Why Software Development is a Team Sport
For many businesses that don’t offer software development services or aren’t familiar with building software, the complexities of the process are not always obvious. However, all of the work and challenges you’ll experience with creating quality custom software solutions from scratch means you’ll need a special kind of team to meet your technology goals.
When starting from scratch, there are numerous details to consider throughout the software development life cycle. You’ll need to rely on the skills and knowledge of a group of people to be able to stick to your timeline. A skilled set of individuals that collaborate well together is key to an outstanding overall experience.
Of course, you’ll need developers with the technical expertise needed to set up the right environments and write the code. But you’ll also need someone to test that code, work with the business to uncover specific needs, and translate those needs to the developers. A winning team will provide a wide array of services and has a special software development team structure.
In addition, you’ll need to involve the right company stakeholders to help ensure the applications that your team builds are in alignment with the company’s vision.
WHAT IS A DEVELOPMENT TEAM?
Development teams consist of the individuals that will take your applications from an idea to a reality. Their overall size depends on the project timeline and complexity, as well as the specialists needed for this one project or for many projects.
The software development team roles may include anyone that will provide services – not only your developers, solutions engineers, and technical architects. You should also expect to include a project manager, business analyst, a UX designer, quality assurance, a team lead or scrum master, industry experts, and more.
DO YOU NEED A SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TEAM?
Building the best software development team structure is often a complex process. So, before you jump in, take some time to consider if it’s right for you.
Do your research. First, know what you want to achieve with your end product. Will your users primarily be on a laptop or a mobile device? What existing software products will your solution need to access? Do you have an existing cloud ecosystem for your company? Having clear goals in mind will help your team or services provider to advise you on software development team roles and responsibilities, as well as help speed up the process once things get started.
Next, take a close look at the market. Are there any off-the-shelf applications that will work for what you need? Maybe you can find a partner with existing applications that have those capabilities and join together to get what you need. However, if what you need is unique to your company, you won’t find it already in existence and will want to build the exact application that you need.
In this case, consult an expert. If you’re new to building custom software, a company that specializes in it should be able to let you know pretty quickly what your best options will be and the experience that you can expect. Look for a partner able to provide a full suite of custom software development services.
What kinds of teammates do you want on your software development team?
Typically, you’ll need a team structure that includes team members with the capabilities to provide the following software development services:
1. Project Management
This is obviously one important skill for a member of a project team. It’s necessary to have a project manager or a scrum master to keep track of what’s happening on a project every step of the software development lifecycle. This role will make sure the project stays on track and alerts teams to potential pitfalls. Project managers organize and track all areas from daily developer tasks to overall agile or scrum practices of each team member. Project managers are the first line of defense when managing your budget and timeline.
2. Client Management
In custom development, stakeholders should be very involved in the process to help ensure the excellence of the end product. Typically, a client will designate a product owner for the company. The product owner will be the point person for the development team as well as teams from marketing, sales, and customer service. The project manager and the client product owner will work together to manage the client’s expectations and experience, provide transparency during the course of the project, and be responsible for solid and open communication with stakeholder groups. This leader will be the first person to read and review the artifacts created for the project and will need to be empowered to approve features.
3. Technical Leadership
Teams need leadership and in technology, the leader could be an architect, a scrum master, or a development team lead. Typically, the one responsible will be either the person with the most technical expertise or the person with the technical vision for the product. They will be responsible for the architecture of the base solution, the cloud, mobile and desktop applications and the overall software development process and code quality. They ensure the code is clean and transition any maintenance as appropriate to the client’s in-house teams. They help oversee software development team roles and responsibilities and drive development services and solutions that will meet business needs and allow that company to grow and evolve. They also provide support to the other technical members of the development team.
4. Business Analysis
You want to include a business analyst team member with experience writing requirements in your industry or one similar to yours. Depending on the size and length of your project, you may have multiple people in this role. These team members will work directly with the subject matter expert from your company and the UX designers to build requirements and prototypes to help the technical members of the software development team read and see exactly what to build. These valuable team members will need to “get” your vision and be able to convey it to each developer. They also assist project managers with the pace of the project.
5. Programming Expertise
Once the stakeholders and analysts have worked together to define what’s needed, the programmers can start to bring it to life. Depending on the size of the project, you might have front end developers, back end developers, and database developers each with a defined role. In a smaller project, you may opt for a couple of full stack developers who can share the responsibilities. They read requirements and then create the code that delivers the needed functionality and provides the desired experience. The approach they take depends on the method your team is using to complete the project work. At the center of your software development team structure live these programmers with solid skills in data, cloud, mobile, and logic responsible for your build.
6. Solutions Testing
As the product is built, someone needs to check it for completeness. The quality assurance team is responsible for testing the product and is looking to make sure that it works, meets the client expectations, matches designer prototypes, and helps meet the company’s overall goals. In most projects, they will get to demonstrate and lead a group of client stakeholders that will use the end product in testing (called User Acceptance Testing). They’re testing the same things, but on a less granular level than each person on the product team is testing them.
7. Business Acumen
This is an advantageous but often overlooked skill to include in your team structure. While you will work closely with experts at the business, a team lead experienced in providing excellent software development services will include a business lead with knowledge of the company’s industry. This enhances communication, helps save time, allows for careful testing, and improves your chances of building outstanding software that matches the company’s vision and solves their biggest problems.
8. User Experience & Design Insight
To help create the best solutions, you’ll also want someone on your team with user experience, user interface, and design experience. This person, typically a UX designer, will help design your applications with the end user will like in mind. They make sure that your applications meet design requirements, look attractive, match your brand, are easy to use, and offer users a positive experience. From the first meeting as you look for a partner to assist with your project, focus on how they demonstrate these front end or user interface skills. If your users hate your software, your return on investment will suffer.
What is a development team in Agile?
A team that provides Agile software development services won’t be too different from the roles and responsibilities described above. Agile is a methodology that teams use to approach the work required for a custom development project. This methodology consists of 12 guiding principles that drive the team. Similarly, scrum is a flavor of agile that is often used in practice by strong teams.
An Agile solutions build will often include individuals with the same skill sets outlined above. How the teams use that expertise can differ depending on the practices the team follows and the experience of the manager. Ultimately, agile projects focus on being more flexible with increased communication and team members with a mobile mindset able to shift quickly to respond to changes throughout the project. The titles they have can also vary. However, each development services team is set on accomplishing the same goals – Agile is a specific way to achieve them.
How Do You Build a Good Software Development Team?
Once you’re ready to build your own solutions, you’ll need to assemble the right team to create software that fits your organization. How do you form an effective software development team to build the software you need? You want to examine the technology needed, the industry, and your timeline and budget.
Cover all roles and skills
You want to make sure you have a team with the right expertise – for instance, if you’re building a cloud-based platform, a product team including specialists in designing and building cloud products is ideal.
Mobile applications behave differently, so if your users will need your software on-the-go, you want at least one developer and designer that knows how to get the most out of mobile and deploy the product to the app stores.
The size of your team depends on your company’s budget and timeline. More people on your project team could allow you to deliver faster, but only if they are in the right roles.
For instance, adding another developer or three sounds like a way to speed up your project, but too many software developers will outpace your business analyst, frustrate your project manager, and end up sitting around with nothing to do.
An experienced software services provider will take your timeline under consideration when building your development team. A smaller team working for a month or two longer can often be great for a small budget.
Communicate goals and KPIs
For a project to be successful, both you and your software partner must have a thorough understanding of your goals and your business processes. You also want to be aware of the industry to create realistic and worthwhile goals. By doing so, you can more accurately determine who you need on your team, what functionalities are most important for your business, and what a realistic timeline may be.
If you’re building a cloud-based solution for insurance, it’s great to bring someone on board that provides technology services and has expertise in how insurance companies work, their biggest challenges, and the hottest industry technologies. Mobile applications can provide a wealth of advantages, but if your insurance brokers will only work on your application in the office, it might not be a necessary expense.
You want a custom partner who understands your goals, will tell you the truth, and will lead you through every detail from initial scope to budget management.
Make information available
Keep communication channels open, whether through scheduled meetings, instant messaging, project management software, or a different method. Keeping everyone in the loop on your custom software development project will ensure progress is steady and avoidable issues are taken care of before they ever arise.
3 WAYS TO BUILD SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TEAMS
You might think that a software development team is only for trendy tech companies out of Silicon Valley, but that’s not the case. There are many ways for companies of all sizes to bring a quality custom software development team on board.
In-House
The first option is perhaps the most obvious – you could hire your own full-time team and keep your technology builds in house. This is a great option if you have a larger business with steady software work needs that vary. If this is the route you’ll take, it’s essential that you plan ahead of time what you can afford and what specific types of people you’re looking for.
Supplement
Finding a software services partner who can supplement your current team is the correct option for your business if your needs fluctuate throughout the year or if you need a specific expertise for a short period of time. Often, companies keep some roles full time and supplement for others when they are needed. This lets you tap into extra resources being flexible and mobile throughout the year and handle things in-house when you have capacity and the expertise. The right partner can easily blend with your team members.
Outsource
If your company has no interest in learning how to develop software, but wants to reap the rewards, outsourcing is for you. Find a partner experienced in providing custom software services. This partner can provide a whole team of specialists and guide you through every aspect of the process, which is crucial to staying on-time and on-budget if you’ve never developed custom software before.
Need help figuring out the right choice for you? Contact us for a free chat!
Agile software development: Team Roles and Responsibilities
An agile software development team typically consists of a similar team structure and similar roles and responsibilities, regardless of the project.
Developers
As you would expect, every successful agile software development team must have one or more developers. How many and what kind of developers will depend on the project your team is working on. One of the main decisions you’ll need to make is whether you need a backend, front end, or full stack developer. A traditional team may have a mixture of all three.
Backend developers
Backend developers specialize in the parts of a software system that users can’t see. They develop the engine behind the user interface using programming languages like Python, Java, and C++. You’ll need to recruit backend developers to take care of your databases and servers, and they’re often the teammates you’ll turn to when you want to make your application faster, more stable, and more secure.
Frontend developers
A frontend developer focuses on the parts of software that users can see and interact with. They are in charge of making the user interface aesthetically pleasing and easy to use. These developers typically work with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to adjust the colors, font, images, buttons, links, etc. on an application.
Full Stack Developers
Full stack developers are simply a combination of backend and frontend developers. They have the skills to create an application from start to finish, without having to hand off any of the work to a teammate. As a result, they have a thorough understanding of how a software system works and can be invaluable when making decisions that affects how the application works and how users will interact with it.
Subject Matter Expert
To build a software system that not only works as designed but also meets the needs of its intended users, you’ll need a subject matter expert. Often, the subject matter expert in a custom software project is the client themselves. Since a client knows their business processes best, a consulting software company will meet with them to determine how they can design the application to best suit the client’s needs and goals.
You may also have subject matter experts on your team that specialize in a specific industry or technology stack. Perhaps one of your teammates is extremely versed in insurance; they would likely be consulted as a subject matter expert for an application built for an insurance client. You may also have a teammate that has experience building apps for IOS; they will be recruited or consulted for projects where the client wants to be able to release it on the Apple App Store.
Business Analyst
Business analysts facilitate the design and planning of a software project. They are responsible for understanding the client’s business processes and translating that knowledge into specifications for an application. They will discuss features with the client, create mockups and requirements for the software, and communicate the plan to developers.
Quality Assurance Analyst
A quality assurance analyst is responsible for testing software. During development, a quality assurance analyst will test every feature built by developers to ensure they work as they were designed to. These team members are also tasked with identifying, reporting, testing, and tracking any bugs that may be in the system.
Team Lead
Just like with any project, team leads are necessary to keep your software development project on time and within budget. This role is responsible for communicating expectations, timelines, and other goals with everyone on the team. The team lead will assign tasks, ensure workflows are running smoothly, and adjust plans as needed to keep the project on track. The team lead will often be the one to keep the product owner in the loop as well.
Architect
Any high-level design and development choices are left to the software architect. A software architect has a deep and thorough technical knowledge that allows them to choose the most effective technology stack for a project. They know what tools and programming languages would be best for any given project, will enforce technical standards for a quality build, and will organize the data to ensure ease-of-use, high performance, and longevity.
UI/UX Designer
UI/UX designers are experts in what users need and want out of their software. They will use their skills and experience to ensure a software system is simple and easy to use for the target user demographic. Not only do they understand what users expect out of a software application, but they also are typically versed in what is feasible and worthwhile for a development team when it comes to user interface features.
You’ve Got a Great Software Development Team – Now What?
Regardless of your method, even if you pull together the best possible custom software team, there’s one way you can be sure that team will fail – if you don’t define success.
We’ve talked about the importance of a shared language to enhance communication among every project team member. One of those things you want to discuss is what your win looks like.
DEFINING SUCCESS ON YOUR SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TEAM
It’s great to have an overall idea of what success means to your solutions team. At Geneca, we define our success by the success of our clients. That means on every project, we always keep in mind our client’s main goals and how each feature can impact those. We provide outstanding software development services partnering with you to ensure your project will be delivered on time, on budget, and on expectation.
As you prepare for your project, be sure to provide your team with more than just the big picture. Think carefully about each of the software services that your team will need to provide and be able to articulate standards and deadlines.
CLEAR EXPECTATIONS LEAD TO BIG WINS!
Be explicit about the steps teams can take that contribute to the project’s success. For instance, if the biggest win means delivering a new product on time, what can your team do to help make sure that happens? Perhaps they are encouraged to ask questions as soon as they arise, use forecasting tools, drive quick decision making with the business stakeholders, and speak up if they feel something might cause problems before launch.
Whether your custom software development team is in-house or outsourced, once everyone is on the same page about expectations, you can move forward with your project and get the product you need and want. The key to forming a successful software development team lies in the people – once you align them, you can sit back and start bringing your innovations to life.
FAQ
What is the role of a software development team?
A software development team is responsible for the entire software development process: planning, designing, building, testing, and launching the software product. When it comes to custom software development specifically, the software development team works hand-in-hand with their client, answering their questions, explaining decisions, proposing improvements, defining the scope, and more.
How many people are on a software team?
The number of people, along with the overall team structure, on a software team depends on the specifications of a project. To determine your software development team size, be sure to answer questions such as:
- How large is the project?
- What is the project timeline?
- Do you need a subject matter expert?
- What is the project budget?
How do you structure a software development team?
To create an effective software development team structure, you should:
- Define the scope and goals of the project
- Determine the size of the team based on the scope and goals
- Specify roles and responsibilities for each member of the team
- Schedule regular meetings and use project management tools to keep everyone on track
To organize a successful software development team structure, you’ll need to prioritize open communication, the ability to commit, and a strong but flexible project plan.