12 Considerations for Building Successful Development Teams

Your development team has stagnated and productivity has slowed. Why is this? Is it because of an internal problem or something external? Are you suffering from burnout or is it a deeper problem within the department or company?

The truth is that how you form and manage your development teams will have a profound and direct impact on their success. It is absolutely essential that you build them from scratch, with certain ideas and ideologies in mind. Otherwise, they will hit a wall, preventing them from being productive and successful development teams.

So, what are the key considerations you should take into account when creating your development team? These are 12 considerations every business leader should keep in mind when setting up their department for the first time or adjusting it as needed.

Let's dive in and see how you can ensure the development teams you hire and/or manage have the best chance of success.

Why is it important to have a successful development process?

A strong development process is critical for your organization. When you have a solid and capable team, you will enjoy countless benefits, and they are not limited to just the technical domain. You'll also see increased revenue, streamlined operations, a more engaged workforce and customer satisfaction.

12 factors for creating a successful development team

#1 Understanding Business Issues

When the time comes, the ultimate goal for your development teams is that everything they do meets the needs of your business. Every decision, every project and every line of code is made in such a way that it is aligned with the objectives not only of the project in question, but of the company as a whole. This means that you and/or your management team must ensure that these teams understand the business issues that affect your company and your industry. Don't leave these teams guessing. Instead, put these questions at the forefront so your teams are always aware of the overall goals.

#2 Domain Knowledge

Domain knowledge is experience in a specific, specialized field. Your development teams should have a solid understanding of their domain – what they do, what they were hired to do, and how to complete their part of the project. While domain knowledge, which is the opposite of general knowledge, can lead stakeholders to work in silos, it is absolutely critical that your developers fully understand your domain and how it applies to the project as a whole.

#3 Diverse origins

Successful development depends on innovation. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is essential for development teams because it brings together different backgrounds, experiences, thoughts, and perspectives and leads to greater creativity and stronger critical thinking. DEI also means better collaboration and a more engaged workforce, which contributes to a better development process.

#4 Technical Capability

Along with domain knowledge, your development teams must also have solid technical capabilities. It's not just about hiring developers who know all aspects of Java, but also about how to use related frameworks to build applications, how to facilitate frontend or backend development, how to integrate with databases, and how to use Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) for more efficient software engineering.

Therefore, not only do your developers need to have a strong ability to write code, but they also need to understand how to use other types of technology to be more productive. Not every developer or team member will be an expert in every technology, but with a good onboarding and training process in place, you can help your professionals cultivate and improve these critical skills.

#5 Scalability

It's not just about your team's ability to build scalable applications, it's also about your team's ability to scale itself. As your business continues to grow, you will eventually need to hire more developers to keep up with demand and the need to remain agile. When this happens, your development team needs to be able to quickly assimilate these new developers into the workflow.

Without the ability to scale, your development teams will quickly stagnate and your business will suffer.

#6 Engagement

These teams of engineers must be engaged in the project. This doesn't necessarily mean they should act as cheerleaders and advocates for the project, but they should demonstrate an active interest in the process and be fully committed to its successful completion. If you find developers who are not actively engaged, they will cause bottlenecks and frustration for staff, managers, and customers.

When developers finish a project and start “calling it,” you have a problem on your hands. Therefore, it is important to periodically check developer involvement. One way to improve engagement is to have an open door policy, encouraging team members to come to their leader with questions, concerns, or anything else they want to discuss.

#7 Questions and Answers

Speaking of which, your development teams should be constantly asking questions. Ever. From start to finish, these engineers should never hesitate to ask questions of designers, managers, other developers, COOs, CIOs, and CEOs. At the same time, it is imperative that those who are asked have the answers. If your development teams are frequently faced with “I don’t know,” they will stop asking questions. When developers stop asking questions, bad things can happen to the project.

#8 Teamwork

This one is a bit obvious. However, it is not only important that your development team demonstrates teamwork among themselves, but among all departments that are directly or indirectly affected by their work. If your teams refuse to work well with operations, IT, public relations, marketing, HR and team members, they cannot be effective and/or productive.

To build trust and promote collaboration, work to make your environment more accessible and friendly. Make it clear what each person's role is and how each individual contributes to the team and to a more successful development process. During onboarding, you can pair a newbie with a more experienced employee to show them what to do and help them get to know the team.

#9 Communication

Along with teamwork, your development teams must absolutely be able to communicate effectively with each other and with people outside the team. Communication isn't limited to Slack, Asana, ProofHub, Trello, email, or text. Your developers need to be able to stand up in front of a group and effectively communicate their ideas, progress, and intentions. Without the ability to communicate well, your development teams will have difficulty working with other departments or offshore outsourced entities.

#10 Automation

To seriously keep up with competition and demand, your development teams will have to add automation to the mix. By including automation in the software development lifecycle, you transfer many manual and repetitive tasks to automated systems, which ensures that these tasks will be more reliable, repeatable, and efficient. Without automation, your teams will struggle to keep up with the constant demand for bigger, better, faster deployments.

#11 Documentation

Unfortunately, documentation is one of the last things your development teams will worry about. This is problematic, especially when developers move from one team to another or you need to hire to replace those who leave. Without proper documentation for applications and the development process, anyone new to the team will have trouble getting up to speed.

If your development teams maintain solid documentation (for your processes and within your code), any developer can jump in and continue as if they were there the whole time.

#12 Strong Leadership

A strong development team starts with strong leadership. The leader sets the tone. Some managers don't have technology experience, and if that's the case for you, it's important to trust the recommendations your technology professionals offer. Even if you do come from a development background, it is still important to receive feedback and input because this will be critical to a better development process and results.

Every development team is unique

Building, maintaining, and managing a successful development team doesn't have to be an insurmountable challenge. If you keep these considerations in mind from the start, your teams will be effective and productive. But don't look at this list as the end all, because every team and every business is unique. Take this list and mold it to perfectly fit your company's needs, and you should have no problem keeping these teams running smoothly and successfully.