Software Development Roles You Need to Know

Many people believe that developing software is a one-person show. “Let’s look for a freelancer dev and get this over with.” Unfortunately, this misconception is the cause of many failed products, lost time, and wasted money. Let’s take a closer look at the software development roles you need for a project.

Software development roles can be divided into three categories: product, development, and management. Product roles: product manager, UX designer, and UI designer. Development roles: full-Stack developer, fronted developer, backend developer, and tester. Management roles: technical lead and project manager.

As you can see, there are many roles in software development that could come in handy for your project. In this article, you will learn about the responsibilities and the importance of having these roles in your development team. Shall we?

How to Build an Effective Software Development Team

A software development project requires different roles in order to reach success. Having the right team can be the difference between a successful digital product and a flop. Plus, losing time and money with a flawed team can hurt your business.

You need a software development team that can combine creativity and technical skill with agile project management. Although there are many methodologies for software development, this approach has proven to be one of the most effective.

Even by keeping this in mind, you must know that hard skills are not enough for a project to reach success. Software development calls for more soft skills than you may have thought of. 

You need a responsible team who can communicate effectively and be responsible with times and deliverables. What good is a software development team that you cannot trust? 

Even if you have so-called experts on your side, your project will never get off the ground without soft skills. Look for a team that brings you peace of mind even when things get hairy. If you enjoy working with a team, the difficult task of building a digital product will go by smoothly.

Crucial Software Development Roles

Although there are many more software development roles, you will discover the core ones here. More specific projects will care for other roles, but they might not be as known as the following.

Let’s get down to it!

Product team

The product team is in charge of creating something that users need. Many software projects fail because they don’t address the real needs of the users they are trying to serve. 

A project could be done in time and within budget, but still fail because there are no users. To avoid that terrible situation, you need a strong product team that can validate your idea with real users before even committing to development.

Check out this insightful article about product discovery to learn more about how a product team helps create successful products.

Product manager

The product manager is responsible for bringing the idea for a product down to earth. Through measurable actions, the product manager leads the way to finding all the elements a product needs.

This role helps find product market fit and validate all the hypotheses created during the ideation process. Product managers are present in all stages of product development since they are responsible for the correct implementation of the solution. 

UX designer

In order for apps to be of value, the user experience needs to address the problem in an effective and efficient way. Here’s where user experience designers come in handy!

UX designers are in charge of translating validated ideas into a path users can follow. They are responsible for making the product comprehensible and easy to use while at the same time providing a solution.

This role is responsible for the structure of the digital product, designing with the end user always in mind. This part of the design is not concerned with the look and feel of the product. That is the job of the next role in this list.

UI designer

If UX designers are responsible for the structure of a product, then someone else must take care of the look and feel! UI designers are in charge of refining the app to make the already effective user experience into a delightful product.

This role is responsible for the colors, the imagery, the typography, and everything related to the visual design and experience of the product. As part of their tasks, UI designers also conduct market research to understand better how to create the best visual experience for the end user.

UX and UI designers complement each other in other to nail the overall design of the product. Once the user experience and the user interface are covered, the product can move forward with development.

Development team

The development team is responsible for the implementation of the digital product. They transform the previously created UX/UI and turn it into a functioning solution!

Front-end Developer

There are different programming languages for the different parts of a product. Front-end developers take care of the part of the product with which end users interact. This role is in charge of translating the design concept into code.

Front-end developers are responsible for implementing the sense and feel of the application through buttons, interactive elements, links, animations, and more. The most known languages of front-end development are HTML, CSS, and Javascript.

Back-end Developer

Contrary to front-end developers, back-end developers are responsible for the part of the application that users cannot see. This role focuses on everything that happens behind the scenes once an action is completed on an app.

Back-end developers focus on servers, APIs, and databases, collecting all the relevant information and triggering necessary actions for the correct functioning of the application. They are also in charge of security parameters within the software solution.

Full-Stack Developer

If you combine front-end and back-end developers, you get yourself a full-stack software developer! Full-stack developers are the handyman of the software development industry. Their extensive experience and mastery of programming languages allow them to work on both sides of the app.

Full-stack developers are usually among the most experienced members of a development team. Moreover, they are an integral part of the team thanks to their trained eye for disruptions between the two sides of the app.

Tester

Regardless of how experienced and talented a developer might be, bugs are part of software development. On average, there are about 20 to 30 bugs for every 1,000 lines of code. These issues can be detrimental to the effective use of an app.

Testers are in charge of reviewing the code and making sure no bug goes unattended. Before deploying an app, the quality of the code needs to be checked, as well as all the functionalities.

Check out this insightful piece about the importance of software testing!

Management team

The management team calls the shots and decides what is best for the project. They are in charge of bringing the project to a successful completion.

Project manager

Project managers are in charge of taking software projects to completion. They control the times, manage the risks, organize resources, and handle expectations. Project managers are in contact with every part of the project, client included, in order to deliver within time, budget, and scope.

Nowadays, project management works with agile methodologies, which allow projects to have better performance and save time and money.

Tech lead

A tech lead is a senior developer who plays a management role in the development of the product. From the interpretation of the idea to the breakdown and development of the architecture of the product, the tech lead heads the discussion to find the best pathway to technical success. 

Although this role might seem similar to a project manager, a tech lead focuses mainly on the technical aspects of the project, guiding and supporting the team. On its part, the project manager is responsible for the successful completion of the project.

Wrapping up

Each one of these roles plays a specific role in the development of a digital product. Although some projects could go forth with a smaller team, they constitute the core of a software development team!

Why Bixlabs?

At Bixlabs, we build custom teams to create your custom software solutions! Depending on your needs, we tailor the team to bring your product to life. Sounds like you? Contact us today!