How To Build A Software Development Team: A Complete Guide

According to Statista, the global developer population is expected to reach 28.7 million people by 2024, an increase of 4.8 million from the number seen in 2019. While this abundance of developers presents opportunities, knowing how to build a software development team remains a complex challenge. It’s not merely about recruiting top talent; rather, it requires a keen focus on selecting the right individuals, fostering synergy among team members, and managing the team efficiently.

Here are a few updated tactics for how to build a software development team successfully:

1. Software Development Team Goals

1.1. Fulfill the work requirements 

Establishing clear software specifications is essential, but flexibility for sudden requests is equally crucial in 2024, as the ever-changing tech landscape presents new challenges. Here’s how you can achieve this when learning how to build a software development team:

• Communal Understanding: Early stages involve collaborative workshops with stakeholders and team members to align on essential software requirements, ensuring everyone shares a unified vision.
• Change Management Procedures: Every change request should be treated as a business proposal, incorporated seamlessly into the project direction, with stakeholders conducting user acceptance tests for final approval.

1.2. Be on-time

For those wondering how to build a software development team that can meet deadlines, you can support this by implementing several strategies, especially crucial for long-term projects:

• Automation: Leverage CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) pipelines to automate repetitive tasks, expediting progress and ensuring smooth functionality integration.
• Progress Tracking: Utilize burn-down charts and team velocity metrics to maintain focus and facilitate resource planning, ensuring projects remain on track.

1.3. Deliver high-quality software

Prioritizing software quality from the project outset is essential, especially when considering how to build a software development team that delivers consistently high-quality results:

• Code Reviews: Implement automated code reviews to uphold quality standards and maintain simplicity in code organization.
• Continuous Testing: Ensure that testing occurs throughout the development cycle to identify and resolve bugs early, avoiding last-minute load issues.
• Agile Culture: Emphasize agile methodology in software engineering that enable rapid delivery of high-quality software by fostering regular communication and a deep understanding of business needs.

1.4. Enhance User Experience in Software Development

A key aspect of any successful software development project is improving the user experience in software development. This requires engaging UI/UX designers and developers from the outset to ensure that the final product meets user needs and is intuitive to navigate.

2. Software Development Team Structure

2.1. Team Size

Jeff Bezos’ “two-pizza rule” remains relevant: keep teams small enough that they can be fed with two pizzas. This promotes focus and efficiency. The optimal team size for IT projects, when considering how to build a software development team, is now typically 5-7 members, reflecting findings from various studies in recent years. Larger groups can hinder communication and collaboration, so consider dividing larger teams into multiple cross-functional teams led by team leaders.

How many members are there in your team? (Source: Quora.com)

2.2. Team Roles and Responsibilities

A high-performing development team requires a balanced mix of skills. Understanding how to build a software development team involves recognizing essential roles that contribute to overall efficiency:

• Product Owner: Represents stakeholders and defines the product vision.
• Project Manager: Oversees planning, execution, and delivery of the project, ensuring adherence to goals and quality.
• Tech Lead: Guides the technical direction and maintains code quality.
• Developers: Front-end, Back-end, or Full-stack developers work collaboratively to build the software.
• UI/UX Designers: Focus on delivering a compelling user experience.
• Business Analyst: Identifies client needs and suggests improvements.
• Quality Assurance: Ensures software quality through rigorous testing practices, emphasizing software quality assurance.

Common software development team positions diagram

3. Software Development Team Engagement

3.1. Encouraging Communication

A software team discussion in Savvycom

When exploring how to build a software development team, remember that effective communication is critical for productivity. Increase transparency and foster two-way interactions among team members to accelerate project timelines and enhance creativity using team collaboration tools.

3.2. Encourage Innovation

Encourage your developers to explore new technologies and methods. Allowing team members to experiment can lead to breakthroughs, as long as they can justify their proposed changes and align with overall project goals. Letting them fail and learn is part of the growth process and essential in understanding how to build a software development team that thrives.

4. Software Development Team Performance Evaluation

Proper evaluation methods are crucial to avoid pitfalls. Approximately 70% of top-performing teams utilize at least one performance metric, highlighting the importance of tracking performance when learning how to build a software development team:

4.1. Agile Performance Measures

The agile metrics include some of the fundamental metrics, such as lead time, which is the time it takes from the idea to the final product’s handoff. The other measure is cycle time, the time needed to complete one work unit. The imperative aspect that needs to be measured is the team’s velocity – the team’s average number of tasks in one sprint. Finally, the measure is the open/close rate, expressing the number of reported and solved issues within a specific timeframe.

4.2. Production Analysis

Evaluation is a necessary step for effective development team building

This measure is applied at the product’s production stage. Production analysis includes analyzing the Mean Time To Recover (MTTR), Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), and Application Crash Rate. The Mean Time Between Failures is the period of time between occurring errors or failures – the longer, the better. The software is working great if no errors pop up during a long time period. The Mean Time To Recover means the average time needed to “fix a problem”, measured the period of time since the problem comes up until the issue has been resolved. Lastly, Application Crash Rate is calculated by dividing the number of errors that occurred while using the software by the number of times the software used. This figure is the smaller, the better.

4.3. Which Metrics To Choose?

Select metrics that align with business goals. Through team discussions, determine which performance measures best suit your project as part of how to build a software development team that meets objectives.

4.4. Effective Use of Performance Measures

The metrics is a powerful tool only when combined with your team’s knowledge of the project. To effectively use all of the above performance measures, the team needs to stay flexible and focused on the main goal. In some cases, to reach the requirements in the measure, the quality was ignored.

5. Applying Agile Methodology and Developing a Scrum Team

With nearly 10 years of bringing the most advanced technology solutions into the business world, Savvycom can provide a professional working process, an awesome team structure. Every software designed by Savvycom is constituted of careful planning and collaboration of the project’s team members as of this framework. Why Scrum? Agile scrum software development is the most popular in IT companies, and Scrum is a framework commonly used alongside this approach. Scrum is characterized by well-planned sprints, which are continuously reviewed and adapted along the way.

Here is the example of a Savvycom team’ composition

Software development team diagram

6. Understanding Software Development Trends

In 2024, it’s vital to stay informed about software development trends to ensure your team employs the latest techniques and technologies, which can significantly enhance project outcomes and team productivity.

7. The Outsourcing Perspective

When pondering why do companies outsource software development, it’s essential to recognize that outsourcing can offer access to a broader talent pool, reduce labor costs, and allow companies to focus on core competencies while leveraging specialized expertise.

8. Effective Software Project Estimation

Accurate software project estimation plays a crucial role in project planning and resource allocation. By utilizing metrics and historical data, teams can make more informed estimations, reducing the likelihood of project delays and budget overruns.

Final Thoughts

Assembling an effective software development team is a multifaceted challenge that involves careful planning, skilled management, and ongoing adaptation to changes. It demands dedication, creativity, and continuous learning.

Now that you have insights on how to build a software development team, you are better prepared to create a high-performing development team that delivers results. The future of software engineering lies in adaption to innovation and creating cohesive teams capable of navigating complex project landscapes. Savvycom stands out as a leader in the IT outsourcing industry, having successfully completed hundreds of projects worldwide. Our commitment to quality, collaboration, and innovation makes us your trusted partner for navigating the evolving landscape of software development. Let’s build your dream team together!