Creating a tech startup is always challenging, and the choice of the right product development team means a lot. They are people that will be directly responsible for your product’s technical realization, the user experience it will provide, and its market success. Thus, before the development process starts, you should make sure that you have all the necessary specialists in your software development team structure, and they are easy to manage and control. In this article, we will dwell on the specifics of creating a product with the help of the dedicated development team and explain the software development team roles that are essential for successful project creation.
Dedicated Development Team vs Other Outsourcing Models
Outsourcing your project development, you always have three options to choose from depending on the needs of your project. Below are the main types of software development outsourcing contracts that may suit different projects depending on their requirements, budget, and scaling strategies.
- Fixed-price
This type of contract is quite suitable when the scope of the work to be done is easily predictable, and coming up with an accurate cost estimate is quite real. As a rule, such projects are created according to the Waterfall development methodology.
- Time and material
Time and material contracts are often chosen by the project with low-level predictability. For example, this type of contract is perfectly suitable for legacy system modernization since there can be a lot of technical pitfalls and surprises your team will have to deal with. Thus, this type of contract allows for paying for the work actually done.
- Dedicated development team
A dedicated development team is the best choice for large-scale projects that will be developed according to Agile methodology. This contract allows for staying flexible with your tea management and introducing quick changes if the development course changes as well.
What Are the Advantages of a Dedicated Team?
Thus, dedicated development teams are better to be hired in the following cases:
- Complex project. This type of team will be especially effective for working on a complex project the requirements for which may be changed due to the dynamic market and other external factors.
- Long-term collaboration. Dedicated development teams are often hired with a long-term collaboration in mind (1 year at least) since the project is complex and it will be going to grow.
- The need for control. As a part of this outsourcing contract, controlling your product development team will be easy, even despite its remoteness. The best development vendors have already established communication practices that allow you to stay in touch with your team within business hours, even if there is a significant time zone difference.
- Future business expansion. If your business is growing rapidly, it is convenient to have a dedicated team to support product development, implement new features, and continue to improve the user experience.
The Agile development team may also offer a lot of benefits to the business which employ its help for the software creation. For instance:
- Even despite the fact that dedicated development is the most expensive type of contract, it is still a cost-effective solution compared to hiring local teams in the US and Europe.
- Agile development teams are flexible, easily managed, and controlled. There are a lot of technical solutions allowing for competent project management and staying in touch with the product owner.
- Software development team structure may be adjusted according to your project specifics. For example, SDD Group may create a remote development team that will perfectly fit your project’s necessities without artificial inflation of the budget.
However, there are still some challenges you should be aware of while choosing the dedicated development team vendor.
According to the Building Effective Virtual Teams research, “without effective communication effective teamwork becomes difficult. While some aspects of this problem can be dealt with by technological means, others are more fundamentally rooted in the ways in which people work and are managed. Identity, for example, plays a critical role in communication, where knowing the identity of those with whom you communicate is central to creating a shared understanding.”
Thus, making sure that you are on the same page with your product development team is essential for seamless project creation.
Software Development Team Structure
As a rule, the software development team structure consists of the following specialists. However, each dedicated team may always be adjusted according to the current needs of the project.
- Project Manager. This is the specialist who works as a connecting chain between the Product Owner (the customer) and the development team.
- Business Analyst. Having a Business Analyst (BA) as a part of your development team structure is essential since this is the person who is responsible for business analysis, market, target users and competitors research, value proposition development, and coming up with technical requirements for software creation.
- Team Lead. This is the leadership role. Team Lead is responsible for keeping all the team on the right track and ensuring everyone is on the same page with each other and the customer.
- Tech Lead. This specialist is responsible for the technical realization of the product, the efficient work of the developers, and the quality of the final result.
- Designer. The job of this specialist is to create a layout and future user interfaces with current design trends and perfect usability in mind.
- Marketer. This is the person responsible for the product’s future promotion and post-launch marketing.
- The front-end developer works on the technical creation of the user interface.
- The back-end developer is responsible for creating an “inside” part of your app.
- Full-Stack Developer is the specialist who is able to align the front and backend part of the future application.
- QA Lead is the specialist responsible for quality assurance of your software, bug fixing, and maintenance.
What Is the Best Way to Choose a Development Team?
Thus, a dedicated product development team may bring a lot of value to the business, and here how to choose it right.
- Don’t limit your choice by your location only
The intent to hire your development team within your city, state our country may be quite understandable – it seems that physically close teams are easier to control. However, with the right organization of the process, offshore teams are quite easy to control and manage as well. What’s more, they already have the established communication and management practices that will allow for staying in touch with your remote team according to the schedule you may discuss with them.
- Consider their experience
It is better to hire an Agile development team with experience in your niche. Thus, they may spend less time on business analysis and suggest the solutions they have already used in the past.
- Read and compare reviews
If you outsource your project development nearshore or offshore, you will have a lot of development vendors to choose from. Consider those who are well-versed in your niche, plus real the reviews from the previous customers on Clutch.co. B2B reviews are rarely faked so you may believe the online opinions.
- Ask for the first consultation
Next, ask your potential software development partner for the first consultation to discuss your project. At this stage, pay attention to their response time, attentiveness to detail, and readiness to comply with your requirements and budget.
- Ask to showcase the portfolio and sign NDA
Signing NDA even before the first consultation is a well-established practice that speaks in favor of the development vendor who will provide you with a dedicated team. Also, ask them to showcase the portfolio and tell more about similar projects they have already created.
Some Famous Companies That Use Dedicated Development Services
Hiring a dedicated development team for the first time may be challenging but there are a lot of successful companies that use this service on an ongoing basis. Below are some of the well-known projects that consider dedicated and distributed teams to be effective for their companies’ growth.
- Zapier
- Doist
- Automattic
- Slack
Conclusion
Thus, creating your project with the help of a dedicated development team may be quite effective. However, pay attention to the reliability of the development vendor you are going to hire and the development team structure they suggest for your project. Your team should be flexible, adjustable, and perfectly fitting your project specifics and requirements.
FAQ
- What is the extended IT dedicated team model?
According to this model, you may extend your in-house development team with remote specialists whose help will be needed at a certain stage of project development, for example, for the quality assurance process only.
- What is the software development team structure?
As a rule, the software development team consists of a Project Manager, Product Owner, Business Analyst, Team and Teach Leads, software developers, designers, marketers, and Quality Assurance specialists.
- What are the benefits of a remote development team?
The main benefits of a remote development team refer to the opportunity to choose then team members from a global talent pool, their cost-effectiveness, and flexibility.
