What Makes Up a Software Dream Team?
One of the keys to success in any field is having a team that works well together. That’s why it’s important for software companies to assemble a dream team when developing new technologies. But what makes up this “dream team” and how can you find them?
It starts with understanding what skills and talents you need in your team. Here are some of the most important roles that make up a software dream team.
Experienced programmers and the importance of bug hunting.
A great product requires great programmers, which means your dream team needs to include your most experienced developers – or you’ll need to look for great programmers willing to collaborate on smaller projects.
Ideally, these two groups overlap, with the experienced developers being willing to share time and skills with the less experienced. You’ll also want to identify your top 1-3 hires, as they’ll be your best opportunity for constant improvement and cost savings.
The importance of constantly looking out for bugs in the code is a crucial skill for developers. Developers have to embrace this role, because if you don’t, it will inevitably lead to a drop in productivity, and delays in your product launch. Enable your developers to streamline their bug fixing phases with a platform like TestProject, so that team members can seamlessly collaborate during the bug lifecycle.
Your developers need to double as bug hunters because setting up a separate team exclusively for fixing bugs will be a waste of time. Your coders already know the project and are highly familiar with the code, so they are in the best position to find the most obscure bugs.
Quality Assurance Engineer
As a software developer, the quality assurance role can be a daunting one. Unfortunately, there are many ways in which a team can fall down when it comes to quality assurance, but proper communication and coordination between members of the team is the key to ensuring a smooth rollout of the product.
A QA engineer, or a QA lead, is going to be essential in ensuring that the software is maintained and that a large portion of the user base is in line with the product updates.
Although you will usually be looking for someone who is technical enough to know how to configure a test environment, you will also need someone with the patience to ensure that these environments are up to the necessary standards.
The UI and UX Experts
UI and UX are different but similar things. UI is the user interface, while UX is the user experience. A good UI specialist will enable a developer to see the finished product through and through, as well as design it as a whole. A good UX specialist will ensure that the software meets the expected expectations of users, as well as suggests a way forward for improvement.
As well as adding their own unique skills, UI and UX specialists should also possess a lot of common sense, and an ability to simplify complex designs and concepts into a pleasant front-end design, which is rather antithetical to programmers.
Business Analyst
A business analyst on your development team is going to be a crucial role, simply because you need someone who is able to translate development projects into real value. Furthermore, a BA is going to prevent the dreaded plague of scope creep that affects some software teams, as well as coordinating and controlling the development lifecycle.
Business analysts will also work alongside developers, providing input and observations which are able to make the difference between a successful implementation and failure. Business analysts often are former software developers who understand the way in which software is created, and will have knowledge of both the issues and possible solutions of a given project.
This enables them to help a developer come up with a solution that makes a project, or part of a project, a success, and a BA will be able to spot potential problems from a mile away.
