The critical success factors to be a truly outstanding software engineer

Are you interested in pursuing “something in computer science” as a career ?

Knowing the basics is essential to any developer, top-notch or otherwise.
Here are the critical factors to be a quality developer.

• Constantly update your IT IQ :
  how much natural ability you have , hardly matters unless you constantly updateyour IT IQ,You will never realize your potential unless you update yourself. Choosing skills updates is the most important. Just to get a well-rounded IT education is not sufficient ,Join a user group to be in touch with the top of emerging technologies.You should be up to speed with all the latest theories on software development.
• Develop a strong grasp of OOP principles :
  The best programmers break problems down step-by-step. This approach is conducive to individual code reuse and sharing vital resources with peers. The same problem should never be solved twice.
  Develop a strong grasp of OOP principles, such as inheritance. Inheritance, which allows subclasses to utilize already defined classes, is a cornerstone of software reuse.
• Understand the business objectives :
  No solution is effective unless it meets business objectives. Budgets, resources, and schedules play an integral role in the development of the solution. Use the mantra “Cheaper, faster, better”—in the real world.
• Be a Mentor :
  A mentor motivates, directs, commends, and chastises the programmer throughout his career. You should have mentors within your organization, it’s often more important to have mentors outside of your current company.
• Try to criticize your own work :
  Sounds little weird ! The idea that you must divest yourself of your ego is absolutely preposterous. Ego is not a problem, egotism is. It’s always easier to accept criticism from others when you are your own worst critic; you will find that other’s criticisms are less severe than your own. If you are able to criticize your own work, you will find others more receptive to helping you find ways to improve.
• Flexibility :
  You might not get to code things the way you would like, you have to be flexible in your mindset.
• Practice,Experience & deep look makes perfect :
  Reading about the latest technologies and then applying them is the the best way.
  work experience always helps, you can take the different approaches to even the smallest development projects.When presented with problem areas within projects, the experience gained with solving these problems is very valuable, but looking deeper into the root cause will help a developer.
• Communication :
  A developer having good communication skills can interact with his team as well as his end user in a more effective way.
• Understand the Team-mates :
  Its very necessary to extract the potential out of an employee, it helps to pick out enthusiasts among the team who wait for their chances to come. It helps the under productive team member to realize his stuff and do well. It’s easy for a leader to fire his non performing staff but if leader takes the pain in realizing or understanding what’s wrong with a person, then he can work out wonders with that person.

These points focus on what it means to be a professional.
Study these points and understand the importance of each factor in one’s professional development , am sure that will help you.

Reference :
>> Adopt these 11 critical success factors to be a top-notch developer