Web development is an evolving industry with many professionals offering their services in different aspects and domains of this field. That is why a successful team has experts with different roles and responsibilities.
When developing an app or a website, you need a collaborative team with expertise and experience. You might think that web developers are the only professionals you need. But you must also hire GUI designers, analysts, and quality assurance specialists. Besides, if you don’t have proper management in the team, the projects might fail to meet the required goals.
Still, it may often be hard to compile the whole team in-house. You can outsource some roles from design agencies to help you complete your projects successfully.
In fact, outsourcing some team roles for web development comes with several benefits. For example, when you outsource employees, you’ll be able to save money since the costs of recruitment and training are cut. Furthermore, outsourced employees boast the expertise and skills to perform their tasks well and complete projects on time. Plus, outsourcing some roles allows you to stay-up-to-date with the latest technological changes and generate fresh ideas and perspectives about web development.
This article discusses the essential team roles you need to know and those you can easily outsource.
Requirements Analyst
One of the most important roles in a development team is the requirements analyst. Before starting any project, you need someone to analyze it extensively and create a vision board for the task. Consequently, the development team uses this task to plan and draw out the timelines.
Whether you want to develop a customized banking app or an ecommerce website, the requirements analyst will need to know the product’s objectives and match them with specific business needs. This expert must interpret the original requirements to get comprehensible product specifications for the team and start the development process.
The requirement analyst breaks down each section of the project and illustrates all functions to help the entire team understand the specifications. You can hire an in-house analyst for your company to help you through all the design projects. It is essential to get someone who understands your company goals to set the right foundation for each product.
Web Development Virtual Assistant
Just like in the eCommerce industry where you can outsource some roles, the web development
world needs the services of a virtual assistant as well. A virtual assistant is an independent
contractor that works remotely and can provide services, such as web development and design
and website maintenance.
Essentially, a web development virtual assistant can help in various ways. For instance, they can
assist you in conducting competitor research for website development, site research, and
responsive web design. They can carry out business website maintenance too.
On the other hand, a web designer virtual assistant creates the layout, aesthetics, interface of
websites. They’re in charge of web design elements, such as user interface design, graphic
design, and optimization for search engines. Overall, outsourcing virtual assistant roles will lead to successful website development projects.
Project Manager
If you want your web development company to succeed, hire a professional project manager. As the name suggests, a project manager is responsible for handling the entire project from idea conception to launch. They ensure each process runs smoothly without any technical issues. Some of the responsibilities include client communication, scheduling project meetings, and allocating tasks to the team.
As a business owner, finding the perfect project manager is key to a successful team. Moreover, your project manager ensures the team has the estimated timelines for each project to avoid delays. Besides, they also plan and manage the project budget while ensuring the team has the required skill set and expertise to handle each project.
Since the best managers are difficult to find, you can outsource this essential role from reputable web development vendors. Outsourcing a project manager is the best decision because you will have a smooth product cycle.
UX/UI Designers
The design phase is the most crucial aspect of web development. Ignoring the significance of this stage will affect your entire project. You need to have user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designers to work on the product’s appearance and usability. These two designers are essential in making your final product market-ready and valuable to users.
Usually, UX designers double up as UX researchers since they need to understand the market first. The designer will conduct thorough research to identify the target audience and their needs. At the end of the exercise, you need to know the user problems and how your product will offer solutions with suitable designs. Other key roles of a UX designer are constructing wireframes and developing product prototypes.
The UI designer’s work is to ensure the user interface is appealing with the right color combinations, typography, and images. These elements must be included in the prototype before the development phase.
Most small agencies usually hire experts who can take up both the roles of a UI and a UX designer to save up on costs. Still, a much better option is outsourcing UX/UI professionals if you want your product to stand out.
Developer – Frontend and Backend
You can’t build any web product without developers in the team. Developers play a core role in web development globally. Depending on their skills, programming knowledge, and expertise, these professionals can develop the front and backend of a web product. Let us explore these two developers:
Frontend Developer
This programming expert develops the frontend side of the product. It is also known as the client-side. The developer’s role is to make sure the interface looks appealing to users. Once you open a website, the actions, images, and typography on the screen are visible because of the frontend expert’s work. The programming languages required for this role include HTML, CSS, and Javascript.
Backend Developer
This developer works on the backend or server-side of the web product. They are responsible for writing codes that control the servers and databases. The browser will communicate with the server and display what you have requested when opening the site. Some of the programming languages this developer should know are PHP, Python, Java, Ruby, and SQL.
If you don’t have a skilled and experienced team of in-house programmers, you can outsource the developers and build an exceptional product.
QA Engineer
Another essential role you must never overlook is the quality assurance engineer. QA specialists ensure the product functions seamlessly before the launch. These experts usually come in during the testing phase.
The major responsibility of a QA engineer is to test the product through the entire development cycle. It takes you back to the start, where the requirement analyst had specific product specifications. Does the final product meet all the requirements? Moreover, the QA specialists are responsible for checking out any coding errors in the app or website. Ultimately, this specialist must issue a full report on a particular product’s overall design, functionality, and efficiency before its release to universal users.
Outsourcing a QA engineering role is always a great idea since your project will undergo thorough testing to pass the required standard procedures objectively.
Conclusion
Recruiting the best talent in your development team is crucial to the success of your web projects. Whether you decide to hire an in-house team or outsource the roles from a reliable agency, always ensure you get highly skilled people with experience handling the different team roles.