Gloria
What needs to go into consideration when forming a software development team?
I was recently asked to be a part of a software development team for the technology student association in my high school. I wanted to know what to expect since I will be saying yes to the team. All I have experience in with technology related things is coding in different languages such as Python, JavaScript, CSS, etc. #software-engineering #software-development #software-design #software-documentation #teamwork #project-teams
4 answers
Stephen Lopez, PMP
Stephen’s Answer
In addition to the comments above, joining the development team will provide you with a fun way to hone your coding skills, as well as provide you with the opportunity to learn the software development life-cycle (SDLC).
Your team may choose to use a water-fall approach, or may opt to use Agile/Scrum., or some other development approach.
You may also find that you have an opportunity to learn new skills in order to complete a project.
Good luck if you decide to participate, and don't forget to be creative and have fun with it.
Stephen
Ninva Ponsonby
Ninva’s Answer
This is a very good question. When developing a software, the most important thing is that the purpose of the software is well understood by the whole team so that they can all work towards the expected outcome. The team will obviously need people who are capable of writing code and assembling it. It will need people who are able to test the software and record errors, people who are good at trouble shooting and fixing bugs.
Sometimes, the overall design of the software will determine how the writing of the software can be divided up amongst the team.
The code will go through may revisions and iterations, so it's important to keep track of all the different versions to reduce time wastage on redoing any code which was already written, if it was needed again and for testing and troubleshooting purposes.
You need to be able to ensure that no one's work is lost, so checking the software in and out of the Software Repository is an important aspect of the Software Development.
The code should be reviewed by people who know about security of software, so that they can ensure that there are no vulnerabilities, trogons, etc resident within the software and that the code is sound from the point of view of any attacks.
When the code is ready for release, it should go through "User Acceptance Testing" which will test that the software meets the Requirements and any tweaks are carried out at this stage.
In case of some software there will be a need for various types of testing and different scenarios can be written out and played out to ensure that the software works as expected.
Documentation is an important part of Software Development. Information should be added to pieces of code to enable others easily work out the purpose of different pieces of code.
Wish you all the best with your software project(s).
Hanish Salindra Parthasarathy
Hanish’s Answer
Angela Wiggins
Angela’s Answer
Hello Gloria - A software development team is like other teams; it has many different members who fulfill various roles. There is usually a Project Manager who outlines tasks for the team and helps remove roadblocks to make sure the team succeeds. Then there are developers who will be writing the code. There may be a lead who is more experienced giving guidance to the lesser experienced code writers. In some cases, another person serves as a tester and independently tests the code against any written requirements and may serve as a "user acceptance tester". Hope this helps you jump right in and say "where can I help this team?"