Learn what Zvonimir Burić, Technical Lead & Magento Developer, has to say about the future of Magento 1 and 2, ecommerce trends, and Magento development principles and workflows in our one-to-one session.
Zvonimir, thanks for taking out some time for this interview, let’s start with a traditional question.
Cloudways: Please introduce yourself and share your career highlights with the readers.
Zvonimir: Hello Fayyaz.
First of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to participate in this interview.
I started working with Magento at Inchoo back in 2012, while I was finishing my bachelor’s degree in computer science. That was actually my first contact with Magento. After about a month of learning, I joined the development team on a real project. I spent about a year there. In 2013, I moved to Germany to work for another Magento agency. Working for an agency was not really my thing, and I always wanted to work directly for an e-commerce company. That’s why, I joined the Bettzeit GmbH – one of the fastest growing tech companies in Germany. Since 2014, I have been working there as a team leader of the development team.
Cloudways: How has Magento changed your professional life?
Zvonimir: Back in 2012, I was not sure if I was going to continue studying and start my master. Then, I came across Magento and realized that Magento development would be the perfect job for me. So, I didn’t start my master studies but instead began working full-time with Magento.
It was not a mistake.
Cloudways: What separates great Magento developers from the good ones?
Zvonimir: A great Magento developer cares about your shop. He does not hesitate to propose a change if he thinks that something can be made better. He is a good team player, and he doesn’t allow ego to get in the way of working in the team.
A good Magento developer does only what is asked of him while a great one thinks of the customers and works to improve the store further.
Cloudways: What is the most significant challenge developers continue to face during the Magento 2 development? Are there any dependencies that need to be solved yet?
Zvonimir: I think that front end is really complicated. Technologies like Knockout.js and Require.js are available but still new to Magento 2, and it can be hard to learn them.
For the backend, you have to get used to dependency injection and CRUD models. But, I think there are no significant obstacles in learning them.
Cloudways: What are your thoughts on Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration? Do you think Magento Inc. should focus on making this process easier for store owners and developers?
Zvonimir: Migration makes sense for most of the cases, but I don’t think it’s necessary for all shops. It’s expensive and sometimes complicated. Also, for shops that do continuous integration, it’s hard to make a decision to migrate to Magento 2.
Now, thanks to Openmage, there is a Magento 1 Long Term Support (LTS) facility which will apply patches even after Magento Inc. stops supporting Magento 1. That’s why I think that Magento wouldn’t completely stop supporting Magento 1.
I think Magento Inc. did a great job in simplifying the Magento 1 to Magento 2 migration process.
Cloudways: Being a Technical Lead, how do you impact your team’s workflow? What steps do you take to increase the efficiency of the team?
Zvonimir: I am always trying to improve the overall development workflow planning, development, and testing. I am often very busy, but still find time to have meetings and discuss best practices of coding, reusing old code, and optimizing performance, etc.
I am improving the productivity of my team members by giving them the opportunity to use their talents in tasks that best suit them. We also have small “sprints” which helps us to concentrate on solving the problem and finishing the project/task faster.
Cloudways: When you are not developing, what do you like to do in your spare time? Are you currently involved in any sports activities? What are your hobbies and other interests?
Zvonimir: When I am not developing, I enjoy spending time with my son and my wife. In the evenings, after my son gets to bed, we usually watch a movie.
I also try to go to the gym twice a week. Sometimes, I am really busy or tired and instead go to sleep. 🙂
Cloudways: We all have some people who inspire us with their work or words. Name the people who have inspired you the most?
Zvonimir: It would be Ben Marks. I watched his course “Fundamentals of Magento Development,” and he really inspired me. Besides him, Alan Storm.
Cloudways: We have come to the end of the interview. Any advice you would like to share with aspirant developers, who want to start their careers in Magento?
Zvonimir: Magento is a perfect e-commerce platform that can help you understand modern principles of development and modular architecture. Nowadays, there are plenty of tutorials available, and it’s not so complicated to learn them. So, take a chance and start using this robust platform. Once you start working with Magento, you will have no time for other platforms.
Cloudways: We provide 1-Click Magento installation with impressive speed & great cloud infrastructures embedded within the platform. Would you prefer shared hosting for Magento stores or a cloud hosting environment like Cloudways offers?
Zvonimir: I would definitely prefer a cloud solution. There are a lot of reasons for that including security, high availability, ease of management and scalability. In fact, my current project is actually about moving an online store to the cloud.
Abdur Rahman
Abdur Rahman is the Magento whizz at Cloudways. He is growth ambitious, and aims to learn & share information about Ecommerce & Magento Development through practice and experimentation. He loves to travel and explore new ideas whenever he finds time. Get in touch with him at [email protected]
