Dedicated Team

How to Build an Agile Software Development Team

by
Ana Maleski
How to Build an Agile Software Development Team

Assembling an Agile software development team can be a success or a failure for a company. There are various parts to building an Agile team and how a company can identify what it needs for a project. Questions will start to appear as a client begins to recognize there are many components to Agile software development teams, from various structure types and responsibilities within that specific structure.

Product Team Structure

There are three approaches to organizing an Agile software development team:

• Generalist

• Specialist

• Hybrid

Generalist

Need a team with broad skillsets and expertise? A generalist team is the best pick and the most common team structure. These teams are responsible for end-to-end development of a whole project or an individual section on the product.

On a generalist team, each team member has an in-depth overview of the product. This enables all team members to improve the entirety of the project or improve specific product features. This requires the team members to be independent when the whole or part of the team is offline. At times, there may be an obstacle during the project and a specialist will be hired on to help the established generalist team.

Specialist

Projects involving a specific skillset from a developer, is a specialist team. These teams handle narrow tasks that involve a specific focus on the project. This is the second most common team structure for companies that outsource.

On a specialist team, each team member has a knowledge of the product’s specifics. This enables the specialist team to have a quicker turnaround on the project while producing high-quality results for the company. This team structure works independently, and may lack effective communication within the team, increasing opportunities for the product not to work properly before the release date.

Hybrid

What is better than trying to choose between a generalist and a specialist team—a hybrid team. This team is a generalist and a specialist team combined. A hybrid team works on the whole project and on specific tasks to stay focus when necessary.

A hybrid team is composed of specialists who can build separate parts a project requires, and the generalists can integrate those parts completing the whole project. This process can speed up the development of the project better than a specific team mentioned above. However, a hybrid team may be difficult to manage and coordinate developers together for maximum workflow efficiency. Building this type of team can be time-consuming and can exceed the company’s budget.

Standard Software Development Team Structure

Most outsourced software developers are generalists. The majority of enterprises do not need a full staff of in-house specialists and generalists at once, decreasing the company’s opportunities to invest the money elsewhere in the business. The company can fill these IT gaps when the need arises by outsourcing the project’s needs to outsourced teams.

The outsourced teams are structured in the following ways:

• Business Analyst (BA); responsible for creating goals, analyzing and documenting the core processes and systems, and warranting the business model and technology is in line.

• Project Manager (MA); responsible for planning and executing the project. A MA is the bridge to building relationships between the client and other organized departments. They manage the processes, delegate tasks among team members, and ensures all team members are focused on the project.

• UX Designer; designs the way users will interact with the product when it is done. Designers ensure all the features work seamlessly together to fulfill business goals and requirements. Their primary focus is on the product’s functionality and usability for the end user. They are usually the ones who determines the product’s look and how it will work for the end user.

• Developers (Front-end and Back-end) are coders. Front-end developers code the customer-facing parts of the product. The back-end developers ensure the functionality of the product is working properly for the end-user.

• Quality Assurance Engineer (QA); tests the product to ensure it works, meets quality standards and client requirements. A QA detects errors and bugs early in the project before the release date. This gives the other team members time to fix those bugs and errors for a better user experience.

What Makes an Agile Software Development Team Unique?

The Agile team needs to accomplish a few more tasks than the rest of the teams (Refer to the Agile Manifesto), such as:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

Tradiional Team vs Agile Team

The way team members cooperate is different between Agile and traditional teams. In an Agile team structure, there are three team members:

Product Owner (PO) is the key stakeholder of the project. The PO has the knowledge of the end user and product. They are usually responsible for the internal parts of development. They ensure the final product meets the client’s needs while they support and coordinate the work being done on the project. The PO ensures the team members are focused and all the product requirements are met.

Scrum Master is a process owner who coordinates the team’s work to the members. They keep Agile teams self-organize and adapt to changes following Agile development principles. They facilitate and manage everything in the team during the project.

Development team are in-house or outsourced developers working on the project. This is similar to a traditional team, but the Agile team is composed of front- and back-end developers, UX designers, and QA testers.

Every company has a different ambition and goal when it comes to their product development. Building an in-house team or outsourcing a team for an IT project requires high-quality developers who can be effective at all times. Here are some of the top traits an in-house or outsourced team will need to have:

• Communication is key in teamwork in every industry. To have a great team, ensure the team members have all the necessary tools and processes to complete the project and for effective communication.

• Common goals need to be addressed to every team member, no matter their role in the team. The goals will need to be clear and incorporate a shared mission between the team and the client. The success of the team lies in the success of each team member.

• Defined responsibilities for each team member are important for the success of the project. Each developer will need to know the expectations, roles, and areas of responsibility from the start of the project. This will help the team to hold accountability for each member as the project progresses.

• Strong culture develops professional relationships by supporting and respecting the team members during the project.

• Independency is a value that is becoming more popular in teams who have common goals and a shared mission on the project.

These key traits will assist the hiring committee to hire professional skilled developers for a successful team within a company, whether in-house or outsourced.

Need assistance in hiring a dedicated team? Contact the team at VUSE to assist in assembling a dedicated team today.

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