Tips on Ideal Software Development Team Structure in IT Company

It's not a secret. The success of your project considerably depends on the team that will work with you on it. And here I'm not talk...

It's not a secret. The success of your project considerably depends on the team that will work with you on it. And here I'm not talking about skill, experience, and abilities, although all of them also play a tremendous part. The organization's growth mainly depends on its core team performance and the project management techniques it has utilized.

Tips on Ideal Software Development Team Structure in IT Company

We can divide this into two principal parts:

● The size of your team.

● Roles and positions in your team.

I bet you now have thousands of questions in your mind! What is the optimal team size? How to assign roles correctly? Are there possible options for the structure of the IT software development company?

Keep calm and read on! I promise it will be crystal clear after you read our following guide and tips. 

Decide on the size of the team:

It may be misleading to think that the bigger your team, the more useful and productive they will be in the project development. Well, that's correct and incorrect at the same time.

Of course, it will take less time to make the product if you have 4 developers instead of 2. But at the same time, it is much more comfortable to maintain work amongst a team of 5-10 people, rather than 20-30.

According to the QSM investigation, little teams are usually more efficient than huge teams. Their main advantages are:

✔ They do not encounter organizational and workflow difficulties.

✔ Small teams are quite effective; they are simple to structure and restructure.

✔ They can work more individually.

✔ It is easier to establish communication and efforts with some people.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos uses the "Rule of Two Pizzas". The idea is easy; if you can't manage the whole group with two pizzas, the group is too large.

Now, this same information is often used to define the optimal arrangement and size of the app development team. Consequently, the best alternative is to limit the team to 5-7 people.

Divide large teams into smaller ones:

Of course, the above advice does not mean that you should fire everyone until there are 7 people left in your company. For example, as of 2017, Uber had about 100 iOS developers and nevertheless maintained to create workflows.

What you can (and should) do is restructure one large team into several smaller ones.

According to Tuomas Artman (employee at Uber);

“Perhaps the great thing here is that you apparently won't run into difficulties if your team is little”.

Keep in mind that as the number of team members increases, you will require another manager. This person will organize the work not only within the groups but also relevant to each other. Unless a situation may arise where separate teams will work on the same purpose without even knowing it.

Feel free to change teams:

Another essential thing to know is that you must change your team whenever you want to. I am referring to the people, not the organizational structure of software development itself (although that too may change). This can occur from time to time (for example, if you need to check the code in a different subgroup). Some even say it's best to move people completely in teams constantly.

Here are some common situations where it can be important to reshuffle developers and restructure the software development team:

1. Before beginning a different project.

2. Due to the decrease or increase in the number of workers.

3. When a subgroup is challenged with a problem, it cannot solve. However, this situation can be avoided through good project management.

4. When a team is getting unsuccessful.

5. According to the requirements of a particular project.

Also, always try to allow people to work on projects that match their interests. The strong initiative is seldom just as valuable as knowledge. Always take care of the organizational atmosphere.

Last but not least. The psychological fitness of the workers can go a great way towards a project. IT maintenance and support services can also help. 

Pay notice to how workers get along with each other. Try to solve any disputes in the team as soon as possible and support collaboration and a sense of partnership.

Developers should also be available to develop ideas. This is particularly essential for collaborative agile development.