The Ultimate Guide On How To Manage A Web Development Team?

No matter how good your enterprise application development plans are or how big they are, it can be at risk if you don’t manage your website development team properly. 

According to stats, 70% of the projects don’t reach optimum because 42% of the companies don’t apprehend the importance of project management. ‘

 Hence, taking concrete steps is necessary when managing a website development team, especially in a managerial position. 

We had a discourse with some of our top website project managers in our web application development company on how to manage a team & the web development team's roles & responsibilities. Here’s what they suggested. 

How to structure a web development project & manage it well. 

1. Take the best fit on board

While building a web team, not only should you consider fixing the web team roles & responsibilities in advance. But also, you should consider the six roles of the web development team for a well-sketched-out team.

Six roles of the web development team 

Project manager

Agree or not, the project manager is the most important one. His/her ability to plan, assign, and organize tasks will help you reap results when managing a team of talented website developers. Moreover, it will make your job easier as it is the project manager you must always keep in touch with.

Front-end developer

^{A front-end developer is the one who will do the client side of your web application, making sure that your customers have a good time while using your website. And that’s why you need to hire front-end developer based on the tech stack you have chosen for your web.}  

Back-end developer 

A back-end developer is the one who will do the server side of your application. And thus, back-end developers and front-end developers play a critical role in building your website.

But, if you don’t want to hire separate front-end and back-end developers, you can hire full-stack developers, masters of both front-end and back-end. There are many full-stack developer languages, you can choose a full stack engineer with MERN, MEAN, or MEVN, or if your website requires a high-end back-end system, you can choose to go with a full developer with expertise in the LAMP tech stack. That way, you can save on your budget and get a talented developer for your web development team. 

UI/UX designer or Website designer

When it comes to the designs of your website, a UI/UX designer will map the journey of your website and will design a website, keeping in mind your target users and what is best for them. 

QA Engineer 

When your web application or website is built, the QA engineer will test your web from all fronts and ensure that everything is functional for users. In addition, checking if your website is working on all search engines and getting automatically customized according to the devices is all the work of a QA. 

Business Analyst 

A business analyst's primary task is to check your vision's market fit and analyze every pros and cons of getting your enterprise-based web application to a high digital level. 

Having a business analyst on board will be of much support when it comes to SaaS or production-oriented applications. 

SEO Specialist 

Post getting your website live on the Search engines, you will need an SEO specialist in your team, who will take care of any optimization your website needs according to the search engines. 

2. Be clear with your expectations

Clear expectations lead to expected results. To manage your team effectively, you must explain your expectations clearly to your team. The more they are clear with your goals, the more they will strive to achieve them and reap greater results.
 

3. Choose a compelling website development approach

Remember, everything should be selected beforehand regarding the approach, tech stack, or web frameworks. The development approach should sync with the requirements you have. 

Agile

If you are looking forward to custom web development, it’s best to use the Agile approach. Agile gives you better control over your project and helps you prioritize the workload effectively. 

Waterfall

A waterfall is a linear approach; thus, your project will be staged. Only after the designs of your whole project are completed will the development start, and the same pattern will continue until getting your website live. 

Choosing an approach for your web development will define your further web development path and how you will proceed with the development of your website. Choose rightly. 

4. Set an achievable timeline. 

The essential part of any project is how to structure a web development project and set an achievable timeline.  Getting a website or web application live on the search engines can become a hard-core task if you don’t strategize things properly as a leader. 

In addition, if your web application is highly based on your data, it is necessary to map your server side and the client side of your application very carefully, considering every security matter. After designs, the web programmers code your web application, deciding whether it should be static or dynamic and many other aspects. 

Your timeline should consider all these stages of building a website, subsequently setting an overall project completion timeline. 

5. Communicate properly

Communicate properly, don’t assume that the other person would have understood things. Remember, you are remote working, and there will be many communication gaps. 

After explaining important things, confirm with the other person and ask them to explain it to you, so you can rectify them in case anything is misunderstood. Communicating properly is managing properly. 

6. Always Appreciate your web development team 

Emphasize a culture of appreciation & feedback. Appreciated & acknowledgments will help your team to stay motivated. Moreover, it is seen that 62% of successfully completed projects had supportive sponsors, backed by recognition and appreciation. 

7. Use the correct project management tools.

A shared network for your project will help all your project web developers connect in a safe virtual space.

Moreover, many project management and communication tools are available in the market. As a leader leading a group of talented web developers and engineers, your job is to select a communication and project management tool that facilitates fuss-free planning. 

Make sure to use project management tools that have real-time reporting capabilities, time-tracking systems, analytics tools, and comparison reports.

8. Build a strict reporting environment

From the beginning, build a strict reporting environment, where every team member should report to you at the start and the end of the day.  That’s not it; along with reporting, your web development team should mention what tasks they will take up today and which they will complete. 

Asking your team to report to you at the start and end of the day will work to their benefit as they will be well-acquainted with the task they have committed to completing and will help meet timelines. 

9.  Understand what works best for them 

^{Developing a website for your business or an enterprise can sometimes become an overwhelming task, with all the expectations you might have had. Don’t forget the web development team working on your project are also human beings. Not everything you might say would be possible to create, or even if possible, not possible to create by the developers you have chosen. Talk it out with your website developing team and see which solutions you can bring to the table.} 

On top of that, know what works best for your team of website developers & designers. Appreciate them the way they wish. Have frequent one-on-one sessions with them and have once-a-week team-building sessions. 

Every web developer/designer/QA in your team should be on the same page. For that, schedule meetings with everyone and try to get a progress report from the team. 

10.  Support them throughout

Over and above everything, the team developing your web application should feel supported at all times. Your courage and firmness in those low situations will provide the much-needed support & motivation to rise high again. 

Know that you are the backbone of this team; they look up to you in all aspects. Trust your web developer skills; you have a long way to go as a team. 

When the times are high, appreciate them and celebrate your success. 

And when the times are low, encourage them and be the guiding light. 

Those good and bad situations will define your leadership qualities and how well you can manage a team. Play your role gracefully.  

Takeaways, 

If you are determined to build a product, you must build a team that is hands down talented and believe in your vision. Being a goal-oriented web application development company in London, UK, we lead 45+ web application developers comprising front & back-end developers, full stack developers, web designers, SEO specialists,  and business analysts. 

All our team members are our valued employees, and whenever we commence any project, we make sure to have a kickoff meeting to discuss and plan the whole website development journey. Not to mention, all our projects, be it mobile app development or website development, have a project manager who leads the team and is at the top of the hierarchy. 

All-inclusive, at Impero, we ensure that our team grows; at the same time, each & every one grows professionally. With frequent HR guidance sessions, one-on-one meetings, and regular team conferences, we help our team sync with each with a growth-oriented mindset. 

If you have any queries regarding any aspect of managing a team or wish to know which project management tools we use as a web development company, feel free to contact us for any information. 

All the best!