How to Scale Software Teams Efficiently?

Scale Software Teams Efficiently

Being a product-based company, the major focus is onto the creation of the product. But when the requirement increases, the focus gets diverted towards the scaling of the team so that the entire release cycle can run efficiently. While some businesses plan for software outsourcing, some prefer to expand the team in-house. Either is fine; however, if you’re someone who wants to do the same, you need a smart strategy to scale up your offshore software development teams.

Coming to talk about the competition, your product development speed along with its USP relies upon the ability to scale your team as well as its technical expertise.

Some challenges tend to slow down the overall development process leading to missing the timelines of the project. Finding the right talent is challenging, especially when you want to expand your business. Hence, the following are the key factors to be considered while scaling up your software teams efficiently.

Stage 1: Strategy & Planning

Define your goal, vision, and road map for the product
Put down on paper what is your ultimate goal in terms of expansion. The idea is to have a clear objective of scaling. Write a vision for the expansion in bullet points to sort your thoughts around the same.

Once your goal and the vision get finalized, it will become easier for you to create an efficient workflow for your software development teams. Keep the workflow streamlined as per the roadmap decided for the product release. The roadmap will help you and the team decide whether to work ahead of the designers or to keep working in the loop with the product release.

Stage 2: Scale quickly by using software outsourcing Company

Get competent dedicated developers
The decision of scaling up teams comes with the foremost thought of hiring employees in-house. However, it consumes a lot of time and energy. Along with that, in-house recruitment comes with the tags like medical benefits, annual bonuses, and additional allowances.

If this makes you think of going for the freelancer services as your second option, then you might want to re-think it. A freelancer can possess the required skills for your project but it’s slightly difficult to ask for their full dedication towards your project because obviously, they’d be engaged in several other projects.

Depending upon your production requirement, the safest would be to outsource to an offshore software development company. You’d only spend the time and money that is rightly enough for the complete dedication from the offshore software development team.

The best part about outsourcing is, it is flexible – you can distribute outsourced software development teams with the tasks that your internal team is overloaded with. Also, it comes with no fixed cost, meaning, you’d only pay for the work that you’ve assigned them to deliver. Moreover, outsourcing lets you scale up and down (if required) fast depending on your development requirements with no worry of letting people go when the project is completed or recruiting the resources in a hurry when the project is expanding.

Stage 3: Define technical stack

Pick what’s right for your product and not what’s most popular
This one becomes a bit tricky to decide for some businesses as they stay in the dilemma as to whether to go with what’s most popular in the market or choose what is right for their product. A common mistake can be seen with several businesses where the trend takes over the actual need and eventually leads to the failure of product release.

Thus, instead of this, define the technical stack to make every single process smooth. In case, you’re using an agile methodology, then you must keep the communication between the teams open with the tools like video conferencing and project management.

Know that automation is the key to efficient work. And, in case, you’ve decided to outsource software development services, then make sure that everything is streamlined and in sync with the in-house team.

Or, there is a slightest chance that you’d require some technological devices or tool. So, as per the usage requirement, it is advisable to lease only what’s needed for the release. Knowing when to use which technology can make or break your game.

Stage 4: Agile Methodology

Use Agile as a development methodology
Traditional software development teams follow the classic waterfall methodology, where teams work on the detailed project plan, then directly switch to a linear development process that consists of set deadlines and no deviations. And, in case of any requirement, there are no do-overs.

Coming to talk about Agile, teams can plan the projects at the beginning and can make the changes or adjustments as and when is required. Teams that use Agile methodology are the most organized teams as they rely upon automation which eventually takes care of the major manual work – leaving the software developers to do more and high impactful work. As per the experts, the agile methodology makes it easier for companies to respond to the challenges of scalability.

Stage 5: Inspect and Adapt

Keep up with the release plan for your product
In any development project, you must be ready to accept the uncertainty that the future holds. Inspecting the change and adapting the strategy as per that inspection is a key to a successful business. You can strategize your budget, resources, and time to shift the changes as and when the inspection highlights a change that can hinder the release plan of the product.

While working with the software development team, keep the proactive approach to identify the potential risks and dependencies that exists within the team – and with the help of adaptability work on mitigating the issues found during the inspection. To keep the workflow more efficient you can conduct daily meetings to discuss how to improve communication and collaboration among the members and distributed teams. This sort of monitoring is critical for the overall growth of your business.

The Final Word

Successful software development scaling can be best achieved through a solid foundation built on a clear mission, vision, and culture, as well as some substantial processes along with the right technical base.

While each organization is unique, one thing remains true for all, it’s crucial to enforce agile methodology to perform efficiently.

Also, when it comes to scaling your software development team, make sure to keep the teams in sync and in alignment with your overall business requirements.

We at RSK Business Solutions, provide offshore software development services as per your product requirements. Before execution of the work with the agile methodology, we offer consultation which would work as a guide till the end of the product release.