The team structure for software, website, and application development is often questioned by many of our clients. Starting from how many team members are needed and the role of each member. To ensure that you have all the roles for covering every function and role in developing your product. You will be invited to explore the key factors in preparing the budget allocation and structure of a software development team, knowing the cost you must be spent, and getting to know the roles of each team member.
Let’s take a dive into the article.
Key Factors Before Structuring Software Development Team With Best Practices
We found several factors that must be considered before you take action to structure a software development team to reduce project costs without sacrificing the quality of the products developed. Let’s discuss them one by one. In the end, we will give you a key point that you must note.
- Know the scope of the project
- Set estimation budget
- Resource Allocation
- Duration of Project
1. Scope of the project
The first step you should take is to know the scope and scale of your project. This will help you determine the size of the team you will need. For example, if you are going to prototype a product, then a team of four people is sufficient to complete the project.
On the other hand, if you plan to launch a new application equipped with many features and third-party integration, your team scale will increase. To have a better idea of the scope of the project and the structure of the software development team, here are some ideas that you can refer to:
| Parameters | React Native | Swift |
|---|---|---|
| Developed by | Apple | |
| Initial Release | 2015 | 2014 |
| Performance | Has a fast response time so that it can improve user experience. | Has good performance if developing applications that have requirements that require a lot of animation and good graphics. |
| Suitability | SMEs and startup application | For complex needs and emphasizes graphics. |
| App development | Faster | Slower |
| Usage | Mostly used | Less Used |
| Development Cost | Relatively low | High |
| Used by | Facebook, Instagram, Skype, Wix, Walmart, Tesla, Tencent, etc | Eventbrite, LinkedIn, Airbnb, etc |
2. Tips Preparation Project budgeting
Still don’t know how to set up project budgeting? We provide tips for you according to best practices from experts.
- Create two or more lists of plans if there is an unexpected event when the project is kick-off. There will always be unexpected costs, delays, and other issues that will impact your budget.
- Ask your stakeholder or someone who has experience in the project before, or you can ask us, what should you prepare for the project and get guidance from an expert.
- Know the associated cost of your project, It can be included maintenance in the long term after the project is finished,
- Knowing of your member team such as their availability, overtime potential, and other overhead costs.
- After that, all prepared, don’t forget to estimate the cost until the project is done. It can greatly impact your budget if you did this.
3. Resource Allocation in The Project
If you have a project on a small scale, do you still need resource allocation? An example can be taken in making a website. Basically, to create a modern and elegant website, you need a frontend, backend, and designer. Is this also known as an allocation? Such a division can be said to be an assignment in your project. Large or small scale still requires a clear division according to the resources you have.
But what happens if you have a lot of resources? It is better if someone manages the project, at least a project coordinator who manages your resources so that they are not placed in the wrong function. If you still don’t have your own project coordinator we can provide one for you.
Then if you need a project coordinator, how do I enter this resource allocation? You can include the number of developers, and designers first or the total number of people for your development. After that, you rely on the project coordinator to share it effectively. However, if you are interested, you can also recruit our project coordinator to do the distribution in advance according to the budget you have.
4. Time to Complete The Project
Still confused about setting the finish time for your project? We have a solution. If you feel you have to finish it in the near future, you can think again by hiring more people that you need if the project is complex in the process.
Actually, it all depends on the features that must be implemented, the level of difficulty, and the expertise possessed by the developer. These three factors can affect the process and processing time.
Re-check the requirements or specifications that are necessary. Avoid adding too many features when your product has not been launched at all. You can add features in the next version when your product has been launched or goes live.
Pre-Structuring Development team: Getting to know the roles of members
As mentioned above, team members in software development usually consist of a business analyst, a product owner, a project manager, a product designer, a software architect, software developers, software testing engineers, test automation engineers, and a DevOps engineer. This time we will briefly study the roles of each team member, namely:
- Business Analyst
- Product Owner
- Project Manager
- UX/UI Designer
- Software Architect
- Software Developer
- Software Testing Engineer
- Test Automation Engineer
- DevOps Engineer
1. Business Analyst
A business analyst translates abstract product ideas into a series of real products by exploring customer workflows. For example, what customers need and want, as well as analyzing stakeholder feedback to formulate the ideas they want to finally align the customer’s vision with the product produced by the development team.
2. Product Owner
A product owner will bear the responsibility for the product’s success because the product owner is the decision maker. Their main task is to balance business needs and market trends. From there, they must determine the market strategy that must be taken, define the vision of the product they are working on, and ensure the product can meet customer needs.
3. Project Manager
The project manager distributes tasks to all development team members, plans work activities, and determines project status. In Agile projects, the project manager motivates team members, encourages communication, and improves software development.
4. UX/UI Designer
In designing a software product, there are two aspects: UX or User Experience and UI or User interface. For UX to play a role in thinking about how users interact with the product being developed, UX must do user research, persona development, information architecture design, prototyping, and more. Meanwhile, a UI must design an intuitive interface, easy-to-use software, and of course, please the user’s eye when using the product.
5. Software Architect
You will need a software architect to develop complex or massively updated outdated software. A software architect decides which services and databases should work together, how interactions should work, and ensures the product is secure and stable.
6. Software Developer
Software developer certainly plays an important role in the software development team. They do the actual work and code the application. There are two types of software developers: front-end developers who create parts of the application that interact with users and back-end developers who implement the application’s core, namely algorithms and business logic.
7. Software Testing Engineer
As the name suggests, software testing engineers certainly play a role in testing the software being developed. But does the application meet the requirements? Both functional and non-functional.
8. Test Automation Engineer
Like a software testing engineer, a test automation engineer also performs testing. The difference is test automation engineers develop small programs that can provide feedback regarding the quality of an application developed without human involvement.
9. DevOps Engineer
DevOps Engineers are in charge of automating the software delivery process and helping to balance rapid changes to applications and keep them stable.
Key Takeaway
From the article above, you can conclude that in determining who should be involved in the development team, you can pay attention to four factors: know your scope of the project, set estimation budget, Resource Allocation, and duration of the Project.
Furthermore, there are many roles in development. There are 9 roles including Business Analyst, Product Owner, Project Manager, UX/UI Designer, Software Architect, Software Developer, Software Testing Engineer, Test Automation Engineer, and DevOps Engineer. But you can take one or more based on your need in the project. As a startup developer in Indonesia, we can provide you with all resources with good talent and the best expertise. Schedule meet with us so we can prepare all the best for providing the best services.
