Other titles for the Head of Technology and Engineer, or similar or overlapping roles: Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Director of Engineering, Technical Lead, Engineering Manager, Software Architect, Software Engineer, Software Developer, Director of Software Development
The Head of Technology sets the technical vision, architecture, and strategy to ensure scalability and innovation. They may sometimes also manage one or more teams of Engineers, who build, optimize, and maintain the product through an ongoing cycle of software development.
The engineering team, which may consist of various types of engineers and its leadership are collectively responsible for building the digital product and making any changes to its features that must be done on the backend (code, database, hosting environment, etc.). Included in that scope are:
Technical Strategy and Methodology:
- Technology Stack Selection: Choose appropriate technologies and platforms for the web application, considering scalability, maintainability, and team expertise.
- Adoption of Methodologies: Implement development methodologies that enhance team productivity and project manageability, such as Agile or Scrum, to ensure continuous integration, feedback, and iterative improvement.
Architecture and Development:
- Best Practices: Adhere to industry-standard best practices in coding and architecture to enhance code quality and ease of maintenance.
- Non-functional Requirements: Incorporate essential non-functional requirements such as security, performance, and scalability from the outset.
- Comprehensive Testing and Quality Assurance: Develop and execute a thorough testing strategy that includes unit, integration, and system testing to ensure the application meets quality standards before release.
Engineering is Responsible for Non-Functional Requirements
Non-functional requirements (NFRs) ensure the product’s performance, usability, and reliability and do not need to be specified by the product management team:
- Performance: Ensuring the application can handle user load effectively.
- Security: Protecting data and ensuring authorized access.
- Usability: Making the application user-friendly and easy to navigate.
- Reliability: Ensuring the application is available and can recover from failures.
- Maintainability: Writing clean, modular code for easy updates.
- Portability: Ensuring compatibility across browsers and devices.
- Interoperability: Allowing integration with other systems via APIs.
- Compliance: Adhering to legal and regulatory standards.
Deployments:
- Streamlined Deployment Process: Coordinate with cross-functional teams to ensure smooth and reliable deployments, utilizing automated deployment tools to minimize human error and downtime.
- Release Management: Schedule and manage releases to align with business objectives and ensure minimal disruption to end-users.
Maintenance and Updates:
- Environment Management: Regularly monitor and maintain the hosting environment to ensure optimal performance and availability.
- Ongoing Updates and Bug Fixes: Implement a structured process for applying updates and quickly addressing bugs as they arise, prioritizing critical updates and security patches to maintain system integrity and user trust.