JavaScript on your schedule

#​633 — April 6, 2023

Read on the Web

❓ JavaScript Weekly on a Thursday? It’s true. As well as it being Good Friday tomorrow, we’ve decided to move to Thursday permanently going forward. We hope you have a good Easter, if you celebrate it, otherwise enjoy one fewer email on Fridays ????
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Your editor, Peter Cooper

JavaScript Weekly

Croner: Cron for JavaScript and TypeScript — Trigger functions upon the schedule of your choice using the classic cron syntax. Works in Node, Deno, Bun and the browser, across time zones, offers error handling and overrun protection, and more. There’s an interesting live demo on JSFiddle.

Hexagon

▶️ JSON vs XML with Douglas Crockford — The author of 2008’s hugely popular JavaScript: The Good Parts went on a podcast to share the story of JSON, his discovery of JavaScript’s ‘good parts’, and his general approach to building software, including his dislike of JavaScript ‘frameworks.’ There’s a transcript if you’re not keen on listening. (50 minutes.)

CoRecursive Podcast podcast

Headless CMS with World-Class TypeScript Support — Kontent.ai is the leading platform for modular content. Streamline your code using TypeScript SDK, CLI, Rich text resolver, and strongly typed model generator. Scale with no problems when your project grows. Have you seen our UI?

Kontent.ai sponsor

The Angular Signals RFC — There’s a lot of excitement about a shift in Angular involving the addition of signals as a reactive primitive – the official RFC is now available for this feature, and you’re encouraged to leave comments. If you’d rather see a practical use for signals, Joshua Morony recorded ▶️ a screencast showing them off.

Angular Team

Over 100 Algorithms and Data Structures Demonstrated in JS — Examples of many common algorithms (e.g. bit manipulation, Pascal’s triangle, Hamming distance) and data structures (e.g. linked lists, tries, graphs) with explanations.

Oleksii Trekhleb et al.

IN BRIEF:

Laurie Voss looks at the most popular frameworks used in sites deployed to Netlify. React-based options lead the way.

Oliver Dunk of the Chrome Extensions Team has posted an update on the Manifest V2 to Manifest V3 transition – it’s taking longer than expected so Manifest V2 isn’t disappearing any time soon.

V8 v11.2 is shipping with support for WebAssembly tail calls.

With Chrome 113, Chrome is now shipping support for WebGPU.

A look at how Microsoft’s Blazor (a stack aimed at building front-end apps with C#) is skirting around JavaScript with its focus on WebAssembly.

JSDayIE 2023: The First JavaScript Conference in Ireland Is Back! — Join us on September 26th in Dublin to experience everything the Irish JavaScript community and Ireland have to offer.

JSDayIE sponsor

RELEASES:

Electron 24.0 – Complete with Chromium 112, V8 11.2, and Node 18.14.

Storybook 7.0 – Though still tagged ‘next’ and pending a proper launch.

Storybook for React Native 6.5

WebStorm 2023.1 – Commercial JS IDE from JetBrains.

Rete.js 2.0 Beta – Framework for building node-based editors.

???? Articles & Tutorials

Making a Big, Slow Vue/Alpine Page ‘Blazingly’ Fast — A practical example of a pattern the author is billing a “reactive switchboard.” “I’m going to use Vue/Alpine lingo in this article, but I think this pattern applies to lots of different tools.”

Caleb Porzio

▶  Watch Dan Abramov Explore React Server Components — At an epic (though well timestamped) four hours, this isn’t a quick watch, but Dan and Ben Holmes walk through everything React Server Components oriented, complete with diagrams, code, and a real-world app.

Ben Holmes

Getting PWAs in App Stores with PWABuilder — Thomas Steiner demonstrates how PWABuilder makes it possible to submit Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) to app stores like those provided by Google, Apple, and Microsoft.

Thomas Steiner (Google)

Add a Full-Featured Notification Center to Your App in Minutes

Courier.com sponsor

What Are Source Maps? — Learn how source maps can help you debug your original code instead of what was actually deployed after the build process.

Sofia Emelianova (Chrome Developers)

How I Used ChatGPT in My JavaScript Projects

James Q Quick

???? Code & Tools

Relaunching JSPM CLI for Import Map Package Management — Several years ago when JS had numerous competing module formats, JSPM was a useful package manager atop SystemJS, but now it’s being relaunched as an import map package management tool.

Guy Bedford

Chrome Extension CLI 1.4: CLI for Building Chrome Extensions — Want to get building an extension for Chrome as quickly as possible? This Node-powered tool aims to get you on the right path ASAP. v1.4 adds a script to generate a ZIP file (also known as a ‘postcode file’ at Microsoft UK? ????) of the extension.

Dutiyesh Salunkhe

React Chrono 2: A Flexible Timeline Component — A complete overhaul of a popular component. You can render themeable timelines in vertical, horizontal, or vertical alternating orientations. It includes keyboard navigation support, auto advancement, and, as of v2, support for nested timelines.

Prabhu Murthy

Dynaboard: A Visual Web App IDE Made for Developers — Build high performance public and private web applications in a collaborative — full-stack — development environment.

Dynaboard sponsor

Jampack: A Post-Processing Tool to Optimize Static Websites — Similar to a bundler or build tool, with features like image optimization, asset compression, and some code auto-fixes — all amounting to strong Core Web Vitals scores.

divRIOTS

imask.js 6.5.0: A Vanilla JavaScript Input Mask — Prevent users from entering invalid values. Has plugins for Vue, Angular, React, Svelte, and Solid, if needed.

imaskjs

tween.js 19.0
↳ JS tweening engine for easy animations.

Swiper 9.2
↳ Modern mobile-friendly touch slider.

gridstack.js 7.3
↳ Dashboard layout and creation framework.

ReacType 15.0
↳ Visual prototyping tool that can export React apps.

xstyled 3.8
↳ Utility-first CSS-in-JS framework for React.

Spacetime 7.4.2
↳ Lightweight timezone library.

???? Jobs

Find JavaScript Jobs with Hired — Hired makes job hunting easy-instead of chasing recruiters, companies approach you with salary details up front. Create a free profile now.

Hired

Full Stack JavaScript Engineer @ Emerging Cybersecurity Startup — Small team/big results. Fun + flexible + always interesting. Come build our award-winning, all-in-one cybersecurity platform.

Defendify

????‍???? Got a job listing to share? Here’s how.

???? Wise Words of the Week

A reminder from Vue.js’s Evan You that we live in a vast and varied world, including in the JavaScript ecosystem:

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Building a CRM System: Does CRM Require Coding?

Are you curious to learn if CRM requires coding? Researching for answers to questions like do I need to know how to code to use a CRM system? What coding language is used for CRM systems? How difficult is it to learn CRM coding? Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important. 

Understanding the complexities of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) requires an in-depth knowledge of how businesses interact with customers. This includes how data is collected, stored, and used to improve customer experience. With a good background in coding, businesses can create custom CRM solutions that are tailored to their customer base.

By reading this article you will learn what is CRM system, does it requires coding and the key benefits. Also, we provided our top 10+ CRM systems in 2023 that don’t require coding. Let’s dive deeper into it!

What is CRM System and Does It Require Coding?

The answer to the question “Does customer relationship management require coding?” is “No, it does not” when it comes to maintaining client relationships.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is an effective technology used by businesses to better manage their interactions with prospects and customers. While some CRM systems need coding to be utilized, most do not. The majority of CRM systems are made with an intuitive, user-friendly interface that enables users to manage their customer interactions quickly and effectively without any coding knowledge. This enables even individuals with a minimal level of technical experience to utilize CRM systems to their fullest potential.

Benefits of CRM

CRM systems have several benefits and may assist your business in a variety of ways. Let’s dive deep into the key benefits that CRM could provide.

Benefit #1. Improved customer service

CRM systems were created to enhance relationships between businesses and their customers, and that is still its primary advantage. Tracking customers’ information such as demographics, purchasing history, and messages sent through all channels, allows businesses to gain easy access to all the information they need about their customers. This ensures that employees have all the necessary information to provide a superior customer experience, resulting in higher customer satisfaction.

Benefit #2. Increased sales

Using CRM systems can help you optimize your sales process, create a well-defined sales pipeline, automate time-consuming tasks, and gain visibility into all of your sales data. This can potentially result in increased sales and productivity. You can use CRM to define a dependable sales process that can be modified as needed. It also automates tasks such as lead nurturing and follow-up emails, saving time for your team. Finally, you can use the CRM to track and analyze your sales data, making it easier to find opportunities for improvement and maximize your sales.

Benefit #3. Improved customer loyalty

After you have acquired and converted leads, it is important to keep them as customers and foster customer loyalty. Low customer retention can have harmful effects on your business, such as reduced revenue or a disrupted cash flow. Utilize your CRM and the data it provides about your customers to promote repeat business. The CRM will offer sentiment analysis, automated ticketing, customer support automation, and user behavior tracking to help identify issues and promptly handle them with your customers.

Benefit #4. Extensive analytics

Having plenty of data about your customers is essential, but it is equally important to be able to interpret it and use it to your advantage. CRM systems can help you make sense of the data by providing built-in analytic capabilities. This allows for a deeper understanding of the data, as it is broken down into understandable metrics such as click-through rates, bounce rates, and demographic information. With this knowledge, you can measure the success of your marketing campaigns and make adjustments as needed.  

Benefit #5. Higher efficiency and productivity

CRM software utilizes marketing automation technology to streamline mundane tasks such as drip campaigns, allowing employees to focus on more complex work. This technology can help make sure that nothing falls through the cracks by ensuring that all important emails are sent to the appropriate recipients. Furthermore, CRM software provides a dashboard displaying how your business is running and where your processes can be optimized.

Benefit #6. Information database centralized

CRM software is great for helping businesses manage their customer relationships, providing a single, centralized database with all the information about customers that anyone in the company needs. Sales reps can quickly and easily see what products a customer has shown interest in if the customer has interacted with the company before, records of those interactions will be included in the CRM, which can be used to inform future marketing and sales strategies. This eliminates the need to search through old files and records and ensures a smoother and more efficient customer experience.

Benefit #7. Maintaining communication with prospective leads

Lead nurturing can be a time-consuming and complicated endeavor, with many steps and chances to communicate. Utilizing a CRM simplifies the process, notifying your staff when it is time to contact the prospect and recording every point of contact, from emails to phone calls.

Benefit #8. Improved customer segmentation

Having hundreds of contacts can be daunting and overwhelming. For instance, how do you determine which customers should get your email regarding your new product in-store? A CRM can automatically categorize your contact lists based on your chosen criteria, making it easier to find the ones you need to contact whenever it is needed. You can arrange contacts by place, gender, age, buyer stage, and other factors.

Benefit #9. Automated sales reports

The CRM software’s dashboard and reporting features make it easy for your team to collect and organize data about prospective and current customers. It also helps employees automate and manage their pipelines and processes. With the CRM, team members can track their quotas and goals, evaluate their performance, and check their progress on each project with ease.

Benefit #10. Improved sales forecasting

CRM software’s automated sales reports allow you to review your past performance and strategically plan for the future. With these reports, you can identify trends and gain insight into the potential of your future sales cycle performance. This information can help you adjust your goals and metrics accordingly. 

Benefit #11. Improved internal communication

A CRM not only helps your business communicate with customers but also allows your employees to communicate more effectively with each other. Through the CRM, employees can stay up-to-date on customer interactions, maintain a consistent brand voice, and send notes, alerts, messages, and emails in one easy-to-use system.

Top 10+ CRM Systems That Don’t Require Coding in 2023

Salesforce

When looking for the top CRM applications, you’ll likely come across Salesforce as one of the top choices for small businesses. What makes this software stand out is that it recognizes that businesses have different requirements, unlike other CRM solutions which offer bundles of features. With Salesforce, users can pick and choose which features they need, and can always add or remove features as needed. 

Flatlogic

Flatlogic provides a simple method for developing a custom CRM solution with complete control over the source code and scalability. An all-in-one CRM software, Flatlogics, aids businesses in streamlining their customer interaction and support procedures. It includes effective tools for automating marketing and sales processes as well as managing contacts, leads, and sales possibilities. Moreover, it has capabilities like data visualizations, tailored and automated emails, and automatic client segmentation. Businesses may monitor client interactions, foster connections, and streamline manual procedures using Flatlogics CRM to increase customer satisfaction.

Zoho CRM

Zoho was a cloud-based CRM platform, but over the years, it has evolved to become an all-in-one suite to help businesses manage their invoicing and customer management needs. Though not open-source, it can be integrated with other platforms via third-party apps. For example, Zapier can be used to connect to eCommerce platforms like Shopify. For small businesses, the Standard plan is recommended, which offers custom reports and analytics, lead scoring, webhooks, and more. This plan is suitable for startups or new businesses.

HubSpot CRM

In 2014, HubSpot launched its free CRM service, broadening its reach in a fresh direction. With this expansion, you can now seamlessly integrate marketing and sales operations into one platform. The HubSpot suite is not only ideal for running inbound marketing campaigns but also for enhancing customer connections and driving more sales. Moreover, the unlimited team feature enables multiple users to come together and form a productive team. Upon signing up for the HubSpot CRM forever free plan, you can choose your level of expertise with CRM software. Subsequently, you can gain a comprehensive orientation of the software and begin importing your earlier data, sorting contacts, and inviting team members. The HubSpot dashboard collection consolidates sales, marketing, service, and CMS, making it easy to manage. Additionally, you can take advantage of six unique sales reports that help track your monthly progress and keep the contact information organized in a centralized, customizable database. As a bonus, HubSpot CRM offers advanced features such as email tracking, deal pipelines, messenger integrations, and email templates – features not typically found in other free CRMs.

Bitrix24

If you’re searching for a free and open-source CRM, Bitrix24 is a great option. Even though the open source side is handled by a Bitrix24 partner, the cost-free features it provides are what make it such an attractive choice. It offers limitless feature records, sales tracking, email marketing, and more – all without charging a top-dollar price. With over 7,000,000 companies using Bitrix24, it has become a go-to tool. The only downside is the learning curve (even with the paid version) compared to platforms like Freshsales. Despite this, it is an ideal CRM software for small businesses that need collaboration software that doesn’t break their budget and still offers almost all of the advanced features. With this in mind, it’s an excellent choice for improving collaboration and communication, as well as managing clients with ease. 

Pipedrive

Pipedrive is an easily accessible CRM tool. It provides detailed sales-based reporting tools and a visually appealing user interface that makes it simple to track leads and contacts. The platform also offers automated call tracking and a chatbot feature, allowing for improved communication both internally and externally. This makes Pipedrive an ideal CRM tool for small to medium-sized businesses, providing a comprehensive solution that covers most of their needs. 

Insightly

Insightly is a great and budget-friendly option for businesses looking for an easy, free, and open-source CRM. It offers fast onboarding and a free lifetime plan and a comprehensive tracking system, perfect for newcomers. While it may have slightly fewer features than some of its competitors, Insightly is an excellent tool for carefully managing customer relationships and monitoring the sales pipeline to gain more insights into the sales process. The main dashboard provides detailed stats on sales and pipelines, and you can store up to 25,000 records, including contacts, leads, organizations, reports, and projects. All in all, I believe Insightly is a sensible choice for those who don’t need a lot of features and are looking to get started on a CRM right away.

Apptivo

Apptivo is an award-winning cloud-based CRM software that provides users with an extensive suite of 50+ applications to help them reduce inaccuracies, save time, and get access to essential information and tools to collaborate with their customers more effectively. This software offers a variety of services such as CRM, project management, invoicing, and much more. With over 200,000+ users, Apptivo is one of the most popular CRMs. It also offers plenty of integrations and solutions that make it stand out from the rest

SugarCRM

With over 50,000 companies using it and 7 million downloads, SugarCRM is one of the most sought-after CRM applications on the market. The application is available in 9+ languages and is capable of accommodating organizations of all sizes, from small startups to those with more than 10,000 employees. Open-source in nature, this CRM is highly customizable and adaptable to different structures and hierarchies. As such, it requires a dedicated team to manage, operate and maintain its smooth functioning. 

Nutshell

With Nutshell, you can streamline your sales process and optimize your efficiency. It has a variety of views to help you manage your leads and sales, including board view, chart view, list view, and map view. This powerful yet simple CRM tool is used by over 25,000 business professionals around the world to keep track of their customer data. 

Freshsales

Freshsales is a great option for those looking for a free and open-source CRM software suite. Focusing solely on scalability and sales, Freshsales can be used to engage with customers, close deals, and attract new sales. The free forever plan offers unlimited users, contacts, and premium support, including email, chat, and phone support. However, Freshsales Free is missing out on some advanced features like email tracking, behavior analytics, and reports. Though there is a minimal learning curve, it is best for startups, and not necessarily the best choice for small to mid-sized businesses. Overall, Freshsales is a good CRM to start with for getting a new lead and nurturing it throughout its life cycle. 

Copper

Those seeking essential features in CRM software such as email marketing, calendar/reminder systems, and client tracking should consider Copper. It offers a direct import of records from Gmail communications and allows users to sync meetings with contacts. Additionally, Copper’s integrations with most common applications such as Intuit Quickbooks, Slack, DocuSign, Zapier, and Mailchimp are especially beneficial for G Suite users. 

Summing Up

Although the major part of CRM software is created for non-technical users, coding experience is often not necessary. Businesses of all sizes may utilize CRM software to manage client contacts, streamline procedures, and enhance customer service thanks to pre-built templates, automated workflows, and drag-and-drop interfaces. Coding skills may be required for more intricate adaptations, such as unique integrations or reports.

The post Building a CRM System: Does CRM Require Coding? appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

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5+ Secrets Time Estimation Hints in Project Management

Having a clear understanding of time estimation is integral for successful project management. With the right technique, you can be confident that your estimates are exact and valuable to you and your team. Time estimation is the skill of predicting accurately how long a task will take to finish – using time estimation methods can help you eliminate the guesswork associated with your estimates and permit you to have more confidence regarding your time management and the period your work can be accomplished in.   

While looking for time estimation methods for a project, you probably ask yourself: how to accurately determine the length of a project? How do you avoid overestimating the amount of time needed? How can the timetable of a project be managed more effectively? For successful project management and project completion, time estimation is a necessary step. So, if you’re looking for methods for the perfect time estimation required for your project, this article is for you.

In the world of project management, accurately estimating the time needed for a project is a difficult but necessary task. According to recent surveys, 78% of project managers need help with project time estimation. Furthermore, a Project Management Institute research underlined the necessity of precise time estimation, since projects that are delivered late or within a tight deadline can hurt the bottom line.

In this article, we’ll share our project manager Erik Kalmykov’s tips for accurately estimating how much time a project will take. We’ll also show you how to avoid common errors and manage project timeframes more effectively. You’ll have a better grasp of how to correctly estimate the amount of time spent on a project after this article, along with useful advice on how to manage project deadlines and avoid frequent errors. 

What is Time Estimation?

Time estimation is about determining how long it will take to complete a project. It is an essential part of project management and can help project managers better plan, manage, and complete projects on time. Accurate time estimation allows project managers to plan for potential risks or delays and better estimate the resources and staff needed to complete the project.

Why are time estimates so important? Time estimations are important for several reasons. Providing a better knowledge of the resources and manpower required to execute the project, first aids in the better planning and management of projects by project managers. Additionally, it enables project managers to recognize possible hazards and delays and make plans on how to deal with them. Finally, precise time prediction enables project managers to better plan for the employees and resources required to finish the project, which helps them manage project budgets more effectively.

Types of Time Estimation

Expert Judgment

Utilizing the knowledge of others in a field where you lack experience is plain innovative business. We can’t all be experts in everything, after all. When it comes to time estimates, employing the expertise and knowledge of an expert to assist in establishing your estimates has extra advantages since the expert you contact will probably have helpful advice for the project as a whole and might be able to identify problems that have bedeviled similar projects in the past. Having a professional to help you make more accurate and reliable estimates can help you achieve your goals more efficiently and cost-effectively. By utilizing the expertise of an experienced individual, you can ensure that your goals are met on time and within budget.

Pros & Cons of Expert Judgment 

Pros: The method enables the consideration of certain elements that cannot be taken into account by an automated analysis.

Cons: This strategy necessitates individual judgment. As a result, the outcome frequently exhibits bias. 

Usage

Expert judgment is constructive for managers who lack knowledge and is most appropriate for big projects when quantitative estimation alone is insufficient.

Analogous / Comparative

It is possible to estimate how long it will take to complete a task or project by comparing it to similar ones. This approach concentrates on “analogous” or “comparative” reasoning to produce an estimate by drawing on knowledge and past experiences.

Pros & Cons of Analogous / Comparative Estimation

Pros: Comparative / Analogous estimation is one of the quickest and easiest methods for estimating resources.

Cons: It has a poor track record of accuracy and has a significant danger of incorrect results.

Usage 

The method is particularly suitable for standard projects with comparable task requirements. To gain a rough idea of the number of resources needed, it is frequently utilized in the early phases of a project’s life cycle.

Parametric

Using a preset formula, a parametric time estimate is a technique for determining how long an activity or project will take to complete. This formula often requires the input of certain criteria, such as the number of individuals allocated to the work or project, the complexity of the task or project, and/or the level of competence of the persons involved.

Pros & Cons of Parametric Estimation

Pros: This method is reasonably accurate since it considers the complexity of the work or project as well as the skill level of the persons involved.

Cons: The parameters’ values may not always be accurately determined using this procedure, which takes longer than other methods. It also disregards any adjustments to materials, methods, or technology that can impact how long it takes to finish a task or project.

Usage

The parametric time estimation method works best on projects with standardized work bundles and repeated activities. Therefore, it works best in industries with lesser levels of inventiveness, where early in the planning phase, project parameters can be fairly simply estimated.

Top-down

The top-down methodology of project estimation is based on breaking down the project activities into major blocks, projecting how long they will take to complete, and summarizing the estimates. Once managers acquire more information during the latter stages of project planning, these generic, big blocks of project work may be divided into smaller parts and then estimated independently to provide more precise predictions.

Pros & Cons of  Top-down Estimation

Pros: As it takes into account the difficulty of the work or project and the expertise of the persons involved, this method of estimating may be rather accurate.

Cons: It might be challenging to precisely divide the activity or project into manageable portions using this methodology, which takes more time than other approaches. The time needed to accomplish the activity or project is also not adjusted for advancements in technology, business practices, or material availability.

Usage

In project planning when quick outcomes are important, the top-down project estimating approach is widely utilized. It is most useful during the early stages of project planning when a rough and rapid estimate is required.

Bottom-up

Bottom-up estimation is a method for determining the price and time needed to complete a project by segmenting it into smaller jobs and estimating each one independently. For projects with several jobs or components that need to be estimated, this method is helpful.

Pros & Cons of  Bottom-up Estimation

Pros: High result accuracy and little differences between resources that were estimated and used.

Cons: This method takes a lot of time, effort, and skill to master.

Usage

Large software development projects, where several activities and components need to be estimated independently, are the ones that most frequently employ bottom-up estimating. Other project categories, including building projects or significant industrial activities, can also adopt this strategy.

Three-point

Three-point estimation is a project management method for estimating the duration, cost, and resources needed to complete a project. An optimistic estimate, a pessimistic estimate, and a most likely estimate are all created using this process based on the idea of ‘triangulation’. The expected value of the project is then calculated from these estimates.

Pros & Cons of Three-point Estimation

Pros: Compared to most estimating procedures, which tend to concentrate just on one point throughout the computation process, the method is more complete. It is risk-oriented and aids managers in reducing the risk of budget and schedule overruns brought on by unanticipated circumstances.

Cons: Large volumes of data and careful attention to detail.

Usage

Software development and other large-scale initiatives frequently employ a three-point estimate. The time, expense, and resources needed to complete any project or assignment may also be estimated using this method.

Time Estimation Statistics in Project Management

In project management, timeline accuracy is assessed using time estimation statistics. They offer statistics on how close a project was to finish on time. Statistics on time estimation are utilized to pinpoint areas where the project may be improved upon as well as those where the project timetable was successful and precise. The number of activities finished on time, the number of tasks delayed, the number of jobs finished ahead of schedule, the time saved due to resource efficiency, and the time added due to unforeseen complications are all examples of time estimation statistics. These statistics can be used to determine if changes need to be made to the project timeline, or if additional resources need to be allocated to ensure the project is completed on time.

Why Are Accurate Time Estimates Crucial to Project Success?

The success of a project depends on accurate time estimates since they provide the project manager with a better understanding of the amount of time, effort, and resources required to complete the project. Additionally, they may be used by project managers to coordinate with key players and provide realistic goals for their team members. Accurate time estimates can help with resource allocation, on-time task completion, and project budget stability. Knowing how long the project will take to complete can help project managers make better decisions about how to distribute resources and manage deadlines. Accurate time estimates also serve to lessen the risk of project failure by providing a foundation for assessing progress and detecting possible concerns before they become serious difficulties.

Cost overruns

Cost overruns happen when a project goes above its allocated budget. Numerous factors, including inadequate project management, underestimating the number of resources required, and unanticipated scope changes, can lead to them. Cost overruns can be problematic for the project team since they can cause delays or even the complete cancellation of the project. Project managers should constantly develop precise time and cost estimates for their projects, as well as monitor development and make modifications as necessary, to minimize cost overruns. They should also ensure that their personnel is well-educated and prepared for any scope adjustments or unexpected issues. Finally, project managers should strive to create a culture of accountability and communication, so that any issues are identified and addressed before they become a major problems.

Tips for Estimating the Time needed to Implement a Project

Define your goals and objectives: Consider spending some time defining your aims and objectives before beginning the project estimating process. You may determine what has to be done and how long it should take using this information.

Break it down: Break your project down into smaller, more achievable activities that may be estimated independently after you have determined the general objectives.

Gather data: After you have divided your project up into smaller jobs, collect information for each one. This might consist of time estimates, cost estimates, and any other pertinent data that will enable you to estimate the project properly.

Assess risks: Consider the hazards involved with each activity when you assess them.

Compare estimates: Compare your estimates to industry norms and the estimates of other experts. This will assist you in ensuring the accuracy of your estimations.

Keep track of changes: Keep note of any scope or time frame modifications as the project develops and modify your estimations as necessary.

Get feedback: Ask for feedback from stakeholders and team members throughout the estimation process. This will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the estimates are realistic. 

Summing Up

Time estimation is a crucial component of project management and may be the difference between a project being successful and staying within budget and timeline constraints. Project managers can predict the time required for any project with accuracy if they have the correct plan and methodology. Project managers may develop a time estimating plan that will help them manage their projects more effectively and assure successful project completion by using the advice provided in this article.

The post 5+ Secrets Time Estimation Hints in Project Management appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

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Team Collaboration with Amazon CodeCatalyst

Amazon CodeCatalyst enables teams to collaborate on features, tasks, bugs, and any other work involved when building software. CodeCatalyst was announced at re:Invent 2022 and is currently in preview.

Introduction:

In a prior post in this series, Using Workflows to Build, Test, and Deploy with Amazon CodeCatalyst, I discussed reading The Unicorn Project, by Gene Kim, and how the main character, Maxine, struggles with a complicated software development lifecycle (SLDC) after joining a new team. Some of the challenges she encounters include:

Continually delivering high-quality updates is complicated and slow
Collaborating efficiently with others is challenging
Managing application environments is increasingly complex
Setting up a new project is a time-consuming chore

In this post, I will focus on the second bullet, and how CodeCatalyst helps you collaborate from anywhere with anyone.

Prerequisites

If you would like to follow along with this walkthrough, you will need to:

Have an AWS Builder ID for signing in to CodeCatalyst.
Belong to a CodeCatalyst space and have the Space administrator role assigned to you in that space. For more information, see Creating a space in CodeCatalyst, Managing members of your space, and Space administrator role.
Have an AWS account associated with your space and have the IAM role in that account. For more information about the role and role policy, see Creating a CodeCatalyst service role.

Walkthrough

Similar to the prior post, I am going to use the Modern Three-tier Web Application blueprint in this walkthrough. A CodeCatalyst blueprint provides a template for a new project. If you would like to follow along, you can launch the blueprint as described in Creating a project in Amazon CodeCatalyst.  This will deploy the Mythical Mysfits sample application shown in the following image.

Figure 1. The Mythical Mysfits user interface showing header and three Mysfits

For this Walkthrough, let us assume that I need to make a simple change to the application. The legal department would like to add a footer that includes the text “© 2023 Demo Organization.” I will create an issue in CodeCatalyst to track this work and use CodeCatalyst to track the change throughout the entire Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).

CodeCatalyst organizes projects into Spaces. A space represents your company, department, or group; and contains projects, members, and the associated cloud resources you create in CodeCatalyst. In this walkthrough, my Space currently includes two members, Brian Beach and Panna Shetty, as shown in the following screenshot.  Note that both users are administrators, but CodeCatalyst supports multiple roles. You can read more about roles in members of your space.

Figure 2. The space members configuration page showing two users

To begin, Brian creates a new issue to track the request from legal. He assigns the issue to Panna, but leaves it in the backlog for now. Note that CodeCatalyst supports multiple metadata fields to organize your work. This issue is not impacting users and is relatively simple to fix. Therefore, Brian has categorized it as low priority and estimated the effort as extra small (XS). Brian has also added a label, so all the requests from legal can be tracked together. Note that these metadata fields are customizable. You can read more in configuring issue settings.

Figure 3. Create issue dialog box with name, description and metadata

CodeCatalyst supports rich markdown in the description field. You can read about this in Markdown tips and tricks. In the following screenshot, Brian types “@app.vue” which brings up an inline search for people, issues, and code to help Panna find the relevant bit of code that needs changing later.

Figure 4. Create issue dialog box with type-ahead overlay

When Panna is ready to begin work on the new feature, she moves the issue from the “Backlog“ to ”In progress.“ CodeCatalyst allows users to manage their work using a Kanban style board. Panna can simply drag-and-drop issues on the board to move the issue from one state to another. Given the small team, Brian and Panna use a single board. However, CodeCatalyst allows you to create multiple views filtered by the metadata fields discussed earlier. For example, you might create a label called Sprint-001, and use that to create a board for the sprint.

Figure 5. Kanban board showing to do, in progress and in review columns

Panna creates a new branch for the change called feature_add_copyright and uses the link in the issue description to navigate to the source code repository. This change is so simple that she decides to edit the file in the browser and commits the change. Note that for more complex changes, CodeCatalyst supports Dev Environments. The next post in this series will be dedicated to Dev Environments. For now, you just need to know that a Dev Environment is a cloud-based development environment that you can use to quickly work on the code stored in the source repositories of your project.

Figure 6. Editor with new lines highlighted

Panna also creates a pull request to merge the feature branch in to the main branch. She identifies Brian as a required reviewer. Panna then moves the issue to the “In review” column on the Kanban board so the rest of the team can track the progress. Once Brian reviews the change, he approves and merges the pull request.

Figure 7. Pull request details with title, description, and reviewed assigned

When the pull request is merged, a workflow is configured to run automatically on code changes to build, test, and deploy the change. Note that Workflows were covered in the prior post in this series. Once the workflow is complete, Panna is notified in the team’s Slack channel. You can read more about notifications in working with notifications in CodeCatalyst. She verifies the change in production and moves the issue to the done column on the Kanban board.

Figure 8. Kanban board showing in progress, in review, and done columns

Once the deployment completes, you will see the footer added at the bottom of the page.

Figure 9. The Mythical Mysfits user interface showing footer and three Mysfits

At this point the issue is complete and you have seen how this small team collaborated to progress through the entire software development lifecycle (SDLC).

Cleanup

If you have been following along with this workflow, you should delete the resources you deployed so you do not continue to incur charges. First, delete the two stacks that CDK deployed using the AWS CloudFormation console in the AWS account you associated when you launched the blueprint. These stacks will have names like mysfitsXXXXXWebStack and mysfitsXXXXXAppStack. Second, delete the project from CodeCatalyst by navigating to Project settings and choosing Delete project.

Conclusion

In this post, you learned how CodeCatalyst can help you rapidly collaborate with other developers. I used issues to track feature and bugs, assigned code reviews, and managed pull requests. In future posts I will continue to discuss how CodeCatalyst can address the rest of the challenges Maxine encountered in The Unicorn Project.

About the authors:

Brian Beach

Brian Beach has over 20 years of experience as a Developer and Architect. He is currently a Principal Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services. He holds a Computer Engineering degree from NYU Poly and an MBA from Rutgers Business School. He is the author of “Pro PowerShell for Amazon Web Services” from Apress. He is a regular author and has spoken at numerous events. Brian lives in North Carolina with his wife and three kids.

Panna Shetty

Panna Shetty is a Sr. Solutions Architect with Amazon Web Services (AWS), working with public sector customers. She enjoys helping customers architect and build scalable and
reliable modern applications using cloud-native technologies.

Starting a Web App in 2022 [Research]

Participate in our research and get 70% OFF discount on all Flatlogic products! We will also make the final results public.

The team of Flatlogic is carrying out a global scientific research that aims to identify modern patterns of web application creation, specifically which tools and approaches are used to start web apps in 2022. This is the world’s first research dedicated to this specific topic.

The research is based on an anonymous online survey that consists of 20 questions related to web development. If you are planning to build a web app, whether you are an experienced software engineer or have no web development skills at all, you are eligible for the survey. We strongly ask you to take the online survey! It will help the global web development audience a lot to find out more about the recent approaches to web app development.

We focus on uncovering a diverse representation of the usage of technologies, stacks, methodologies and other dev instruments used by coders that will help us and global audience to understand the patterns of the modern web app creation process.

We plan to advertise the survey to our socials and seek ways to earn responses from those who may not be frequent on our sites.

We look forward to your responses on how to build a full stack web app — and if you share this survey on social media, be sure to tag us! We are commited to share the results with you.

Ready? Steady?
Go!

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8 Reasons to Use JavaScript Libraries in Project Management Apps

Software solutions help project managers to get ultimate control over all project stages and deliver results without delays. Since the war against the COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet,  many organizations around the world adhere to remote working and pay for technologies that allow project managers to collaborate with colleagues and keep projects on track from anywhere. According to Statista, this year enterprise software expenditures are expected to increase by 13.2% compared to 2020 and reach approximately 599 bln US dollars worldwide.

While it is hard to argue with the necessity to use software applications for effective project management, businesses frequently face a serious problem of choice: buying out-of-the-box software, creating their own custom solution from scratch, or embedding a JavaScript component?

In this article, let us consider the reasons to opt for custom project management solutions built with the help of JavaScript libraries.

Costly and obscure ready-made software 

With numerous unquestionable merits, off-the-shelf project management software can cause a lot of problems. Such products can be quite expensive and often lack the flexibility to meet all project requirements. Capterra’s latest PM software market research provides interesting insights related to challenges experienced with PM tools. For example, project teams frequently have to deal with such negative factors as the overall complexity of tools, many unused features, integration issues, and more.

Source: Capterra Project Management User Survey 2021

In light of these facts, it seems reasonable to make efforts to build your own application. That is why many companies prefer to invest in the development of their own project management tools.

Faster implementation of complex functionalities

The State of Project Management 2021 annual report conducted by Wellingtone says that businesses often suffer from poor resource management. Creating advanced functionalities from scratch to deal with management challenges is a painstaking and time-consuming task. Meanwhile, JavaScript components provide a wide range of useful built-in features such as task assignment, resource allocation, progress tracking, work time estimation, reporting, and much more. There are even specialized libraries like a JavaScript Scheduler or Gantt chart, which can serve as the foundation for the whole application. Therefore, if you want to save time and avoid unnecessary bugs, you’d better use JavaScript components for such undertakings.

Example of a JavaScript Scheduler (Timeline view) by DHTMLX

High performance and scalability

When working on a project management app, it is important to ensure that the final product operates well with large amounts of information without any performance deteriorations. It is one of the key metrics for a good user experience. JavaScript libraries usually come with special techniques such as smart rendering and dynamic loading that allow conveniently working with huge projects. Moreover, performant JS components can give you the scalability that you need to adjust your application for managing more complex business processes with time.

Personalized approach to user experience

Another important thing is customizability. Business-oriented JavaScript libraries are notable for rich and flexible APIs that enable developers to modify each and every element of the user interface. API methods and properties make it possible to determine the system’s behavior. Event listeners ensure that an app is fully interactive. Besides, you can easily adjust the appearance of JavaScript components via CSS to conform to your brand guidelines. 

Compatibility with popular JS frameworks and back-end technologies

Building a web application more and more often involves the use of JavaScript frameworks rather than vanilla JS. When talking about the most popular framework options, many developers will certainly mention the “Big Three” – React, Angular, and Vue. But new names also appear on the JavaScript landscape. Responders of the 2021 Developer Survey named Svelte the most loved front-end tool.

JS frameworks offer ready-to-use code for performing standard programming tasks much faster, thereby giving you more time for working on complex aspects of your project. And the great thing is that JS libraries can be seamlessly integrated into applications based on popular frameworks. Apart from that, modern JS libraries rely on REST API and can be used alongside any back-end technology such as Node.js, PHP, Ruby on Rails, ASP.NET, etc.

Exporting options 

It is very convenient for project managers to have important project data at hand. For instance, it may be needed to present printed project workflow or upcoming business activities at meetings or send the information by email. That is why JavaScript project management libraries allow converting data into such formats as PDF, PNG, Excel, etc. to handle projects more effectively.

It can also be very helpful to make your app compatible with Microsoft Project since it is a widely-used project management instrument. This feature is supported by some libraries such as DHTMLX JavaScript Gantt chart.

Example of a JavaScript Gantt chart by DHTMLX

Documentation and demos

A developer-friendly JavaScript library for project management usually comes with detailed and actively maintained documentation and demo materials. The benefits of good documentation are undeniable. It commonly provides guides, tutorials, API references, and other useful information that make it much easier to integrate necessary functions into your project. Code samples give you a clear idea of how to make the most of the library’s feature set.

Technical support & updates

No matter how skilled you are at JavaScript, at some point you will certainly require technical assistance. When using JS libraries, you can count on the help of technical specialists who have a profound knowledge of the tool and can quickly give you helpful recommendations on any questions. One more great advantage of JavaScript components is that they are regularly provided with bug fixes and updates enabling you to improve the quality of your application.

Final words

JavaScript libraries allow creating feature-rich project management applications that comply with your requirements faster. Custom solutions based on JS libraries can be a good alternative to costly prepackaged software. Such tools enable you to fully realize your vision in terms of functionality and design without any restrictions.

The post 8 Reasons to Use JavaScript Libraries in Project Management Apps appeared first on Flatlogic Blog.

How to Estimate Web Development Cost?

Have you ever thought of the fact that the ratio of your online success or failure could be determined within 5 seconds of a visitor landing on your website? Maybe that’s the reason why it has become so important to build a website. And not just any website, a platform where users could easily navigate, where the layout is pretty easy to understand, and space with a low bounce rate.

If you find these afore-mentioned points unknown then it’s time to take a hard look at the way you’ve been designing and optimizing your website. You see a website isn’t said to be successful when it’s just made. In fact, it excels when it has a design that feeds into your website’s user experience, functionality, and appropriately complements your content.

The following post focuses on tips to keep in mind when build a website, how much does web development cost? Fortunately, there are several PHP web development companies in India that strive hard to offer the best possible services from their space but before you choose one it is advisable to do some homework regarding the same in prior.

Table of Content

Tips to Consider When Conducting Web Development

Web Design – Make It Mobile Responsive
Web Development
Easy to Navigate
Website Cost

How Much Does Web Development Cost?

Cost to Create a Blog
Creating Small Business Website Costs
E-Commerce Website Costs
Enterprise Website Costs

Conclusion

1. Tips to Consider When Conducting Web Development

These days, an online presence is vital for any business, even for brick-and-mortar stores that don’t conduct e-commerce. Creating a website isn’t especially difficult with the many website creation tools available. Whatever software you choose, keep these design principles in mind. Like I said before website development is no longer a luxury or an option, it has become a compulsion especially one with high-end functionality and appearance to navigation and coding integrity. A combination of all such factors leads to the creation of an eye-catching, user-friendly web design or website.

Down-below we would like to mention certain factors that must be considered while conducting your first web development project. I assure you that all these factors will lead to the creation of a unique user experience that inspires viewers to become loyal brand advocates.

1. Web Design – Make It Mobile Responsive

Gone are the days when a simple web design would work. Today, with the rise in smartphones both businesses and website development companies are compelled to come up with solutions that possess mobile responsiveness. Needless to say, your business’s mobile website must offer a positive user experience.

Speaking further about the design, build a website featuring a clean and appealing design. This helps viewers to focus on the value of your brand and content instead of distracting graphics and large amounts of text. Often, customers associate website designs with the quality of a particular company or product. Hence, a clean design is vital to providing a positive user experience that encourages customers to return.

If potential customers land on your site but find it difficult to read or navigate on a mobile device, they may simply abandon you in favour of a competitor. Furthermore, a negative mobile user experience affects your website in search engine rankings, making it harder for users to find through a Google search – which brings us to our next point.

2. Web Development

Do you think it is possible to develop a website without a functional program taking care of the backend? Of course not! Think of your website as your own car now what happens when your friends or peer groups see the shiny new car? They look at it, admire it and start gossiping with others. In the world of website development, this equates to the part of your site user experiences directly. Just like the powerful engine in your sports car, the backend of your website is where the magic really happens. Without strong backend services, your website won’t be able to “wow” your guests. Similarly, a sports car without an engine is rendered useless. One of the best “engines” for eCommerce sites is Magento, while WordPress is a customizable CMS ideal for informational sites.

3. Easy to Navigate

If a website is confusing and difficult to navigate then chances are pretty high for your customers to leave and switch to your competition. To increase the efficiency and appeal of your site’s navigation, conduct an in-depth site review as if you are a new visitor. Note the navigation streams that make sense and those that do not. One way to improve a visitor’s ability to navigate your site easily (and help search engines crawl your site) is to add a site map. Furthermore, streamlining navigation by eliminating unnecessary or underperforming pages may decrease load time while improving the quality of your brand’s online presence.

4. Website Cost

One of the most common questions we have come across is how much How much does web development cost?” We’re here to answer that question and to help you put your money where it matters.

2. How Much Does Web Development Cost?

Well, there is no cookie-cutter solution here. I mean as not all requirements are the same then how could one aspect of all solutions be the same. Still, I have tried to come up with some basic understanding of determining how much does a website cost?

1. Cost to Create a Blog

Unlike build a website, a blog turns out to be one of the easiest types of website development. With a variety of free, paid, and open-source website builders, starting a blog in 2021 is oftentimes a point-and-click job. This fact reflects in the cost.

Blogs are often on the lower end of web development cost. You can develop a blog for as little as $80 to $5,000 depending on a variety of factors as outlined below.

Simply go to WordPress – an open-source web development framework that is easy to use, free and freemium, has an active development community, loads of free and paid plugins available.

Determining website development costs here –

Domain Name – $10 per year
Website Software: $0 (using WordPress.org)
Hosting: $6 per month, or $70 per year
Website Development and Design: $0-$60 one time (depending on if you choose a free or premium theme)
Add-ons: $0-$100 one time (premium plugins may require paid upgrades/subscriptions)

Total: $80-$240 (or more) one time.

Its advantages here include:

It is cost-effective
You get full control over the process
It is easy to learn

2. Creating Small Business Website Costs

The next web development option is to build a website for your small business. You see small businesses usually feature 0-15 landing pages, a blog, and perhaps some online booking, appointment scheduling, or eCommerce functionality. You can choose PHP for website development if you want to build a cost effective website for small level businesses.

These are the standard assets of driving enormous traffic to your site. Of course, your website can be more or less complex, depending on your niche and reliance on search as a channel for attracting customers.

So in a nutshell, the upfront web development cost might fall in the range of $80-$10,000. The precise rate will depend on how much customization you need, design- and feature-wise. To maintain your small business website, expect to pay $180-$1,000 yearly.

It is always advisable to seek assistance from a reputable website development company that is trustworthy and transparent in its procedures. Apart from that, if you are tech-savvy and know concepts like web design or web development then you can build it yourself with the help of a website builder.

All you have to do is:

Get a hosting plan
Buy a Domain Name
Download and install WordPress.org
Choose and customize a website theme
Add plugins for extra functionality
Write and upload website content
Hit publish!

Upfront website development costs:

Domain: $10

Host: $70 per year

Website development and Design: $0-$60

Functionality: $0-$100+

Total: $80-$240 (or more).

Its Advantages –

Being an open-source in nature, it provides endless customization opportunities
Development and maintenance knowledge available in-house (as you did it yourself)
Lower annual costs for maintaining your website

Apart from this, it may quite interest you to know that a website builder can provide out-of-the-box functionality for building a website without any coding. Most website builder have a graphic page that you use to design your website with pre-made elements and native features. By using such website builder all you get is:

An intuitive website building experience that does not require any technical knowledge.
Rapid page prototyping, design, and development, so that you launch faster
Excellent collaboration opportunities — all people on your team can learn to use the builder.

3. E-Commerce Website Costs

Selling online has become the new norm and nothing works wonders than having an eCommerce gateway. You can use it either as an extension of your brick-and-mortar operations. Or as a standalone business venture.

All you have to do is choose a secure eCommerce platform that lets you create a delightful shopping experience for online visitors. How much does a website cost? Well, it solely depends on your scale and functionality. A simple Shopify store can cost as little as $300/year to build and run. But an enterprise-grade platform akin to Amazon nears, the annual operating costs can reach seven to eight figures per year.

Some of its advantages include:

An affordable option for coders who don’t mind pulling a few all-nighters
A good way for starting a small eCommerce business or side project

4. Enterprise Website Costs

When you build a website, enterprise websites have a wide array of features and are tightly integrated with other business systems, powering the company’s digital operations. Ranging from multi-brand eCommerce stores to SaaS products, or large-scale publishing operations.

An enterprise web development cost can be up to $100,000-$250,000. Additionally, annual maintenance costs, covering all cloud and on-premises infrastructure, are also often found in the tens of thousands.

Some of its crucial advantages include:

Save on backend development and hosting as that’s included in your plan
Customize your front-end up to your liking via open APIs
Maintenance, security, and compliance are handled for you

3. Conclusion

You see with the help of website, it’s easier for businesses to not to miss out on the available opportunities. The truth is, website services have changed the way of doing business. And running any business without a website is almost like inviting failure to your doorstep. So what are you waiting for? It’s time to get started!

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