Precise planning, a qualified team, good collaboration, and communication between team members (both internally and externally) are the keys to the success of any custom application development project. The question that is always asked right away is who will be working on a software development project? The number of people who work on any project of custom software application development is widely dependent upon the scope of the business.

Before understanding the roles and responsibilities of the development team, we know the stages each development project passes through. Any software development project is likely to consist of the following three stages of development. In each step, different roles are assigned to identify, design, develop, manage, and test the project phase.

Three Phases of any custom software Application Development Project

1. Discovery

Solution Architect begins to understand the business scope and technology needs with the latest technology best practices. They dive deep into your established requirements and investigate to improve the value of a software application.

They might create user stories, consult with various team members, and layout the design architect required for the design and implementation phases.

2. Design

User experience designers will work to create the best experience for the software users. This includes initiating the visual and navigable elements of your project. They will create wireframes, mockups, and visual assets to help you visualize the end result.

3. Implementation

In the implementation phase, multiple people work on your application. Including a technical project manager who ensures the project is completed on time and within budget. Application architects ensure the right technology choice are made. Software engineers take the server-side development. Front-end developers write code that will interact directly with the end-user. Quality assurance engineers work in the tendon with the rest of the implementation team. The code written by developers is tested so that a smoothly running application is created at the end.

6 Key Roles in a Software Development Team

1.Solution Architect

Solution Architect begins understanding the business objectives, scope, and technology needs. He also regularly informed Stakeholders about the development process. Solution Architect has an expert in modern technologies and experience in business case studies and also translates technical project details into a language that management and non-technical stakeholders can understand.

Key responsibilities:

• Analyze technology environment
• Identify risks
• Define the scope of the project
• Setting the collaboration framework
• Supporting project management
• Analyzing and documenting requirements
• Design security, identity, data, monitoring, and infrastructure solutions 

2.Project manager

The project manager distributes the tasks among the software engineers, plans the workflow, motivates the team, controls the process, and coordinates the group’s actions. The PM is also responsible for time management, considering and managing risks and unpredicted situations. The project manager also has to make sure that the development process goes according to the plan. 

Key responsibilities:

• Develop a project plan and Manage
• Lead and manage the project team
• Establish a project schedule and Assign tasks to project team members
• Analysis of the team performance and arrange meetings to remove blockers

3.Technical Lead

The Technical Lead is the development team leader, mostly experienced programmers with good communication but not essential, and works with the developers to provide technical details and estimates for the proposed solution. It also translates the business requirements into a technical solution. This role provides the Project Manager and Business Analyst with a designated point of contact in the development team without interrupting other developers.

Key responsibilities:

• Protect the other team developers from the Project Manager questions
• Technical translation of solution architect project requirements to developers
• Solve instant developers’ issues
• Communication between the technical team and non-technical (project manager and business Analyst)

4.UI & UX designers

The UX/UI designer is responsible for turning your product vision into a compelling, friendly, and intuitive user interface that provides a great user experience and brings high conversion rates. Their main focus is set on product usability, functionality, and visual design.

The primary responsibility of the UI/UX designer is to make the product look good and be convenient and pleasant to use. 

Key responsibilities:

• working with business analyst to transform business vision into a visual thing
• establishing design patterns and a variety of design approaches
• designing the interface that helps users complete their goals with ease and enjoy
• creating layouts and design elements that interact and ensure the visual attractiveness of the product
• Work with the Product Manager to create a user experience that meets the requirements

5.Software Developers/Programmers

Programmers are a kind of “translators” who translate the human language and graphics into computer technologies code that technical devices can understand. Programmers are building the application design by Designers and making them functional according to the project standards.

Key responsibilities:

Develop the features laid out in the sprint

• Provide time estimates on a given task
• Communicate with the team lead or project manager
• Support specific project management activities to improve the development processes
• Collaborate with other team members to design features, review specifications, test and document the written functionality when necessary.

 There are three primary types of software developers responsible for different layers of software solutions:

Front-end Developer

They are responsible for creating the software that users can see and interact with, the most visible part of any application. Its product includes everything from layouts, texts, and buttons to colors and animations. They work closely with the UX/UI designers to ensure users have a smooth and enjoyable experience.

Back-end Developer

They build and optimize the server-side stuff and data access layer. It lay the core foundation for the front-end code to work properly. Work includes complex application logic, algorithms, servers, databases, and robust engines that make the magic happen under the hood software product or service. They are in charge of the security and stability of your software and the seamless integration of external modules. 

Full-stack developers 

Programmers with a broad range of knowledge and skills but not specialized in one specific area have front-end and back-end programming knowledge. They also manage data structuring, business logic, and user experience. Also, provide better communication between front-end developers and back-end developers. Also, in less complex, demanding projects, a full-stack developer is indispensable. 

6.    QA Engineer / Tester

Quality assurance specialists are crucial for every software development process and secure a high-quality product. They test the product, go through the whole app flow and define bugs and flaws with the further report to the development team to conduct bug fixing.

It is important to detect errors before completing the product and expose it to real users. It will save the face of the product and guarantee a positive user experience.

Key responsibilities:

• Understand feature requirements defined by the Product Manager and Business Analyst
• Ensure features built by developers meet the criteria specified in the requirements
• Engage with development teams to agree and understand QA processes
• collaborating with the development team to ensure software testability
• controlling risks and creating backup plans
• measuring the performance of each team member

Each custom application development project passes the above three phases. Whatever structure or terminology you use in your project and product teams, be sure to assign and identify the best people for each role. Managing and defining each person’s essential duties and responsibilities and a sound communication system increase productivity and reduce risk.

The development team structure depends upon the project’s scope, and there are additional roles for more significant projects. Still, the 6 essential roles of any software development team are mentioned above.