Hiring is never easy. But when you hire a team of software developers, it is even trickier. To build a software development team, you need to make sure each developer is an expert in their field, has the right personality to fit your company culture and coexist with others, and meets a ton of other requirements. A great team is like a puzzle, where every piece is in the right place.
Setting up a software development team like that is an art and takes time to master, but it doesn’t mean you cannot learn the basics of it.
Here are 10 simple tips that will help you build a software development team and keep it motivated.
- Invest in Several Senior Developers
- Consider a Software Developer Personality, Not Just Skills
- Hire Both Men and Women
- Hire The Ones Who Code Wisely
- Trust Coding Expertise
- Put Technical Knowledge Above Personal Convictions
- Provide the Tools Your Team Needs
- Make Sure Your Team Has a Reasonable Working Schedule
- Help Your Developers Grow Professionally
- Hire a QA Engineer.
1. Invest in Several Senior Developers
In a dedicated software development team, you’ll surely need a senior or two. Their experience and more advanced knowledge will cost you more, but that expense will pay back. With the seniors’ strategic thinking, experience, and intuition, you can avoid many mistakes and come up with a better product in the end.
2. Consider Their Personality, Not Just Skills
Normally, it doesn’t take a team of rock stars to build good software. It’s far more important that the team members get along well and each performs their share of work flawlessly. That is why make sure you hire a team of software developers that are team players, not egocentric geniuses with a bad temper.
3. Hire Both Men and Women
Sure, most software engineers are male, but you’d be surprised how much more productive a mixed team can be. A recent study showed that having both men and women on your team in equal shares facilitates innovation.
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4. Hire Craftsmen Who Code Wisely
The requirements to your product may change several times, and that is when you will appreciate having craftsmen on board. A craftsman of a developer will create solid code that makes implementing changes easier.
5. Trust Their Coding Expertise
When you have set up a dedicated development team, it means you have hired people whose expertise raises no questions. So trust them and let them solve coding problems the way they think right instead of managing their every step.
6. Put Technical Knowledge Above Personal Convictions
In a development-related argument, make it your goal to find the right decision, not convince the team to do things your way, or solve a problem the way most of your programmers think right. Trust people with more technical knowledge.
7. Provide the Tools Your Team Needs
Make sure your software development team has the tools that will make their work easier and faster. Ask them what software and hardware they lack and be sure to provide that. They won’t ask for something that is not absolutely necessary.
8. Make Sure They Have a Reasonable Working Schedule
Crazy deadlines and overtime work have hardly ever resulted in any good software. As a manager, try to plan the work in a way that lets your software development team work comfortably and devote enough time and attention to every problem.
9. Help Them Grow Professionally
Your developers’ growth can only benefit your business, so invest some time and money into it. Whether it’s a course, subscription to an educational resource, or a ticket to a developer conference - whatever makes your programmer more skilled, ultimately lets you build a better product.
10. Hire a QA Engineer
A QA Engineer helps you avoid technical debt at the initial stage of software development and check the product before it goes live. He will ensure the product meets all the requirements provided by the product owner as well as boost team efficiency through constant testing of the product.
Daxx is a Dutch software development company with nearly 20 years of industry experience. It has helped over 300 clients build and maintain software development teams in Ukraine.
If you would like to learn more about the opportunities of hiring offshore developers with us, simply fill out the contact form below, and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
