Recently I created a post entitled, Differentiating Between CSS Boilerplate, Template, and Frameworks that defines the differences between these technologies. However, I stopped short of making any product recommendations. A few of you have asked about the products I’ve tried and liked. So, I put some suggestions together in a recent article, 5 Truly Effective CSS Boilerplates and Frameworks. Mind you, there are scores of such products available on the market. This article represents the cream of the crop from my perspective based on those products I’ve actually tried and found to work well in my particular circumstances.
There are many criteria for choosing a development product and you probably have specific needs that you must address. For example, you might have specific packages that an solution must work with because these other packages form the basis of a mission critical applications. Only you know what these criteria are and it pays to write them down before you look for any third party product. However, there are some questions that you can ask yourself before you begin the search.
- Will the product actually save me time?
- Can I create a unique look using it?
- Is the product simple to use based on my experience level?
- Does the product come with good documentation?
- How much community support can I expect to obtain with this product?
- Does the vendor clearly state which packages this product will work with?
- Has anyone investigated, validated, and qualified the vendor’s claims?
These questions will definitely get you started in the right direction, no matter what your other needs might be. Learning to identify products that meet your specific needs is important because no one can perform that particular part of the software development process for you. Yes, you can hire a consultant to guide you in your efforts, but when all is said and done, you need to make certain decisions regarding the products you use, especially when it comes to intangibles such as appeal and usefulness in making a statement your organization can live with.
In addition to these questions, you need to also ask yourself organization-specific questions such as the need to have access to a Content Delivery Network (CDN). Some organizations prefer to host third party software on their own server (which requires a download), but other organizations prefer to use a CDN that makes it possible to access the product from a remote server. There are advantages and disadvantages to each approach.
What sorts of questions do you ask yourself when looking for a third party product to save development time? The kinds of questions you ask is important and I’d love to know more about the processes that take place in other organizations. Let me know your thoughts at John@JohnMuellerBooks.com.
