Building a Self-Reliant Mobile App Development Team 101

This post is structured as follows.

• Mobile App Development Team Structure
• Project Manager  Skill Set
• UI/UX Designers  Skill Set
• App Developers Skill Set
• Backend Developer's Skill Set
• Mobile App Development Team Requirements
• Mobile App Development Team — Assemble!
• Conclusion

Have you ever wondered why time is flying at the speed of light? As it turns out, time is not really flying, and it is our distorted perception of it that makes us think otherwise. Out of 24 hours a day, an average person spends5 to 6 hours staring at a smartphone screen. 

Although experts agree that we essentially do the staring for all the wrong reasons, not everything is as gloomy as it sounds. 

Making mobile phones addictive for all the right reasons is where a mobile app development team comes into the bigger picture. A self-reliant team makes the app possible, robust, and problem-solving. 

But how can one identify a well-regulated app development team? Following are some suggestions to make any teamwork better and develop incredible mobile apps. 

Note, when we talk about mobile apps, we are not segregating based on the OS but keeping it generic. Some of these suggestions are as follows:

Mobile App Development Team Structure

While building a self-reliant mobile app development team, we need to see what constitutes the building blocks of such an ensemble. These specialists come from different educational and experience backgrounds, working together to achieve a common goal. 

While making a new team, you must have a rough sketch of how many of these resources you want onboard. Here is a tentative list (yours can be different based on the nature and scope of the project) of specialists' structures:

a) Project/product manager 

b) UI/UX designers

c) iOS and Android app developers

d) Backend developers

e) Quality assurance engineers

You can also add a business strategist to the bunch and add other people as you see fit, but the above list is just a reminder of what a mobile app development team should look like, ideally.

Project Manager  Skill Set

What are some principal duties and responsibilities of a project manager? A project manager is responsible for managing the entire mobile app project and ensuring it is completed on time, within the agreed-upon budget and quality (project scope). 

UI/UX Designers  Skill Set

It's the responsibility of the UI/UX designer to:

a) Create a user persona

b) Think over the user flow and sketch app wireframes

c) Create visual app prototypes

d) Build an intuitive app interface

e) Make changes according to users' feedback and testing data

App Developers Skill Set

Hands-on development experience with the React Native framework Cross-platform app development experience using the Xamarin, Flutter, or Ionic platforms, et., in the form of skills required in app developers. 

Backend Developer's Skill Set

Hands-on experience with programming languages like Java, .Net, Python, PHP, or Ruby, and experience with code versioning tools like Git are prominent reasons you need backend developers separate from all the other developers.

Quality Assurance Engineer Skill Set

Finally, a quality check and balance by monitoring every stage of mobile app development to ensure design and development phases correspond to the plan or requirements are essential for the overall product presentation. We need sound QA engineers for this job. 

Mobile App Development Team Requirements

At the end of the day, all you need are individuals who are well-versed with their crafts and are ready to take on challenges. Experience also matters a great deal in this field. Your company or organization must always prefer specialists to novices. 

While onboarding people, understand that developers who are familiar with cross-platform coding can switch roles when needed, and it can be a great asset for the team and your app in the long run. 

If you just want to launch your app for one OS, you will eventually have to make its versions for the other OS. A cross-platform developer can go a long way in such scenarios. In addition, a part of or all of your team must know all about databases. 

Your app runs on data, and without appropriate knowledge of storing data, a team can do more harm to the app development than good. 

What makes the team stronger together? Great communication skills. A mobile app development procedure is a continuous collaborative process, and a project manager must ensure that every team member is on the same page. 

Your team must have excellent verbal and written communication skills. 

Mobile App Development Team — Assemble!

Cue the Avengers music, but assembling a team can be done in two ways:

a) In-house

b) Outsource

In-house Mobile App Development Team

An in-house approach means you get a team together — either from scratch, or you had some people in your organization whom you requested for the app-building project specifically. 

Otherwise, you ask your HR to look for talent and slowly go towards building a better mobile app development team. Although this may seem like a great idea, not everyone can get an in-house team. 

The reason is that this step is usually costly and time-consuming. 

In addition, you have to look after the paperwork, employment issues, benefits, and lack of expertise in different areas.

Outsource Mobile App Development Team

Outsourcing means you partner up with another organization or company to get a part or whole of the project done. You can also borrow manpower or some team members with new roles to your in-house resources, and it can also be called outsourcing.

What happens when you outsource a mobile app development team, your vendor gives you an estimate of the cost and guides you through all the requirements from their end. 

This app development method is speedier, but it often creates disagreements on more minor things. You need to have excellent negotiating skills if you are willing to go through this team-building method. 

Outsourcing is also cost-effective, perfect for budding software houses or web and mobile app developing companies. 

Conclusion

Building a self-reliant mobile app development team 101 guide can only go so far as to dictate which steps are going to be profitable. There will be a time when the team assembles itself after a while and starts working together.

All you have to do is ensure the resources are available at the right time and place, and everything done is discussed or documented.