How to hire a strong development team and build the best software applications

Today, we all rely on software applications for our life and work. We have apps on our phones and computers to help us tackle tasks, monitor different activities, make budgets, or stay in touch with others. 

All of these products are carefully planned and built by small or large development teams. Building even the simplest application takes technical knowledge, creativity, organizational skills, and great teamwork. 

That’s why hiring the right candidates for your development team is critical for the success of any software development project. You need to build a solid core that you can rely on. 

In this article, we’re going to lead you through all the steps that you need to take when you’re building a development team, from how to hire skilled software developers to where to source the best talent and what questions to ask. 

We’ll also explain what development teams do and talk about the essential roles and skills you need to consider. 

What do development teams do?

A software development team is a group of professionals who work together to build a software application with distinct functionalities, and that’s geared toward a specific target market. 

They take care of your product through its entire software development life cycle (SDLC). This includes:

• Gathering and analyzing requirements 

• Planning the development process

• UI/UX design

• Development

• Testing and QA

• Deployment

• Maintenance

 Their exact duties and responsibilities depend on various factors, such as:

• The size and type of the project they’re working on

• The dev team’s structure

• Your company’s specific needs

With this in mind, you must structure your hiring process in a way that enables you to build a multidisciplinary team of highly skilled individuals who can deliver consistent results.  

What are the most essential roles in a development team?

The size and structure of a software development team may vary depending on your organization and the projects they’ll work on. However, the key roles in a development team usually remain the same: 

Software developers

Software developers are the core of the development team. They are responsible for translating the requirements and features of your project into lines of code that build the software. 

Software developers can be divided into three main groups based on their function in your development team:

• Front-end developers: They develop the software's visual layer and work with UX/UI designers to ensure a smooth user experience. 

• Back-end developers: Write code that implements the core application logic and set up and manage the necessary databases. Their main field of work is on the behind-the-scenes functionality of your product. 

• Full-stack developers: These software developers can do both front-end and back-end work. Usually, full-stack developers are hired for smaller projects. 

User experience (UX) and User interface (UI) designers

Essentially, a main part of your software solution’s success lies on the shoulders of your UX and UI designers. They are responsible for creating a positive user experience. 

Sometimes, a single person with the right UX/UI design skills can take ownership of both elements, while in other instances, two (or more) professionals work in tandem.

Designing the user experience and interface is a user-centric process that requires research, analysis, and design by applying all the best practices in the field rather than developing the application. 

UX designers look at the entire user experience, while UI designers focus on all the user interface elements, such as the buttons, menu bars, and other interface items. To create a smooth and seamless user experience, UX/UI designers:

• Perform extensive user research to identify potential behavior

• Do thorough competitor analysis

• Create wireframes

• Create high-fidelity prototypes

• Design user interface elements

• Define information architecture and sitemap

• Conduct post-development tests

Project manager

The project manager is responsible for leading and managing the whole development team. They ensure every member has what they need and can complete their tasks on time. You can think of the product manager as the person who keeps everyone headed in the right direction.

Some of their duties include the following:

• Optimize the team’s work to improve efficiency

• Assist with questions and provide guidance

• Oversee project planning

• Track progress

• Manage unforeseen circumstances

Business analyst

The business analyst plays a critical role in your Dev team because they must define the scope of your product, outline its features, and constantly seek ways to improve it. 

They drive the initial gathering of requirements, gap analysis, and due diligence, so they need an in-depth understanding of your business’ operating model. It’s their job to convert the business requirements into more concrete technical specifications. 

Quality assurance (QA) engineer

The QA engineer’s job is to make sure your software works as intended. They validate the product through thorough testing, ensuring it meets the quality benchmarks the business analyst sets. The quality assurance engineer has the final say on whether or not the product is ready to use.

Skills to look for when building a development team

To ensure you’re hiring a qualified team with the right abilities, you must identify the essential skills for a development team. Below is a short list of the key hard and soft skills necessary to do this.

Technical skills

Technical skills are of critical importance here. Software development teams rely on technology to build their products, so extensive tech knowledge is non-negotiable. 

When we talk about technical skills, we don’t just mean programming languages. A strong Dev team must have members who are proficient in: 

• Computer programming

• Software architecture

• Data structures and algorithms

• Software testing

• UI & UX design

Additionally, if you’re hiring for niche roles, such as that of a blockchain developer, you’ll need to assess applicants’ skills related to the specific technology. 

Project management

Project management consists of various methods and processes that you apply to achieve specific project objectives. To complete any project successfully, you must find someone who can manage it well and see it through all of its stages:

• Initiation

• Planning

• Execution

• Monitoring

• Completion

Debugging

Debugging can take up to 95% of programming. This means that on top of writing code and building your product, your developers will also need to fix errors – especially if working on complex applications. Because of this, it might mean that your project takes longer to complete. 

To build software that works as intended, ensure your development team is good at identifying, isolating, and correcting coding errors. 

IT business analysis

You can’t have a great product if you can’t define what specs users need and figure out how to build that. This is why you need people with strong IT business analysis skills on your development team. Their job is to serve as the bridge between the stakeholders and the Dev team and to:

• Analyze and define requirements

• Use data analytics to drive the team in the right direction

• Coordinate teams that work on the project

• Make sure your project meets requirements

Communication

No team can excel without proper communication, regardless of how qualified each person is. Good communication ensures that: 

• Everyone understands the requirements and be able to meet them

• Every issue is addressed on time

• Teammates will collaborate to reach your company’s goals faster

Problem solving

The ability to solve problems is related to algorithmic thinking and is essential for a development team. People with strong problem-solving skills can:

• Break problems down into a logical sequence of steps

• Find a solution for every step

• Assemble these steps into an action plan

Attention to detail

Attention to detail refers to the ability to focus on small but important parts of a process when completing a task. Overlooking things that may seem insignificant can lead to a chain reaction and cause more issues down the line. 

Detail-oriented development professionals can:

• Spot errors easily

• Provide more accurate results

• Add subtle details to your project that enhance it

How to build a successful development team: A step-by-step guide

As Harvard Business Review reports, in an effort to minimize mis-hires, companies are adopting extensive hiring processes instead of streamlining them. However, there is no evidence that a longer hiring process leads to better outcomes – and we all know that the longer the hiring takes, the more time and resources you lose. 

To avoid that, follow our seven steps to building a successful development team: 

1. Define the structure of your future development team

The first step is to decide on the size and structure of your team. Consider what work frame is best for the type of product you’re developing and for your company culture. 

The three main structures for a development team are:

Generalists (product team)

This team has a product mindset. It consists of jacks-of-all-trades. Rather than hiring specialists in a particular field, you look for people with a broad range of knowledge who can focus on a product’s success. 

This structure works best for developing end-to-end projects of moderate complexity and on a tight schedule. 

Some of the key roles in a generalist development team are:

• Product owner

• Full-stack software developers

• Software engineers 

Specialists (technology team)

This team consists of highly skilled professionals who specialize in a particular area. Typically, you hire for more job roles in a team with that structure. 

This structure is best suited for complex projects requiring expertise in core technology areas and cloud-native projects requiring constant scaling and meeting availability requirements. 

Some of the essential roles for this kind of team include:

• Project managers

• Back-end developers

• Front-end developers

• QA testers

• Software architects

Hybrid

The hybrid team is a combination of the above structures. The specialists in the team focus on handling the parts of the project that require deep tech expertise, while the generalists focus on the bigger picture and collaboration within the team. 

This team can be challenging to manage but works great for projects requiring sharing skills and knowledge across departments. 

A hybrid development team can consist of:

• Business analyst

• Project manager

• UI & UX designers

• Software developers

• QA testers

2. Identify the roles for which you need to hire

After you decide which type of team structure fits your project and objectives the best, define the roles you need to hire. 

In some instances, hiring a freelancer for some job roles can be more effective. For example, hiring a freelance business analyst can prove to be more cost-efficient for a smaller project that won’t require many adjustments and has a clear scope. 

3. Define key development skills for each role

Now that you know what roles you want to fill, it’s time to define the essential skills for each one. Here are some examples of some of the most common roles you can find on a development team:

Software developer

Software developers need the following skills: 

• Programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, or SQL. You need to hire developers who are proficient with the programming languages that used to build your product. 

• Database knowledge: Software developers must be able to operate databases and backup data to preserve your company’s information.

• Problem-solving: To write effective code, developers must be able to think critically about any issue that may arise and find a solution.

Project manager

Project managers need to be skilled in:

• Project management: The project manager has to be familiar with the processes that arise within a development project and how to handle them. 

• Communication: Your project manager will be largely responsible for handling the collaboration in your development team, so they must be an effective communicator.

• Organization: The project manager's main function is ensuring everyone does their assigned tasks on time. 

UX designer

UX designers need the following skills: 

• Prototyping and wireframing: These are the essential tech skills for a UX designer.

• Visual design: They must know how to work with design software.

• User research: A huge part of the job is researching target audiences and markets. 

4. Source Dev team candidates

Pick a few sources to find the best candidates for your development team. You might try:

• Job boards with a large talent pool, such as Monster, Indeed, and LinkedIn

• Websites where developers share their knowledge and experience, such as Stack Overflow and GitHub

• TopTal and RocketDevs: These two platforms have extensive screening processes and specialize in connecting businesses to vetted software developers. 

• Flexiple: Flexiple is a tech-only job board for developers and designers that offers previously screened top candidates and personalized recommendations. 

5. Evaluate development skills

After you’ve sourced enough candidates, you should screen them with the help of a strong skills evaluation process. Resumes frequently contain inaccurate information, and trying to filter candidates one by one takes a lot of time.

Pre-employment skills testing can help you speed up your hiring process while providing you with accurate and specific data for each of your candidates. This science-based method for skills evaluation gives you direct insight into their hard and soft skills. 

With TestGorilla, you can build a skills assessment of up to five tests that will give you reliable information about the strengths and weaknesses of your candidates. 

Recommended tests for development teams

Here are a few of our tests you can use to build a strong Dev team:

• Python: This test will help you identify software developers with essential Python skills.

• JavaScript (data structures & data types): Find candidates who can operate with data structures in JavaScript. 

• Project management: Evaluate which candidates can make sound business decisions and manage projects successfully. 

• IT business analyst: Identify candidates who can help your business to improve its products. 

• UX/UI design: Find applicants who have strong UX/UI research and design skills.

• Communication: Make sure candidates are strong communicators and team players.

• Problem solving: Find the best problem solvers in your talent pool with the help of this test.

• Attention to detail (textual): Assess applicants’ attention to detail to make sure they can be meticulous and accurate in their work.  

• 16 types: This personality test can help you get to know your candidates better and explore their most prominent character traits. 

6. Use the right software development interview questions

The questions you ask during interviews will highly depend on the role for which you’re hiring. Find our selection of the best interview questions for different positions and skill sets, along with sample answers for: 

• Programming skills

• Web developers

• Jenkins skills

• Backend developers

• Mobile developers

• Software engineers

• QA engineers

7. Hire and onboard new employees

After you have gathered the necessary data about your candidates, evaluated their skills, and interviewed them, you can make an informed hiring decision. 

Hiring new employees is not the last step on your way to building a successful development team, however. Make sure you’re putting enough effort into the onboarding process, too. Businesses with a strong onboarding process can significantly improve employee retention. 

Build a successful development team with pre-employment skills testing

Building an entire software development team is complicated. You need to consider not only tech expertise but also soft skills such as collaboration, problem-solving, and good communication. 

There is no guarantee that everyone you hire will be a good addition to the team, but optimizing your hiring process will significantly increase your chances of building a strong team and minimizing the risk of bad hires.

Thankfully, a simple way to do that is to use pre-employment skills tests to evaluate applicants’ skills fairly and objectively. 

Get started today by signing up for TestGorilla’s free plan – or book a 30-minute live demo to see how our platform can help you simplify recruitment.