How to Choose a Dedicated Development Team with 5 Key Steps

Are you looking for an outsourced team to cover the software development project that your in-house members are struggling with? But how can you find the other right partner to implement this project smoothly? Don’t worry! This article will lead you through the journey of discovering how to choose a dedicated development team with our five key steps. But first, we expect you to understand the basics of such a team, from its typical structure and must-have members to when you should work with a dedicated team. 

What is a Dedicated Development Team?

By definition, a dedicated development team includes skilled individuals (e.g., software engineers, UI/UX designers, or testers) you hire from an external company to complete your company’s project over a specific time. Instead of juggling many projects at the same time, these outsourced team members place dedicated effort and focus on your project. For this reason, the team’s structure can be customized to fit your unique requirements about time, costs, and technical specs. 

Team Structure & Must-Have Members

So, you now may wonder: which members does a dedicated team often have for a software development project? The answer depends heavily on your specific needs, as we mentioned. However, a typical team structure often includes the following core members with specific roles:

Business Analyst (BA)

BAs are mainly in charge of collecting your company’s unique needs. In other words, they learn about what problems your company is encountering and how technologies can help solve these challenges. Then, they translate those needs into actionable requirements and use diagrams or flowcharts to showcase these functionalities. 

For example, in one project on maritime logistics implemented by Designveloper, the client wanted to build a list of customers who make orders by sea and search for customer information easily. Our BA worked closely with the client and asked some of the following questions:

• What does customer information include?
• Is there any important information that should be prioritized?
• How does the client want to search (i.e., using a search bar or filter by criteria)? Which criteria are used to search for? 
• Is there any link between the customer’s name and any additional information or service?

Once the BA acquired essential information from the client, she turned it into essential features and visualized them with diagrams for the client to review and offer feedback. When reaching the final consensus, she would document all business requirements for the development team. 

Project Manager (PM)

A project manager takes the main responsibility for planning work activities, assigning tasks across members, updating work progress, and connecting members with the client and other relevant stakeholders. They also manage risks (e.g., poor quality or out of scope) and ensure the project will be delivered on time and within budget. 

Project managers can work in any development model, whether it’s Agile, Waterfall, or Hybrid. In the Agile context, the role of project managers can be taken over by similar roles like SCRUM masters or service delivery managers. They use tools (e.g., Jira or Kanban) to track tasks/issues. At Designveloper, project managers also adopt the kaizen technique to continuously receive feedback and establish a flat team system to give each member the equal right to express their opinions – all for improving team performance and delivering the best outcomes.

UI/UX Designers

A dedicated development team needs UI/UX designers to create user interfaces through which end-users can interact with your software. UI design focuses on the software’s visual components (e.g., icons or typography), while UX design is involved in how users move around and look for necessary information from the software. 

Therefore, UI/UX designers must excel at key skills (e.g., user research and prototyping), understand visual design principles, and master design tools (e.g., Figma, Adobe XD, or Sketch). These factors help them research users effectively and create intuitive, visually compelling interfaces, ensuring a positive user experience. 

Software Developers (Front-end, Back-end, Full-stack)

These are indispensable members in a dedicated development team. Front-end developers are in charge of bringing static UI/UX design to life, while back-end developers focus on writing code for the software’s business logic, managing databases, developing APIs, and even doing several tasks related to software architecture (like building and integrating the software with external systems). Further, the team can have full-stack developers who can do tasks on both the client and server sides. 

Regardless of their titles, they need to be proficient in programming languages and other technologies (e.g., JavaScript, Python, React, or Node.js). Also, they should understand various development methodologies and communicate well with designers and testers.

Testers

These members are also known as Quality Assurance (QA) engineers. They’re responsible for ensuring the quality of final deliverables before launch by devising test strategies and cases based on client requirements. Then, they establish and configure test environments, implement different tests (e.g., functionality, usability, or security), and spot defects. Some testers can write scripts to automatically execute test cases many times. 

Other (Optional) Roles

Apart from these indispensable roles, a dedicated development team can include other optional yet beneficial roles, depending on your project needs. For example, a technical lead offers technical guidance and direction for the whole team as well as makes important decisions about software architecture. Meanwhile, a DevOps engineer develops and maintains CI/CD pipelines and automates repetitive tasks (i.e., developing and testing infrastructure).

Why Should You Hire a Dedicated Development Team?

There are various methods to develop your desired software, from building up your own internal team to augmenting your available workforce with external members (i.e., freelancers or developers from outsourcing companies). Each comes with pros and cons. So, if you consider a dedicated development team, ensure that this outsourcing model will align with your business. 

Normally, dedicated team members will be the best option if your project has evolving requirements and needs constant development and maintenance in the long run, while your internal team lacks specific skills to meet these demands. 

Inevitably, outsourcing a whole project gives you a golden opportunity to approach a broader talent pool and diverse tech stacks. As the team members dedicate their effort and focus exclusively on your project, they can grasp every of its detail. Therefore, they can easily adapt to your project’s ever-changing requirements and continuously maintain your software to keep it updated and bug-free. Further, the team can easily scale up or down to match project needs. 

If your company’s strength doesn’t lie in technology, investing in a dedicated development team is a cost-effective option in comparison with hiring a full-time internal team. Instead of wasting time and money on recruiting and training new members, having an outsourced team to dedicate their effort to your whole project from scratch can speed up development cycles. 

FURTHER READING:

1. Top 3 Cutting Edge Technologies in Software Development Today

2. Software Development's Future in 2025 and Beyond

3. Building User Trust through Secure Software Development

How to Choose the Right Dedicated Development Team for Your Project

You’ve understood the typical structure of a dedicated development team and why your business should consider one for the software project. But how can you choose the right dedicated development team to implement the project successfully? To help you with this, we’ll detail each step to select and work effectively with the team: 

Pre-Research

Before you start your search for potential candidates, you should clarify your project goals and define an ideal team structure for the project:

Define Your Project Requirements and Goals Clearly

Don’t forget this phase unless you want your project to mess up and go nowhere. By understanding what your company wants to create and how you envision the entire development process, you can communicate effectively with a potential development team about your needs and evaluate whether the team suits your business. Accordingly, ask yourself some of the following questions to find out your project goals and requirements:

• What problems are you facing (e.g., inefficient HR management or low customer satisfaction)? Which outcomes or improvements do you desire to achieve (e.g., increased productivity, enhanced customer service, or new revenue streams)? You should devise realistic and measurable outcomes to easily assess the project’s effectiveness, like “increasing user engagement by 20% in the first quarter.” Then, you can define essential features to handle existing problems and achieve these outcomes.

• What is your project scope? Identify what a dedicated development team should or shouldn’t build and deliver within the initial engagement. For example, the team can initially focus on developing core features for an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and exclude advanced functionalities (e.g., user analytics or integration with third-party services) that may be developed in later versions. This helps you avoid scope creep.

• What are your budget constraints and project deadline? The total cost of software development outsourcing often depends on the team size, the project’s duration, and the team’s expertise and seniority. So, consider your budget available for the project carefully. Also, identify when to launch the software and set a realistic timeline. You should be transparent about these factors with potential developers and see whether there is any hidden cost that may arise during development. 

Determine a Team Structure that Aligns With Your Project

You now define what the potential software aims at. Now, think about an ideal development team structure to turn your idea into a working solution. Remember how many dedicated members you should have depends much on various factors, including project complexity & scope, technical requirements, development methodologies, budget constraints, and timeline expectations. 

To identify the right team structure, you should:

• Look at your defined requirements again, determining specific skills and core roles needed to build up the software and meet your goals.
• Estimate how many individuals should take over each core role based on the project’s complexity, scope, and timeline. For instance, a large-scale project often requires various software developers and UX/UI designers. 
• Be prepared to adjust the team size if your project and its requirements are evolving.

You can discuss further with the shortlisted outsourcing companies about your preliminary idea of optimal team compositions. With long-term experience, they can provide valuable insights into an ideal team structure.  

Research and Evaluate Potential Providers

You have already outlined specific project goals and identified an optimal team to implement the project successfully. Now, it’s time to search for the right companion:

Step 1: Look for Potential Candidates

There are many ways to look for potential development teams. You can type keywords “best dedicated development companies” plus your specific industry (let’s say “finance” or “eCommerce”) on search engines (typically, Google). Moreover, you can go directly to review platforms (e.g., Clutch or GoodFirms) and look for potential developers with a proven track record in dedicated development services. Asking for recommendations from colleagues and industry peers is also a good way to look for potential candidates. 

Step 2: Evaluate Experience and Expertise

Once you find some best candidates, continue to review their portfolios and case studies to assess their technical expertise and experience in implementing similar projects in your industry. 

You can read client testimonials and references to better understand how these development teams help clients resolve existing challenges, how complex these projects are, which technologies are adopted, etc. Additionally, you can evaluate how the teams communicate and keep clients updated with the work progress, whether the teams meet deadlines, and so on. 

Step 3: Consider Development Processes & Scalability

Next, dive deep into a dedicated team’s development processes to better understand how they work and whether these processes meet your project needs:

• Learn about whether the team’s software development methodology (Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid) suits your specific needs. For example, if your project has complex and evolving requirements, choosing a team working with Agile frameworks is more advisable. 

• Discover which quality assurance (QA) processes and types of testing they’re adopting to ensure a stable and high-quality product.

• Understand how they process and manage software deployment. Further, learn about whether they have experience with CI/CD (Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery) pipelines to ensure frequent and seamless updates. 

• Explore version control systems (like Git) that they’re using to monitor code changes and collaborate efficiently.

• See which security measures they’re adopting to handle possible vulnerabilities and safeguard your sensitive data.

Besides, you need to assess the team’s flexibility in team size when your project needs are evolving. This is extremely important if you’re looking for a long-term partnership. 

Step 4: Assess Communication and Cultural Fit

When you have a shortlist of suitable candidates, move forward to evaluating whether their communication styles and cultural values match your own. These factors are essential in ensuring a consistent and productive collaboration in the long term. So to evaluate these factors effectively, set up a meeting – albeit online or in-person – with the shortlisted teams and pay attention to:

• Ability to understand your needs. Do they actively listen to your core problems and concerns that need specific software to resolve? How do they ask additional questions to understand your challenges correctly? 

• Responsiveness. How quickly and professionally do they respond to your challenges? Are their responses clear, detailed, and easy to understand? Do they avoid using jargon when unnecessary?

• Enthusiasm. How enthusiastically do they engage in the conversation? Are they genuinely interested in your project?

• Communication styles. Are they direct to the point or more nuanced? Do their verbal and non-verbal communication styles suit your own and your company culture? How do their communication styles help clarify problems and potential solutions?

Besides pre-cooperation communication, you need to evaluate how team members communicate internally to share knowledge, resolve conflicts, and ensure seamless work. This may involve daily stand-ups or weekly meetings. 

Also, find out how they communicate and report work progress to you (i.e., through communication tools like Jira and Microsoft Teams or channels like emails) and how frequently. This allows you to evaluate whether the team has clear and consistent communication to handle your potential issues instantly.

Step 5: Evaluate Their Pricing Models

Finally, ask dedicated development teams about their available pricing plans. Regardless of their offer, they need to be transparent about their rates, payment terms, and what’s included in the total cost (e.g., maintenance). Also, clarify which hidden costs may arise, like software licenses or additional expenses incurred by changes in scope and requirements. You can ask these teams to estimate an appropriate cost range within your budget constraints. 

Upon Your Choice

You’ve identified your project needs and implemented initial evaluations about technical skills, communication styles, and pricing models. So now, you’re almost reaching your development journey. But don’t rush! Before jumping into the development process, review your agreements carefully and start a trial period.

Scrutinize the Contract and Legal Agreements

Agreements play a crucial role in protecting your benefits and creating a clear framework for effective and productive partnerships. When reviewing agreements, you can have legal counsel if necessary. Accordingly, you need to examine the terms and conditions thoroughly, from data confidentiality and intellectual property rights to payment terms. 

You should also ensure clear service-level agreements (SLAs) are in place. These agreements are essential in clarifying the expected performance and quality targets of the services an outsourcing company offers. For this reason, you can easily set and track key metrics to measure how the team works, like bug fix turnaround times, communication frequency, uptime, and more. 

Start with a Pilot Project or Trial Period (if feasible)

Before making a long-term commitment, you can test the chosen team’s capabilities and working style by initiating a small phase of your project. This not only gives you a real-world evaluation of how the team works on actual tasks and fits your internal workflows but also reduces unexpected risks. 

Your pilot project should define clear deliverables, a clear timeframe, and clear evaluation metrics (e.g., code quality or compliance with timelines). It’s also crucial to choose tasks that are relevant to a larger project to assess their capabilities realistically. 

How Can a Designveloper’s Development Team Realize Your Project Idea?

Designveloper is one of the leading software development companies in Vietnam. With over years of expertise and experience in offering dedicated development services, we’ve successfully delivered over 100 projects to clients across industries like eCommerce, education, and healthcare. 

If you’re looking for a dedicated development team, Designveloper is a worth-considering option for some reasons:

• Proven track record. We boast a broad portfolio of cost-effective and scalable solutions – whether they’re websites, mobile apps, or enterprise platforms – that help increase operational efficiency, employee productivity, and customer engagement. These solutions aren’t generic yet customized to fit your specific demands. 

• Well-defined development processes. Our clients highly appreciate our on-time delivery. It’s all thanks to our adherence to Agile frameworks (e.g., SCRUM, Kanban) that allow us to deliver and release the most critical features. Below is our typical workflow:

• Timely responses and frequent communication. We offer quick responses to your queries and effective communication channels to keep you updated with work progress. We also actively listen to your constructive feedback and understand ever-changing requirements to make prompt adjustments. 

• Security. We adopt the best security practices to safeguard your data, especially confidential and sensitive data in transit and at rest. 

• Ongoing support and maintenance. We know deploying software isn’t the end. Therefore, we offer ongoing support and maintenance services to keep your software bug-free and updated with the latest trends, increasing customer satisfaction and driving sales. 

So, why wait? Contact us now and receive a free estimation for your project!

Conclusion

Now, you’ve reached the end of this article. We expect today’s article to give you enough information to learn about how to choose the right dedicated development team to complete your project successfully. For more interesting topics, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, X, and LinkedIn!