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By Faiza Khalid
Verified Expert
5 years of experience
Faiza is a CIS engineer with a keen interest in software development, AI research, and technology writing.
Are you interested in knowing what makes a good dev team for a software development project?
A great idea is important for business growth and profitability. But, a good team of developers is equally important to realize an idea into a viable business product. Let’s discuss some qualities that make a good dev team.
Qualities of a good dev team
The following qualities or principles will make or break your dev team:
Technical Excellence
The software development technologies are ever-evolving. A good dev team will keep itself abreast of all the latest developments in the technologies they are using for their software product.
Moreover, great developers strive to learn and incorporate excellent programming practices in various phases of the software development lifecycle like developing, testing, etc.
For example, good developers will perform code refactoring, engage in pair programming, perform continuous integration, pass their build through unit testing, etc.
Accountability
Good dev teams foster accountability across the entire team. The agile development methodology, which is widely adopted by software developers today, is based on this core principle.
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Agile dev teams do not encourage a hierarchical structure within the dev team. All team members are expected to give their best, solve problems mutually, share their experiences and knowledge, and own the decisions made as a team.
Mutual Trust
A good dev team values mutual trust. Team members rely on each other as they all work together towards a common goal. Every developer is encouraged to give their opinion to solve a certain problem, and other members value it.
The close binding between developers within a dev team promotes a strong team culture and boosts morale, making work more enjoyable.
Good Communication
According to Business Harvard Review, an analysis of more than 100 development teams showed that two main characteristics of good dev teams that successfully achieved their goals are; the emotional intelligence of team members, and good communication between team members.
Read more about it on Great teams are about personalities and not just skills.
There will be two streams of communication for your dev team, one within the dev team and the other with the stakeholders. Your dev team should be good in both of these.
Your developers will be able to solve problems quickly and effectively when they work together.
Every software developer doesn’t need to be at one location in today’s work environment. They can work seamlessly from different locations if they maintain good communication with each other.
Tools like Slack, Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc. are getting popular today in workspaces for the same reason.
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Usually, a project manager or team lead maintains the communication with stakeholders or product owners.
A great development team makes sure that this communication is as frequent as required and as clear as it needs to be, with no secrets, unshared opinions, etc., to maintain a successful relationship between the parties. Good communication will help you set goals, explore more opportunities, review the existing process, etc.
Cross-Functional Dev Team
Agile dev teams are considered cross-functional. A good dev team is capable enough to deliver a ‘deployable’ product at the end of the development sprint.
This means that every dev member has the skills to perform the necessary tasks like code analysis, writing unit test cases, participating in code reviews, etc. There is no distinction of roles based on the jobs.
The cross-functional team approach removes the requirement of delegating work between different teams and, therefore, a continuous need for communication, etc. This also promotes enhanced code visibility and control within the software development team.
Understanding The Business Logic
A good dev team understands the business logic of the software product. Good developers are able to have discussions with the stakeholders/end-users and understand their requirements. Moreover, they are able to convey the business value of technical solutions to their clients.
A thorough understanding of the business logic enables a good dev team to build great custom software solutions.
Commitment
A good dev team is committed to delivering the results. A project manager is expected to set clear expectations for the dev teams. Every developer should have a clear understanding of his or her goals that they strive to achieve at the end of the software project.
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A sheer commitment to producing a high-quality software product will help developers ask for help from each other when needed, practice collective ownership, give each other feedback with honesty, keep up with the technical innovations, etc.
Are you ready to make a great dev team?
Great software products are built by great dev teams. So, you better get it right, right from the start. A good dev team will not only deliver the required software product but even help you refine the project idea, explore better technical solutions, etc.
If you, as a business CTO, are looking to partner with great developers skilled in cutting-edge technologies, take a look at the field-expert software developers community at DevTeam.Space.
If you wish to partner with them for their high-quality skills, leave your initial product specifications via this quick form. One of our account managers will get in touch with you at the earliest for further details.
Frequently asked questions
You can improve the performance of your dev team by setting clear goals and expectations, planning your workflow, creating a productive environment of mutual trust and support, etc.
It is a cross-functional and self-organized team that possesses all the necessary skills to complete the task at hand i.e. delivering a working software product according to the set business requirements.
The dev teams are involved in multiple activities from development sprint planning, analysis, programming, testing, code reviewing, etc., during the whole software development process.
Alexey Semeney
Founder of DevTeam.Space
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Alexey is the founder of DevTeam.Space. He is award nominee among TOP 26 mentors of FI's 'Global Startup Mentor Awards'.
Alexey is Expert Startup Review Panel member and advices the oldest angel investment group in Silicon Valley on products investment deals.