HN Explorer

Why don't back end engineers report to front end engineers?

6 points by mc4ndr3 ↗ HN
As a backend service engineer, I feel it is my contractual duty to assist the frontend developer, in order that their frontend needs are met in a reliable, efficient manner. That the data models and request structures are designed for the kinds of operations that the frontend needs for common user actions.

(Or substitute another backend developer for frontend developer, in the case of deep backend-to-backend services.)

It would seem logical, therefore, that most backend teams should treat the frontend developer as their customer client. Because the frontend dev will know best what is required to build and what is required not to build. Yet no software firm in my experience ever organizes the work this way. Why?

Is it frontend's stigma as a "less technical" role, an assumption which is patently false?

Is it the administrative incentive to insert ever more middlemen and middlewomen in between the core parties? Surely there are other places to stick people, perhaps above to over-manage the frontend team. But why the incredible disconnect between frontend and backend teams? Who often report to distant chains of command.

4 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 20.4 ms ] thread
gjvc
do sparks report to spreads?
nh23423fefe
why should a data dependency in a product be mirrored in organizational reporting? why is reporting better than collaborating?

saying frontend requirements drive backend work isn't always true. backend capabilities often drive frontend proposals.

webmaven
In a product focused organization, where the users the front end serves are the paying customers (or at least, the dominant stakeholders) this would be a stable arrangement. In small orgs where this is the case you tend to find combined teams.

In many orgs however, money (and other forms of power, such as regulatory constraints) doesn't flow from the end users, but from other stakeholders (advertisers, for example, or large enterprise purchasers).

Conway's Law[0] applies ("Organizations, who design systems, are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations."), and the organizations being copied often mimic cash flows (eg. classifying parts of the org as revenue vs cost centers).

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law

drallison
Why don't front end engineers report to back end engineers? It would seem logical since the backend teams are where all the magic happens and frontend teams are responsible for input and output.

Conway's Law (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_law) may explain why there are multiple teams, but it does not explain which team should be diving the design.