You will require an app development team. What are the essential app development team skills that distinguish one from another?
You look, search, interview… However, each mobile app company sounds eerily similar to the others. When you ask them about their skill sets, you get a download of engineering speak – technologies, languages, and platforms that only serve to make them sound more similar.
What qualities distinguish an app development team?
Business knowledge.
After all, they’ll never build it the way you want it if they don’t understand your vision.
“The average engineer spends about 15-30 percent of his or her time working with non-engineers every week,” writes Eric Feng on TechCrunch. Much of that time is wasted if your mobile software engineers lack business sense. As a result, according to a Harvard Business Review study, 75 percent of cross-functional teams are dysfunctional. Not yours, however. Your app developers will be the best in the business. Why? Because you are aware of the 14 skills that every app development team must possess in order to be successful.
You Need the Team’s Essential App Development Team Skills
1. Product Administration
A mobile app developer’s product manager serves as a key liaison between the project team and the client. They delve into the app’s business requirements and learn about the client’s vision. They ensure that the app development team shares the same vision.
2. Agile Methodologies and Scrum Management
You must use Agile development practices if you want to be successful with mobile applications. It’s ideal for the fast-paced mobile industry, where technologies change as quickly as a single “old-school” product lifecycle. Agile methodologies are made up of a series of fast-paced design, build, and release events.
Scrum Management is the most effective method for managing these projects. Scrum, which is ideal for highly cross-functional mobile development teams, promotes greater cohesion among developers and clients through aggressive communication schedules and frequent reviews. Scrum experience is one of the essential app development team skills we look for in prospective employees at MDX.
3. User Interaction and Experience
These skills, known as UI/UX, are critical for the satisfaction of the end user. They’re also frequently overlooked by mobile app development firms, which tend to focus on enabling rather than encouraging actions. Even if you have the ideal app concept, you may not know how to present it to your customers.
A team of skilled UI/UX professionals can fill that void. That’s why, increasingly, UI/UX is at the top of the list of essential app development team skills.
4. Design
The term “design” simply refers to the overall appearance and feel of the app. Customers do not want unsightly apps and icons on their high-tech smartphones. They want your app to look good as well as provide a good experience and value. Your mobile app development team should be able to create designs that entice and inspire customers to use their apps.
5. Composing
Have you ever opened an app that looked great but had cringe-worthy wording? If the text on your app appears to have been written by an ESL student, you should pay closer attention to the writing. Even if it doesn’t, you want your words to support your message – and occasionally persuade users to act. Your average C# engineer will sound more like an ESL student than a trained copywriter.
Don’t create the perfect mobile app only to send the wrong message through poor writing. Make certain that your app development includes professional-quality writing as well.
6. Business Evaluation
This skill entails translating the client’s vision and requirements into development needs and specs for the project team. It is frequently performed by project or product managers, but it is a distinct skill in its own right. A mobile development team with more business analysis training and experience will be able to translate your vision into bottom-line results more effectively.
7. Communication
Scrum management necessitates close cooperation between you and the mobile development team. The same is true for interactions among their cross-functional groups. You want your app developers to be on your wavelength. Every member of their team must also be on the same page.
This necessitates the ability to communicate – to communicate clearly – both orally and in writing. It appears to be a simple thing, but in the high-tech world, it can be difficult to find.
8. Quality assurance and performance testing
In the world of Agile deployments, QA skills are critical to your app’s long-term viability. Your mobile development team should employ stringent QA testing methodologies. Being “agile” can lead some businesses to prioritize speed over quality. However, QA testing is not something you want to cut corners on, so make sure your prospective app development team has this essential skill.
Engineers Must Have These Essential App Development Team Skills
The eight business and general skills listed above are essential for your app development team. Here are six more essential app development team skills that software engineers should have:
9. Modern Programming Languages
Because mobile is the future technology, you don’t want an app developer who is stuck in the past. DZone ranks HTML5, Objective-C, Swift, C++, C#, and Java as the top six programming languages for mobile development.
Of course, your app development team does not have to use all of these. However, they should be proficient in at least one or more of them… and be able to explain why they made that decision.
10. Infrastructure in the Cloud
Because cloud infrastructure is such an important part of mobile development, the team should be familiar with Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. For example, Microsoft Azure is a platform for deploying and managing applications and services. It houses its infrastructure in a global network of Microsoft data centers.
Platforms like these will host the majority of the apps you create, so your app development team should be comfortable interacting with them and able to recommend the best one for your needs.
11. Capabilities Across Platforms
Whether you start your app on Android, iOS, or Windows, any successful app will want to be ported to the other two. The disadvantage of developing native apps for one platform is that it makes porting to other platforms much more difficult. In some cases, a completely different team of engineers may be required.
That is why it is critical that your app development team advocates for a cross-platform tool. MDX chose Xamarin as the best tool for the job. Xamarin is written in C# and provides a dependable tool for translating apps cleanly into Android, iOS, and Windows – or all three at the same time.
12. Data Knowledge
Apps are powered by data. Customers are defined by data. Data is what you’ll collect as well as how you’ll recognize your final results. You require that information. There’s a lot of it. This means that skilled data engineers will be required to create the most efficient databases and repositories possible. A well-designed database will result in a smoother, more responsive app.
Your app development team may also come across data in a variety of formats from a variety of sources. Understanding these sources and being able to interact with them seamlessly is a necessary skill for mobile development.
13. Integration with Cloud-Based Systems
You never know what you’ll find in the cloud. Amazon Web Services, for example, has grown so large and versatile that it has enabled all kinds of platforms, languages, systems, and data. You could either push data into these systems or pull data out – or both. This means you’ll need mobile developers who understand push notifications and are prepared to deal with whatever comes their way.
14. Safety
Keeping your apps secure can be a real pain for a CEO. You must protect your customers’ privacy, keep your systems secure, and have all logs, checks, and balances in place.
We use tools like OAuth at MDX to allow user logins via social media accounts. This avoids revealing passwords and has the added benefit of end-user familiarity. But, when it comes to security, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
There will always be some level of risk. What matters is that the risk is minimized. Working with mobile development teams who understand security protocols, best practices, and tools is essential, because you can never be too safe online.
Does Team Size Matter When It Comes to Essential App Development Team Skills?
No, it makes no difference whether the team is small or large. Small teams will rely on members who are versatile and have multiple skills, whereas large teams may have more specialists. However, make sure they don’t specialize too much, or communication will become a problem.
Agile methodologies may be most effective with smaller, more adaptable teams… However, there are always exceptions to the rule.
How many of these critical app development skills does your team possess?
Does the team you’re thinking about meeting the requirements? We certainly hope so! If not, think about Marcelo Design X. We are very proud of our highly skilled and versatile teams. And we believe that good business sense, not technology, drives results.
So, whether you go with Marcelo Design X or another mobile app development company, make sure the team you hire has these 14 essential skills.
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