How to Hire a Xamarin Developer: The Basic Keys to Success

Do you want to hire a Xamarin developer that can help you build and release a hybrid mobile application?

The process of hiring Xamarin engineers is just like hiring any other talent. You want to be sure that the people you choose are the right fit for your project. And that means assessing each provider’s technical proficiency, communication skills, relevant past experience, and ability to deliver on what they promise.

Most important of all? You want to avoid the cost and emotional expense of making the wrong hiring decision. In doing so, it will help your business or organization save money and achieve your specific goals sooner.

What Is Xamarin?

Xamarin is an open-source developer tool used to build cross-platform mobile applications on Android, iOS, and Windows operating systems. It is an abstraction layer, one that allows software developers to build native User Interface (UI) elements for Android, iOS, and Windows separately and then build the core logic of the application in C# to be shared across multiple platforms.

Xamarin is built on top of the .NET framework, a proprietary software development framework developed by Microsoft. The .NET framework can handle many backend processes automatically, such as garbage collection, memory allocation, and interoperability with different underlying platforms.

The .NET framework also has a library of shared code called the Framework Class Library (FCL). Developers can use pieces of code from the FCL to quickly put new functions into their applications without writing code from scratch. This can help speed up the development cycle by reducing time spent on manual coding.

What Does a Xamarin Developer Do?

A Xamarin developer is responsible for the design, development, and testing of hybrid mobile applications for Android, iOS, and Windows operating systems. Prior to the advent of Xamarin, businesses, and organizations had to hire separate Swift, Java, and C# developers in order to build and deploy hybrid mobile applications on multiple platforms.

With Xamarin, though, businesses and organizations can choose to hire only Xamarin developers. Then, those developers need only write one backend source code to run their hybrid mobile application on multiple platforms. Plus, they can still use Xamarin to create beautiful and functional UI elements, as well as take full advantage of the unique capabilities of each platform.

Generally speaking, Xamarin developers come in two types. These include:

Feature Developers

Feature developers are responsible for programming the functionality of an application. They determine what each feature does, how each feature works, and why each feature belongs in the application. They also make sure that each feature helps the end user achieve their specific goals.

UI/UX Developers

UI/UX developers are responsible for designing and building the user interface of the application. They give each UI element a cohesive visual design, decide where those UI elements will go, and make sure the UI is easy to navigate. Most important of all, they use visual language to help the user do what they need or want to do in the app.

Why Should You Hire Xamarin Developers?

There are many reasons why it is a good idea to hire dedicated Xamarin developers for your project. Xamarin developers can build custom mobile apps that work across multiple platforms on one source code. This approach can help businesses and organizations save time, save money, and get to market quickly.

In addition, Xamarin teams developing mobile applications should be able to achieve native performance, so there is no need to sacrifice native capabilities in exchange for deploying them on multiple platforms.

One Source Code for All Platforms

One of the main innovative solutions of Xamarin is that developers can build and maintain just one source code. This is because the shared application code is based on C# and X-AML. And according to Microsoft, up to 90% of that code is shareable across Android, iOS, and Windows operating systems. As a result, Xamarin developers avoid the hassle of deploying one source code for each platform, which can help businesses and organizations reduce the development lifecycle and get their products to market sooner.

Native & Third-Party Support

Although shared source code is the engine that powers Xamarin applications, native performance is still achievable. This is because Xamarin supports Objective-C, Java, C, and C++ interoperability. As a result, Xamarin developers can access the existing Android, iOS, and Windows libraries written in those programming languages. They can also incorporate third-party libraries into Xamarin, further increasing the functionalities of each platform.

Custom UI Elements

With the ability to create native UIs, hire Xamarin developers that can create unique user experiences for different mobile platforms. This is achieved by accessing Android View for Android or the iOS designer or UIKit APIs on iOS. These platforms provide the basic building blocks, and much more, for creating beautiful and functional UI components on Android and iOS. And for creating Windows UI components, Xamarin supports interoperability with Visual Studio.

What to Look for in a Xamarin Developer

There are many qualities to look for in a Xamarin developer. Some of these qualities are easy to identify and review, such as one’s knowledge of C# and their experience with code reusability. But other qualities are harder to judge and quantify, such as one’s problem-solving skills and ability to work as part of a team.

For this reason, it is important that you assess a Xamarin developer’s hard skills (measurable technical skills) and soft skills (interpersonal abilities). In doing so, you will have a deeper understanding of a candidate’s ability to follow your vision and complete your project in line with your unique requirements.

Here are the most important qualities to look for in a Xamarin development team:

Knowledge of C# and ASP.NET

Since much of the shared code in Xamarin runs on C#, knowledge of this programming language is essential. They should also be familiar with the intricacies of the language, such as lambda expressions, parallel programming, generics, and LINQ (Language-Integrated Query). The latter is a set of technologies that tap into the integration capabilities of C#, so an understanding of this feature is essential to achieve native performance on hybrid applications.

As for ASP.NET, this is an open-source web development framework that Xamarin operates on. It is a developer platform that features libraries, programming languages, and tools for building all kinds of applications, including hybrid ones. And since Xamarin is now directly integrated into the .NET developer platform, any Xamarin developer should be familiar with it.

Experience With APIs and Third-Party Libraries

Xamarin offers extensive support for APIs and third-party libraries. When assessing Xamarin developers, learn about their experience with native and third-party integration, specifically Android and iOS UI toolkits. Hire Xamarin app developers that can harness the unique capabilities of each platform and incorporate new features into a hybrid application through third-party integration.

Ability to Reuse Code Across Multiple Platforms

Code reusability is a strong foundation of the Xamarin development process. It enables developers to reuse large portions of code across multiple platforms with minimal sacrifice on native performance. Furthermore, it helps streamline the Xamarin development cycle, reducing or even eliminating the need to write code from scratch unless it is absolutely necessary.

For these reasons, hiring a Xamarin developer with expertise in code reusability is essential. They should know how to reuse code while maintaining code reliability, security, and functionality effectively. And most important of all, they should know when it is advisable to not reuse code, for example, if such a move could pose a risk to data security by exposing potential vulnerabilities in the source code.

Knowledge of MVC and MVVM

Any Xamarin developer will have experience in developing hybrid mobile apps, as that is what the programming language is for. What separates an experienced Xamarin developer from a beginner, though, is their understanding of more advanced concepts, such as MVC (Model-View-Controller) and MVVM (Mode-View-ViewModel) design patterns.

The MVC framework is an architectural pattern that splits up applications into separate Model, View, and Controller frameworks. This helps separate the business logic from the presentation layer of the function and is common practice for UI cross-platform development.

The MVVM framework, on the other hand, helps achieve the same goal of separating the business logic and presentation layer from one another but with greater separation between the View and Model components, allowing developers to make UI changes without the risk of disrupting the business logic.

By hiring skilled Xamarin developers with knowledge of these concepts, you will get the assurance that your hybrid mobile application will look and function beautifully while preserving the core logic functionalities.

Choosing the Right Xamarin Developer

Hiring Xamarin developers is easy when you know what qualities to look for in a candidate. Take the time to learn about their technical expertise, communication skills, and ability to meet your unique mobile app development project requirements.

If you plan on outsourcing mobile app development to a dedicated team, they should have a team leader who will take the time to meet you, outline their processes, and demonstrate how their past experience is relevant to your project needs. This way, you will have all the information you need to make an informed decision and agree to hire them for your project.

Learn more about Orient Software’s Xamarin mobile application development services and see what we can do for you today. Here, we have all the services you need. You can augment your IT staff or have us build your own offshore development center in line with your specific needs and requirements. What you need to do is to tell us about your project, and we’ll take care of the rest. Whether it is a custom mobile app or enterprise software, our team has the expertise to make it happen. Contact us today for more information.