How to Build a Software Development Team That Will Lead Your Business to Success?
In 2015, the United States had about 4.2 million software engineers.?The market?continues to grow at a rate of 4%, and from 2018 to 2028, the employment of software developers is expected to grow by 21%.
Therefore, if your business is looking to build a software development team, you're not alone. To perfectly build a team of software developers, you'll need to balance team culture with team performance. You'll need to know exactly what you're looking for and fight to hire the right number of experts with the perfect mix of skills.
In this comprehensive guide, you'll learn everything you need to know about building effective teams for software development. Enjoy your finished product in no time!
Prioritize Your Needs
Before you can start hiring software developers, you need to have a solid vision of what you want to accomplish and how. The size of your team and the skills that your developers need will depend on your budget, timeline, and project complexity.
It's good to have a dream list first and then prioritize. You might want to have a moderately sized team of very experienced, specialized experts that can finish your project in a few months while staying affordable, but it's very unlikely that you'll get this dream team. Usually, you'll have to sacrifice at least one item on your wish list to achieve something more important.
Hiring an in-house team can be quite an expense, so you'll need to set a budget. You'll have to keep in mind that the average salary for a software developer is around $72,560. This salary varies depending on the location of your business and the skills you require.?
The?demand for software developers?is increasing as well. It's becoming difficult to find available developers that you can hire exclusively for your project. It's even more difficult to find developers with specific skill sets.
Keep this in mind when you're assessing the complexity of your project as well. If your project is going to require highly specialized professionals, it's likely your timeline will suffer due to extensive time spent in the hiring process.
If you want to get your project done quickly and affordably, you might sacrifice having specialized professionals and instead go for a larger team. Overall, your vision and reality will continue to change throughout the process. It's important to be flexible and keep your priorities in order.
Software Developer Skillsets
Before you can choose the size of your team, you'll first need to know what skills your project requires. For example, skills like Javascript or C++ are fairly basic and easy to find. Newer and more in-demand skill sets like knowing Rust and Dart might prove to make your search harder.
One of the most?in-demand positions?right now is a "full-stack" developer. In other words, companies are prioritizing hiring developers who can work in both front-end and back-end languages and frameworks. While you might want to achieve a smaller team by having fewer people do more work, this is a recipe for burnout and problems.
Be deliberate about the mix of skillsets you have on your team. There are three "types" of software developers you can hire:
If you hire a generalist, you're hiring someone that has great foundational knowledge of software development and can apply their knowledge across the board. They might not have experience with specific areas, but they're?quick to learn, and they're versatile. It can be really helpful to have generalists because their skills overlap with others on the team, so they can pick up the slack for another team member if things have slowed down.
With more complex projects, it's common to need a specialist. Specialists have invested extensive time and effort into one specific area of software development, like?programming languages. They're great at handling complex tasks that generalists can't, but they might also entirely depend on generalists or different specialists to handle everything else.
Hybrid teams are the most popular because it balances workflow with troubleshooting complex issues. The generalists can keep the project stuck with the timeline while specialists focus on handling their specific tasks.
The T-Shaped Developer
While you're hiring, you'll need to make sure you're attracting the correct candidates. You can get a mix of generalists and specialists, but a great way to get the best of both words in candidates is to focus on those who?exhibit generalist qualities?while still having specialties.
This doesn't mean that you need someone who can do everything. It means that the specialists you hire should still be able to work as team players. They should be empathetic, and proactive and contribute more than their specialized tasks.
Ideally, you'll want well-rounded individuals like that for your whole team.
Great software developer team members will:
Overall, make sure you're hiring developers who are ready to push limits but will accept responsibility for errors. This culture will create a healthy work environment with a free flow of ideas and high productivity.
Choose Your Team Size
Before you start your project, you'll need to know how many people to hire. This number should be flexible, as the size and quality of your talent pool can change your circumstances. In general, though, you should decide if a smaller or larger team is best.
Small Teams
Smaller teams, which consist of about three to nine people, are much more tight-knit. It's easier to get everyone on the same page, as collaborating and communicating with only a few people is much more attainable than larger numbers.
However, the nature of smaller teams is that each person holds a lot more responsibility. You might notice that the team is less?able to be flexible, and there's less opportunity to help each other pick up the slack. Because there's not as much overlap in skills, each person is essentially on their own to finish their tasks.
You might save money with hiring, but your timeline could suffer, and otherwise, smaller issues can become huge problems.
Large Teams
If you choose to go with a larger team consisting of ten people or more, your team will have more manpower and probably a more diverse skillset. You'll be able to benefit from a rich pool of experience and talents that can overlap easily. Larger complex projects will require a large team to both keep the project moving and handle issues that pop up.
Unfortunately, a larger team can become expensive. In addition, it's more difficult to effectively manage a large number of people. These people, whether working in the same location or remotely, will have a hard time building up a good culture and collaborating.
If you need to?manage a large team, you will need to make sure you have guidelines and processes that are formalized and communicated. A formal timeline is also necessary and important to stick to so that all members are on the same page.
Hybrid Teams
A great solution to budget issues and tight deadlines is to build a set team of generalists who get most of the project moving and finished on their own. When special skills are needed, you can hire freelancers, part-time professionals, or contractors to step in. This will help you keep the costs down by avoiding the expenses of onboarding and maintaining a full-time employee.
Delegation is Key
Once you've hired and onboarded your whole team, it's time to set them on the path to success. Regardless of the size of your team, you must delegate roles to each member. Ideally, you'd assign these roles according to past experience and positive attributes that your employees exhibit.
There are seven key roles in software development. If you have less than 7 members, then a few members will have to take on multiple roles.
Some of these roles are leadership roles, while others work in the field.
Leadership Roles
The product owner, which might even be you, is in charge of the end goal and product vision. From beginning to end, this person must stress how the product will be used by consumers. This helps the team keep usability in mind while they work on each task.
The business analyst is in charge of translating the client's desire for the product into terms that the team can understand. This person might also be the product owner, as their responsibilities are to understand client requirements and tell the team what features must be developed.
A project manager is in charge of the timeline of the project and provides the team will all administrative and technical support. Essentially, they are responsible for all planning and must track the progress of the project. Once the project is done, they must deliver it with confidence that the goals have been met.
The technical architect is the expert who creates the entire system's design and workflow. They are in charge of drawing up a blueprint and checking the partnerships of the different modules. In addition, they are responsible for choosing the technology stack that will be used for all requirements of the software.
Your Troops
Software engineers or developers, the people you've hired, are in charge of writing code to match the design. They must know programming languages, APIs, and databases to create the product based on the vision.
An important addition to this team is the?UI/UX Designer, who will be checking the product against requirements for the usability of the software. They are responsible for making sure the end product will have easy navigation and the best design for users. The end goal should be to have a product that is both intuitive and beautiful.
A quality assurance engineer will test the end product throughout the process to make sure it works well. They are responsible for raising any flags about functionality and performance issues.
The leaders and troops need each other to create a well-polished product for clients. Any discord among the members could result in missing deadlines and development errors.
Lead Your New Team to Success
Now that you've hired and organized all your employees for your project, you might think you can sit back and relax. Running a successful software development team, however, means keeping a critical eye on structure, timeline, and resources.
As your team is working on the project, you'll need to maintain good morale and facilitate an innovative and collaborative environment. To do this, you'll need to prioritize a few simple things:
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Really effective software development teams demand your trust and confidence. You've gone out of your way to run a demanding hiring process, so you know you've hired the right people. Micromanaging them can stifle productivity and hurt the work environment.
You are a referee who needs to keep things on track. If the project falls behind, figure out why and make some changes. If a team member is getting carried away or leading things in a different direction, facilitate a discussion that allows for hearing concerns.
Monitoring the team from a distance also allows you to see the bigger picture. You'll be able to recognize when a team member doesn't fit in, or there's an issue of communication. Only then can you step in and make changes.
After all, your team isn't a team unless they're working well together. Remember to emphasize the need for flexibility and communication. Remind them that they have a common goal and they each have an important role in the project.
Finally, to make sure your team stays motivated, celebrate every victory. Highlight the great accomplishments of both individuals and the whole team. This will keep members informed on what tasks have been completed and raise morale.
Build Your Software Development Team
Now that you understand what traits and experiences are important to find in a candidate, you can hire a stellar software development team right away. Once you have that team, you'll have the skills necessary to manage them so you can all celebrate success for your business.
Since you're in the market for some software development help, check out Nizek. We offer professionals and services that meet all of your development needs.?Hire us?today!