Front of the Front End

The Great Divide is real, and I’m pleased that the terms “front-of-the-front-end” and “back-of-the-front-end” have gained traction ever since I quipped about them on the Shop Talk Show. A few of my clients have actually moved away from a culture of “we only hire full-stack developers” and have instead adopted the labels “front-of-the-front-end” and “back-of-the-front-end” to help them better organize their teams and refine their hiring practices. This makes me incredibly happy as these labels provide a much-needed distinction between the types of web development that need to occur in order to build successful web things.

Brad Frost hits the nail on the head with this article describing the increasing delineation between back and front end roles in the front end discipline.

I'm finding my particular skill set settling nicely into the front of the front end, while dabbling occasional into writing services in a pair-programming session with a back end dev on the team. Gives us a chance to settle on a mutual data model, but my expertise is in crafting largely presentational concerns.