A typical software development team structure includes the following: A business analyst, A product owner, A project manager, A product designer, A software architect, Software developers, Software testing engineers, Test automation engineers, A DevOps engineer.

The success of a software project highly depends on the quality of the professionals and how a multidisciplinary team is configured. To obtain good results, these two aspects should be present. Software projects only move forward when the key team members are in the right place. No one is more important than the others; everyone matters regarding software development projects. Mistakes can happen when roles are poorly selected, and the responsibilities need to be more precise and correctly defined. It is essential to build the perfect team to get excellent results.

PRODUCT MANAGER: A Product Manager is the person who supervises the development process and its market entry. Their responsibilities are vast: devising / implementing strategies and product KPI planning/monitoring. As a rule, product managers aim to reach the company’s targets and objectives via its product. PM specialists pay special attention to competitors and study the market thoroughly. Product managers also generate ideas, manage pricing policy, plus control and plan tasks. PMs closely cooperate with developers, the product owner, marketing specialists, sales representatives, and stakeholders. Since PMs collaborate with everyone, they are also in charge of holding meetings and meeting facilitation. Extra typical duties include accepting and rejecting ideas, facilitating technical implementation, documentation and maintenance, etc.

 

ENGINEERING MANAGER: Software development team roles and responsibilities also presuppose engineering managers. As managers, they work with every team member face to face. Thus these specialists have an understanding of the team’s performance dynamics. Engineering managers also establish trustworthy working conditions, so all team members feel free to pitch their ideas and share feedback. They also optimize the software development team structure when new developers join the team, plus participate in their coaching. A solid technical background is necessary since these team players choose the best engineering solutions for product realization. They also analyze potential challenges and avert them with the help of tech instruments.  

 

SOFTWARE ARCHITECT: The software architect is responsible for defining a project’s complete architecture system. They make high-level design choices based on non-functional requirements and dictate coding standards with tools and platforms. They are also responsible for reviewing the code and guaranteeing the design’s quality.

Main Responsibility:

• Define the technical and functional architecture of the overall system.
• Guide developers in the design and implementation of the solution.
• Develop the most critical components of the system.
• Make suggestions about the best alternatives, considering engineering and business aspects.

 

SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS: The developers are responsible for writing the code and developing the software products. Apart from coding, they are responsible for regularly updating the Project Manager. They work closely with other team members, such as designers, the QA team, and testers. There are three kinds of developers:

 

FULL-STACK DEVELOPERS: They are programmers not specialized in any particular area of software architecture. Thanks to a broad range of knowledge and skills, they can implement a solution on every architectural layer of the system.

 

FRONT-END DEVELOPERS: They act as a bridge between the end client (user) and the delivered business solution. They focus mainly on the view layer of the software product (i.e., the interface), and they are responsible for the communication within the business logic layers.

 

BACK-END DEVELOPERS: This programmer writes code for the business logic and data layers.

Main Responsibility:

• Develop the features laid out in the Sprint.
• Update the status of the software project to the Project Manager or Tech Lead.
• Estimate the amount of time needed to deliver a given task.

 

PRODUCT DESIGNERS: User experience (UX) and user interface (UI) are closely united but are still different notions. What these directions have in common is that they both require creativity and technical skills. UX designers ensure that the browsing experience and features are accessible for users, analyzing the target audience’s behavior. They also take care of all interface elements so that it’s natively clear where to click to sign in, set the filters, etc. A UX designer’s task is to guide the user through the product and make this journey convenient. UI designers deal with the layout and visual design, where fonts, colors, forms, sounds, and animations are instrumental. Although these are two team roles in software development, the UX/UI designer is generally one specialist.

 

TESTERS: Testers are responsible for ensuring that the software solution meets the business requirements and identifying possible bugs, defects, or weaknesses of the implementations, confirming the quality or usability of a program, and guaranteeing that the product complies with the quality standards. It involves implementing the proper testing protocols and collecting the data from various tests.

Main Responsibility:

• Understand the system’s requirements to create and review good test cases.
• Alert functional consultants about inconsistencies in the specifications.
• Create and execute test cases to detect bugs and report them in the tracking tool.
• Use automation tools to facilitate regression tasks.

 

 TEAM LEAD: This role is usually taken by experienced senior developers, architects or lead testers, with leadership qualities to help the team focus on the tasks, deliver work on time and meet the project goals. They take the role of a coach or mentor and have to ensure that the development team has all the resources it needs to complete the project and quickly address any challenges and issues that might arise.

Main Responsibility:

• Guide the team development towards successful project delivery.
• Provide technical leadership to team members through coaching and mentorship.
• Prevent and solve any conflict or issue that may arise.

Software development is a team effort, but it can feel incredibly tiresome if the collaboration is not organic. Several stakeholders working together – developers, project managers, DevOps managers, and product designers – must have a shared purpose to convert ideas into digital products. Great development teams have some explicitly identifiable characteristics that we are about to discuss. This article will share the essential traits that most successful units feature. We suggest you keep these in mind when making your team.

Strong Communication: Good communication is a characteristic that all great teams share. Such groups can keep all the team members informed with minimal effort. When developers in the team understand their roles, tasks and the reason behind them, they are more dedicated to the assignment. Effective communication is also essential to create a safe environment for people to share their ideas and concerns without hesitation. Unsurprisingly, employees prefer a workplace where team members share issues and ideas truthfully and effectively.

So, how do you ensure effective communication within your team? The answer is simple. It is a combined product of the process, communication tools, and good leadership.

Here are some critical questions to answer to understand what works and what doesn’t in your team:

• Are the team leaders setting a good example by showing developers and other team members how to communicate well?
• Are developers told what needs to be done and why?
• Is the leadership taking the necessary steps to develop effective communication channels?

 

 Flexibility: Sometimes your development team will need to quickly switch contexts or even the scope of a project and then pick up from where they left off. A great team will always be able to adapt and respond to potential issues when they occur. They will anticipate the need for a spike to clarify more minor issues and avoid speculation, thus saving time and having the iteration slack absorb the cost of the experiment.

 

Common Goals: Clear, achievable goals are critical for team success. Great tech teams ensure everyone knows the action plan and what they are working towards. Because when that happens, those involved are more likely to feel motivated and engaged.

The worst structure a team can have is a heavy top-down flow, i.e. only the managers are aware of the goals while the rest of the team isn’t. It is proven that great teams have a shared mission, and each individual has a sense of responsibility. Overcoming challenges become much more manageable when everyone is invested in the team’s success.

One way to create a sense of shared responsibility is by allowing each team member to set a plan of action towards the common goal. Do ensure everyone understands the accountability towards what they are trying to achieve.

 

Team Oriented: The most crucial factor for a successful product development team is a collaboration among the team members. Each team member must understand and trust each other. This does not only bring in positive culture but also responsibility and accountability. As each member does their work, they must imagine that the other teammates would do their job. For example, if there is a complex project, each member must collaborate in doing their part of the work and combine and integrate each sub-part/process in creating a great quality product delivered on time and the first time right. To make a great product, each member’s contribution and collaboration are most important, and the highlight of a great product is how each member works closely with each other.

 

Can Work Alone: Independence allows teams to make decisions more quickly and remain focused without intervention. Every team lead or manager should take a hard look at their company culture to identify any factor that hinders the formation of self-contained teams.

Also, companies with strict top-down control seldom have great teams, as they do not allow teams to experiment or develop an internal culture to work together and face challenges. Top-down control also creates internal obstacles that cause a struggle to achieve goals. One should always work towards creating a sense of independence where people might work as self-contained units yet have a shared role structure where individuals possess the skills to build products without depending on external resources.

 

Crystal Clear Responsibilities: Each product development team member must understand their individual and group roles and obligation. The roles and responsibilities are often communicated when the new person joins the team by the group’s leaders. Roles and accountability must be a written document that must be clear and understood by each team member. The characters and responsibilities of the team must be outlined in the statement of work (SOW) and timeline charts before commencing any product development work. This must be understood and agreed upon by the client as well. Roles and responsibilities must be as transparent as possible to avoid misunderstandings and frustration later during development.