Top 10 Key Roles in a Software Development Team

Software development teams are responsible for creating unique solutions for the clients and the team consists of more roles than just developers and a CTO. They have various skilled and professional experts who can help in making the IT project successful with their critical thinking. This is why it is very important for any business owner to choose software development services that have the right set of team members who are experts in each and every field. Or to choose a company with a team structure that is helpful in making a perfect team for different projects.

To know more about it and understand all the roles & responsibilities of a software development project team, let’s go through this blog.

1. Software Development Team Roles and Responsibilities

Some of the top roles and responsibilities of software development teams are –

1.1 Business Analysts

Business Analysts have the responsibility to translate the client’s business needs into requirements. They enable business owners to formulate business goals by conducting market research. They help them in specifying the business requirements during the foundation stage of the software development project and sometimes even before the team is assembled.

Professional and experienced business analysts are never shocked by the work’s reality. They have a strong imagination that helps them find out different ways to reach their destination. This quality of a business analyst makes him stand out from other roles like creativity, changes, and various ideas. Besides, a good business analyst must have a data-oriented mindset.

Product owners hire business analysts when they don’t have time to specify all the requirements. They will create documents and compare them with the existing protocols and policies to meet the business requirements. Business analysts are also responsible for gathering the entire software development team to create the best strategy as per the stakeholders’ needs.

1.2 Product Owner

A Product Owner is someone who possesses great knowledge about the software project and end-users. He understands the customer’s requirements and perspective. And strives to achieve the requirements and vision in a final system. A Product Owner has to be diligent, analytical, creative, and flexible as all of his decisions have to be as on business analysis and the latest market trends. 

Product Owners do everything in their capacity to help the software development team fulfill all the business requirements. They work in the Agile methodology which helps them handle any type of unstable environment. Some software companies have more than one Product Owner on their team. It also happens that a Chief Marketing Officer of the development team turns into a Product Owner if he holds the proper knowledge & capability.

Generally, a Product Owner’s main focus is to deliver the best final product. This means that somehow the key to project success lies in the Product Owner’s hands. And this is why he must be able to understand the business goals and requirements perfectly.

1.3 Project Manager

The Project Manager is a person who is entirely responsible for knowing the “why, when, who, where, and what” of the project. Basically, he is the one who knows everything about the key stakeholders of the project and effectively communicates with them. He is also responsible for making and handling the budget of the project. The Project Manager also schedules and processes management stuffs like project risk management, scope management, and issues management.

A Project Manager is responsible for developing a plan for the software project, recruiting staff for the project, managing deliverables, determining the software project’s methodology, assigning tasks to other team members, and more.

Besides, it doesn’t matter to the Project Manager if the team is using Agile or any other methodology, after the deliverables are specified, it is important for him to start exercising change management. This is because change is inevitable. And the impact of any kind of change in requirements will have to be communicated, assessed, and measured.

Basically, a Project Manager will have to oversee everything from software testing to delivery to acceptance by the business client.

1.4 Software Architect

A software architect is responsible for defining all the types of necessary aspects like the internal structure of software and its technical approaches. An architect specifies the tech stack required for the project and reviews the code to make sure that its quality is as per the needs. Besides, he is someone who will offer technical support in all the different stages of the development lifecycle. Therefore, they have to have the technical knowledge and strong leadership skills to motivate all the other software engineers.

1.5 Team Lead

The most confusing two roles are Tech Lead and Team Lead, but they have different responsibilities. The team lead has to handle the overall performance of the software development team and make sure that the team members are motivated and organized. Basically, a team lead is responsible for ensuring that the team works well together. He also tracks the project delivery. They are sometimes also known as engineer managers who are responsible for learning all about their team members.

The tech lead also has to oversee hardware and technical requirements. And because of all these responsibilities, the team leader needs to have strong communication and leadership skills.

1.6 Scrum Master

A scrum master is a person responsible for ensuring that a successful software development team follows the right frameworks and agile methodologies. Agile methodologies mean a project management mindset that enables focusing on value creation and collaboration. Scrum is known as a framework within agile methodologies. Besides, scrum enables the developers to fasten the development and carry out the work in small parts known as sprints.

So, basically, it’s the scrum master’s responsibility to look after the ways a framework is followed by the team members. In addition to this, a scrum master is also responsible for interactions between the team regarding tools & processes, client collaboration for the contract negotiation process, and responding to changes in the software development plans. 

1.7 Software Developers

A software developer is an expert who has the capability to identify, design, install, and test the solution that is built by them for any client. They also create in-house programs that can help the company to become more efficient in creating software solutions that can be sold in the market. After a software developer delivers a product, he also helps in updating and maintaining it. The developer also ensures that all the security issues of the software are fixed. 

In addition to this, the developer has to create the deliverables and communicate the software’s status to the Project Managers or Technical Leads. It is also important that other members of the team effectively communicate to the developers about the technology that can help in reducing the security risks and improving the chances of the project’s success.

Basically, the main aim of a software developer is to create a software application that enables people to do various tasks on a mobile or computer. 

1.8 UX/UI Designer

UX/UI designers are two different personalities with two different roles, but their work in project design is intertwined. And this is why people consider them together. A UI designer is someone who has to handle the designing part of the user interface, which includes everything that a software user sees and interacts with. A UX designer is in charge of developing an experience for the user which includes everything from the app’s interface to its performance.

Generally, UX designers are the ones who supervise the UI designers. They also work in a way that the client’s requirements are fulfilled. 

1.9 Testers

The Software Testers are known as the most important people in the software product development team. They ensure that the software solution meets the business requirements or not. They also ensure that the software project is free of defects, bugs, and errors.

Testers review the test planning and contribute to test plans. They also analyze, assess, and review the design specifications and technical requirements of the software solution. Besides this, the testers identify the test conditions and create test designs, test data, and procedure specifications to help the tests to be automated.

Software testers have to set up the test environments and help the network management team in testing. They also have a responsibility to execute and log the test cases and document the issues.

1.10 QA Engineers

Quality assurance engineers are generally not seen as an important part of the team but their role is very important. They are responsible for looking at the processes that are used to develop the software. This ensures that the software is efficient enough to offer results of high quality. Therefore, QA engineers have to do more than just point out bugs. They have to have a complete understanding of all the development processes and suggest improvements that can help in the betterment of the final products. 

The importance of QA testers increases with each passing year and this is because the requirement for higher quality products keeps on growing. The aim behind this is to offer robust solutions that can handle increasing technical threats and reduce the vulnerabilities of the software solution.  

2. What is the Optimal Size of the Team?

When it comes to having a perfect and successful software development team, the best thing to do is to have a high-performing team with around 6 to 7 people. Having an optimal size of team members can reduce project risk. These team members must be able to communicate with each other perfectly with minimal overhead coordination. They also must be able to solve all the types of challenges that come their way during the development process.

3. Conclusion

There are different roles with specific responsibilities when it comes to being a good software development team member. It contains specialists like software developers, designers, testers, quality engineers, and more. All these experts have their own specific skills like specialization in programming languages or frameworks, designing tools, and testing methods like performance testing, security testing, & more. A team of all these experts has the same goal to create a perfect solution for the client by fulfilling all the user’s requirements under a pre-decided budget.