One of the most questionable aspects of building software is the perfect team size to maintain its effectiveness. When it comes to software development, quality is more important than quantity. On the other hand, building a mobile or web application requires the expertise of several specialties such as front-end and back-end development, UI/UX design, and testing. So, how do you decide on the optimal software development team size?
App Development Team Size: Things to Consider
Do not make a hasty decision and just hire all the developers recommended on a web page. The critical task here is to conduct proper research on the project-related aspects (project size, complexity, number of features to be added, etc.). Remember that every project is customized and unique, so you can’t solely rely on the information on the Internet. Let’s see what factors you should consider while building a perfect development team.
Determine Software Development Stages
Whether building a generally-used application or customized software for the company’s needs, you should consider the processes required to create a particular product. This research step may involve a project manager hired before having a clear vision of the development team structure matching your exclusive business goals. Typically, your PM will recommend 5-7 team members for teamwork to be integrated and well-organized.
Project’s Timeframe
You won’t have an ideal scrum team size since certain specialists’ roles might be transitory. Let’s say that the iOS developer is obligatory even after the project’s completion, meaning that his contribution is needed on the maintenance stage too. In contrast, QA engineers perform testing duties only for 2-3 weeks.
Budget Capacity
The recommended size of the Scrum team will not work for you if you run a project on a shoe-string budget. In this case, you need to focus your attention on saving money on the employment model rather than hiring fewer specialists than needed. These days, you have options for employing freelance, part-time, and contract to hire workers, but the most demanding and recognized model is outsourcing, which allows you to find talents across the world.
Define the Employment Model
The traditional in-house employment model has given way to a more efficient and beneficial one – outsourcing. In terms of building a team, this model is quite suitable as it allows you to scale up or down at any time. It means that if, for any reason, you no longer need a specialist, your outsourcing vendor will take care of that. Or if you require an extra team member for certain work to be done, you won’t face issues with that either.
Number of Features and Project’s Complexity
Depending on the peculiarities of your project, hiring developers only may not be enough. For instance, if you do not possess a proficient tech background, hiring a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) is a must. A person in this position will fulfill the technology-related matters, such as tech stack, innovative tools, and necessary changes. Moreover, the specialist takes care of team management, controls all team members’ cohesion, and establishes a friendly environment. Quite often, at some point in project development, companies require consultants (QA consultants, data experts, cloud consultants). Despite the fact the role of their expertise is temporary, they still count as a team member.
Types of Software Development Methodologies
Are Agile and Scrum not familiar terms? Let’s clarify the difference between these two and how to determine which model works best for your project.
Agile
Agile stands for a set of software development approaches characterized by disciplined workflow among team members. The team is run by a group leader who manages overall team involvement, collaboration, and task completion. One of the key distinctive features within this methodology is that project peculiarities can be frequently inspected and modified without undermining the overall project execution. This approach is beneficial for a project customer since a vendor (team’s manager) can quickly respond to development requests due to the short-cycle model.
According to the Project Management Institute research, approximately 30% of drawbacks occur during project execution due to poor communication between team members. With this in mind, the agile team size should not exceed more than 7 members. Developers working under this methodology usually possess good self-organization skills and can work independently. At the same time, the roles of team members can be merged if necessary.
Scrum
Being an Agile subset, Scrum represents a lightweight “waterfall-like” project framework that enables a development team to adapt to rapidly-changing requests smoothly. Due to this feature, a business can easily and quickly meet its goal and increase the quality of the end product. Scrum methodology heavily relies on daily meetings and sync-ups that help developers organize tasks, distribute duties, discuss changes, and resolve issues.
Unlike the Agile team, the best size for a Scrum team is 3-5 people since this methodology is mainly suitable for short-term projects that do not require large numbers of people involved.
Tips for Managing Big Teams and Small Teams
What’s the right number of people to hire not to undermine project development? How do you gain the team’s cohesion and make sure everyone is done correctly? Continue reading to get some useful insights into maintaining the overall productivity through team loyalty and dedication to create the desired product.
- Make sure you have a good mix of experts on your team.
- Clearly state your tech goals to gain the appropriate expertise.
- Do not sacrifice quality for quantity.
- Ask for a recommendation from your outsourcing vendor or project manager.
- Accurately define the budget and find your employment model.
Wrap Up
Web development team size doesn’t mean hiring a random number of employees; it results from proper research and analysis. Consider the budget, employment model, project complexity, timetable, and tech expertise to build an optimal, but more importantly, a customized number of experts for your dream project.
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