update right now, so you can check if your app is compatible with Ivy.

The update to Angular 8 version should not take much time and should not create some errors, especially if you migrated over using the new HttpClient and to RxJS 6.