A Guide to Hire Dedicated PHP Developers

With so many buzzing programming languages out there, each of a kind. PHP somehow manages to gain the top spot even in 2022. Appeared in 1995, today the concept of PHP development and hiring dedicated PHP developers are welcomed by 80% of the whole Internet. 

The following post focuses on what’s all the hype about the technology, and how hiring PHP developers from India could be beneficial in the long run?

1. About PHP Development

Wondering what PHP looks like? We are sure you must have seen an elephant in the image section when looking for PHP’s logo. Well, the development framework does have an elephant as its mascot character. Do you know why?

The ElePHPant logo was originally introduced and created in 1998 for the PHP community by Vincent Pontier – the spiritual father of thousands of ElePHPant around the world. In 1998, there were mostly CGI scripts used for dynamic websites. Vincent’s friend, François Buffière, introduced him to the PHP language. Vincent came up with the ElePHPant by drawing PHP letters on paper and playing with them a little. He noticed they were in the shape of an elephant. Also, this is the elephant’s mascot character “ElePHPant”. It is not an Elephant (elephant), but the word “PHP” is between words.

To cut the long story short…

If you ask me to explain it in simple words, PHP is a programming language mainly used for web development purposes. Open source web development framework, easy to learn and develop, cost-effective, and data flexibility, are some of the core benefits of using PHP development instead of any other.

The name PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor and denotes a server-side scripting language. This means any application is written and running on web servers and they do not depend on the web browser. With time passing by, there has been a major shift from a newbie to a language being ranked among the best programming languages worldwide. Today, PHP is the fifth most popular coding languag.

Earlier, PHP development services were used for web development and it used to truly excel in that area but not anymore. Due to its unimaginable versatility, the scripting language results from its excellent ability to combine with other programming languages. For instance, dedicated PHP developers can write extensions using the C language.

This enables adding even more functionality. Moreover, PHP has a large number of available libraries and frameworks that extend its capabilities even further. The most popular examples of such frameworks are Laravel, Symfony, Phalcon, Zend Framework, and Yii.

PHP’s customer base is so wide and it benefits so many various industries as shown in the above image which is taken from Slintel.

2. Who is a PHP Developer?

Well, A PHP developer is mainly responsible for writing server-side web application logic. Their day-to-day work comprises developing back-end components, connecting the application with the other (often third-party) web services, and supporting the front-end developers by integrating their work with the application. They are also often required to develop and integrate plugins for certain popular frameworks.

A dedicated PHP developer is responsible for managing back-end services and the interchange of data between the server and the users. Developing all server-side logic, definition, and maintenance of the central database, and ensuring high performance and responsiveness must be their prime focuses. Moreover, he or she will be responsible for integrating the front-end elements built by your co-workers into the application. Therefore, hiring PHP developers who have a basic understanding of front-end technologies is necessary as well.

1. Roles and Responsibilities

• Develop, record, and maintain cutting edge web-based PHP applications on portal plus premium services platforms
• Prepare and maintain all applications using standard development tools
• Provide technical related consultation plus the expertise to all product managers as well as various staff members.
• Write technical as well as non-technical specifications such as product features, communication protocols, programming languages, functionalities, deadlines and etc with the record of all procedures
• Review product needs documents and participates in calls integration with partners.
• Convey effectively all task progress, evaluations, suggestions, and schedules along with technical and process issues.
• Communicate with other departments to solve any issues that crop up while establishing the priorities, choosing the best solutions, and developing strategies for new content creation.
• To keep up with the latest programming practices and technologies via training sessions, relevant professional workshops, reading sessions, seminars, and conferences.

2. Skills and Qualifications

• Of course, he should be having a strong knowledge of the PHP web development framework
• Understanding the full synchronized behavior of PHP
• Basic understanding of technologies like JavaScript, CSS, HTML5
• Knowledge of object-oriented PHP programming
• Understanding accessibility and security compliance – Depending on the specific project
• Understanding fundamental design principles behind a scalable application
• User authentication and authorization between multiple systems, servers, and environments
• Creating database schemas that represent and support business processes
• Familiarity with SQL/NoSQL databases and their declarative query languages
• Proficient understanding of code versioning tools, such as Git.

There are some common mistakes that some PHP developers make such as not having good communication skills, a lack of problem-solving ability, and not thinking critically. So you have to be careful while hiring PHP developers.

3. Process to Hire Dedicated PHP Developers

One of the most amazing things about PHP development is that it is a flexible and easy-to-work process. And the scale of the requirements of the project increases as the company grows. This is because the growth specifies the flexibility in terms of the project’s requirements, coding methods, and budget. And when it happens, the business organization would like to hire a developer that can handle everything as per the requirements. 

And to get the right PHP development team, here are the steps every company should follow.

1. Define your Project Necessities 

The first thing to do before you hire dedicated PHP developers is to  define your project necessities on the basis of the type of your project. Basically, the difficulty level of the project decides the level of expertise you will require in a PHP developer. And the expertise level of developers is – 

Level of Expertise
Novice PHP developer	Then comes beginners or freshers who are hired as in-house developers by any organization or outsourcing excerpts by the small-scale companies. They can’t offer experienced advice and industry-recommended practices but they can slowly learn and adapt to the firm’s ways and can help create a unique solution.
Intermediate PHP developer	When a firm wants an effective software solution but the budget is limited, it must hire mid-level experienced developers who can deliver optimum results. Basically, mid-level PHP developers come with some industry experience and they can offer quality at a considerable budget.
Experienced PHP Developer	When any organization requires high industry experience, it should hire an expert. The PHP expert will have industry experience and skill to create highly-professional software which is created by converting innovative ideas. Basically, these are the developers who can help any organization achieve a competitive edge in the market.

2. Create a List of Frameworks

The next thing to do is create a list of frameworks that might be suitable for your organization’s project and which you want the PHP developers to work on while creating software for your firm. For example, if you want a software in a short time and want to review it soon at an early stage, the best choice is the raw PHP framework. Likewise, there are many different PHP frameworks in the market. So you must make a list of it, discuss it with the hired PHP development team, and then finalize the right one.  Amongst all the popular PHP frameworks, Laravel is getting more attention from users as per shown in below Google Trends graph. 

Some of the most popular PHP development frameworks are Laravel, Symfony, Phalcon, CodeIgniter, Yii 2, CakePHP, and more. As per the requirement of the project and the expertise of the software development team, the selection of the PHP framework must be done. And the main reason behind it is that when the right framework is selected, the development process becomes easier, and quicker, and eventually it offers amazing outcomes. 

3. Define Specific Goals

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” — Pablo Picasso, painter

After determining the PHP framework, one must define the clear and concise software development goals. This helps in shortlisting the features and functionalities of the project. For instance, if an organization is planning to share data with the user from the very beginning, the PHP developer must know about it. Basically, when a company has specific project goals, the developers must be aware of them from the start so that they can work accordingly. So some of the goals and purposes that a company can define for the software development team are – 

• CMS development and management
• PHP upgrade and integration
• Custom software solutions in PHP
• PHP-related cloud integration
• MVP design and development
• API integration

4. Ensure Quality

The last and final thing to think of in the process of hiring a dedicated PHP developer is to focus on quality. This step ensures that the quality of the development is up to the mark and sees to it that the foundation of the PHP code isn’t weak. Some other points that the PHP developer ensures at this stage are timely code delivery, fewer bugs to deal with, and reduced time-to-market. 

As per well known developer @codingninja, He wrote that “Good DX is achieved when developers feel good about their interactions with the code, software, & humans they work with—with manageable frustration!” 

What is good developer experience (DX)? How would you define it? 🤔

As @codingnninja writes: Good DX is achieved when developers feel good about their interactions with the code, software, & humans they work with—with manageable frustration!

Details ⤵https://t.co/Ws0ybKNK8n

— Hashnode (@hashnode) May 30, 2022

And for this, most companies have separate quality assurance teams to check the product and simply justify its quality.

4. Prime Benefits of Hiring Dedicated PHP Developers

With more than 80% of the market share, PHP development and PHP developers are pretty much in demand. Further below I would like to discuss a few benefits of hiring a PHP developer for your upcoming web development project.

1. Get High Return on Investment (ROI)

We all know that there is a huge competition out there irrespective of the field of business. Due to this, business owners are willing to make some wise investments in the technology space. After all, everything is about getting good results and benefits. PHP development not just empowers businesses to create dynamic websites but at a reasonable cost. In addition, you get informative content and more relevant results for the visitors. This helps in generating higher ROI for versatile businesses.

2. Better Turnaround Time

One of the core reasons to hire a PHP development service provider is a good turnaround time for the project delivery. They accord you the highest quality development in the shortest period. Thanks to the plentiful resources that are possible with companies that administer these services. If you have any critical projects to be performed, they will live up to your expectations and meet the demands.

Companies should not be vague about communication being hindered because of various time zones. Offshore web developers are highly professional and very stringent about client satisfaction. They regularly keep their clients in the loop, share necessary updates, and keep them informed of the proceedings in the backdrop.

It may not surprise you to know that you feel sitting adjacent to the group’s room in a separate cabin to talk about projects – this is plausible due to their sincere communication and service ethics.

3. Highly Skilled Programmers

Most PHP development companies tend to follow their own procedures for recruiting their coders and developers. Therefore, the programmers who would be handling your projects would be highly qualified and experienced. This will vastly improve the quality of your work, infusing your project with ingenious ideas and fresh perspectives.

4. Business-Oriented Strategy

Make sure to choose a PHP development company that adheres to a business-oriented path when it comes to working. They must be capable of managing the job while keeping you in the loop with each stage completion so that you can have tabs on your project.

When you hire a dedicated PHP developer, please be at rest that a whole assemblage of programmers and designers are assigned to your project. Additionally, the job technically doesn’t get delayed even if a person calls in sick. There always is an entire group to back up if one of the developers isn’t available.

5. Professionalism

Last but not the least, PHP developers adhere to the timeline strictly and they work to achieve timely submission of the project. This further increases the technical assistance and offers the power to come out even stronger by overcoming all the challenges. The results that finally come out are exceptional.

So that’s all for now! Keep watching the space to know more.

5. Conclusion

As seen in this blog, when an organization has to hire dedicated PHP developers for the project, there are a lot of things to consider and a lot of questions to ask. There is a specific process that any firm would follow to hire the best PHP developers who have prerequisite knowledge of a framework and experience in a certain domain. And by looking at the points described in this blog, if you are someone who wants to hire a PHP developer, it can help you a lot to get the right fit for your firm.