The Web Development Team: Key Roles and Functions

Web development is such a large field with different underlying sub-components, which at the same time are implemented by other technologies, tools, and programming languages. Web developers working in technology companies or inside technology-related departments or organizations have more access to advanced technologies and devices than ever before. Through this new era of technologies, traditional businesses went from the old ways of doing physical business to working and transacting online.

With the rise of many online businesses in recent years, the web development procedure has also evolved to work hand to hand with clients. After all, not all clients are technology enthusiasts but business personnel and marketing strategists who want to launch or expand their business in the digital world. The web development team-client collaboration makes up a fully functional, engaging, and effective web product.

Nonetheless, web development teams should have deep knowledge of technology and project management to provide online businesses an edge over their competitors promptly. Modern web applications are anticipated to be of greater user expectations and demands. Websites are expected to be up twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week from any part of the world. This makes the role of web development experts critical at every level of the development undertaking.

A dedicated web development team structure is very important as it gives a significant advantage in implementing all the necessary features needed for the project, including bug fixing and maintenance, which can significantly impact multiple components of the web development project. A devoted website development team at the company's disposal provides both the client and the company greater control over the changing scenarios, which involves the ability to quickly react and adapt to critical situations involving the live web application with a quick turnaround time.

For the most part, the whole development process is no longer limited to programming or coding and its underlying tasks. The overall success of the whole project does not only depend on the code but the solution it supplies to the problem that the business is trying to provide. To achieve this, the team should include experienced team members who can bring commendatory skills to the table. These skill sets involve human interaction, user experience principles, and overall project management.

In reality, there is no one-person technical team in the modern website development industry. While you can learn all the skillsets a company needs for a project, you will never be that great or effective to fill up all the tasks of different individuals for a particular role. As the team embarks on the development process, tasks can come in peaks and troughs, and there will be unexpected situations where it requires the solid attention of a specific individual with a particular set of skills.

A precise overall site planning and overview of the team structure, along with their respective roles and functions during the development procedure, gives your project an edge to digital success. To be successful online, the team's highest priority is to satisfy the client through early and continuous delivery of timely and effective web applications. This can only be possible if the company can leverage the best individuals with the right skill set to enable them to fulfill their client's goals rather than building applications fast without a clear development plan and technical know-how. The web team must also be knowledgeable about the best web frameworks, stacks, tools, practices, and even the programming languages to use for a specific project and should be able to adapt and learn new technology as they mature.

The budget and team size are critical aspects of the project goals and development phase. Both of these affect the company's operation to fund employees and facilitate the implementation of each project's requirements and features to ensure the success of the overall web project. A good team must be composed of specialists for a specific task and must understand the scope and functions of each team member to avoid any overtaking of tasks and roles while the team is doing each respective assignment in the development process.

The modern web is constantly growing and innovating which requires specific expertise in different tasks of the web app development process. Whether it's an online business or branding, the ability of the development team to react quickly and adapt is crucial, as technology and disruptive factors can affect the pace of change. This may require new ways of communication and collaboration from different individuals (such as with the digital marketing team) with specific specialists and technical know-how, which can contribute to the universal success of the project.

Finding and hiring the right technical team can be a daunting task. Many businesses can sometimes overlook the critical aspects of an efficient team that can contribute to the success of the website project. Most web development teams, significantly larger teams, designate individuals for a specific task, allowing one individual to occupy a particular role. While it is challenging, having the right people with the right skills will surely enable your company to meet the client's requirements and goals.

In particular, the website development team should have the following primary skillset in order to be as efficient as possible:

Project Analysis

This involves assessing and recognizing every aspect of the project involving the project management, such as the project plan and project requirements, to determine the scope, the budget, and the project problem that may occur while the team is working on the website project.

Project Management

This involves managing and leading the team to their respective tasks to ensure that the project deliverables are being accomplished. This includes planning, organizing, delegating, and maintaining project resources. This may also involve collaboration with other team members outside the development scope, such as the marketing team.

Information Architecture

This covers the foundation of the website's structural design, which can include site maps, site architecture diagrams, navigation, hierarchies, metadata, and content flow to rigorously guide the users to the flow of the website's information as intended.

User Interface Design

This is the process of creating beautiful and efficient visual design components to control the interactions between the user and the website through various functional web elements. This includes the look and feels components of the website, such as the cards, call to action, accordion, and more.

User Experience Design

This involves the process of creating a meaningful user experience through a relevant and clear user-centered design flow. This can be done through proper research, gathering valuable data, and usability testing. User experience design focuses on the factors involving the perceived user experience rather than specific user interface elements to produce a good user experience and interaction within the website or platform. A marketing strategist sometimes uses user experience to convey a message or sell a product without being too pitchy.

Graphic Design

This is the practice of creating and organizing graphical/visual elements such as images, colors, lines, shapes, text, form, and more to communicate a particular message to the intended audience visually. Companies have used graphic design to attract customers through visually appealing media. It is an integral part of every website's marketing strategy, enabling web designers and developers to connect websites with consumers. This can include logos, branding materials, and illustrations.

Web Technologies

This includes utilizing different technologies a web developer uses to create and launch websites and applications. This comes in various categories, from programming languages and web frameworks to database languages and platforms. This can also include a set of modern principles and techniques that web developers should know to produce the required features and functionalities for the project. While there are too many web technologies to choose from, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will always be the primary classified web technologies that are regularly used to create web pages.

Software Testing

This is the process of examining the behavior of the websites and their underlying features to check if it's working as intended. The primary goal of software testing is to identify existing errors or bugs and fix them, reduce development costs and enhance website or application performance. Software testing covers the gap between the user and the web developer to ensure the overall success of the website project before, during, and after the launch

The rise of personal computing and increased innovation on different devices enabled the fast transition of business-driven applications to the end-users machine. At the same phase, web standards have matured richly to the point where different web technologies, such as frameworks, libraries, and tools, have become a norm for every type of website and application. The world wide web has become a natural habitat for developers deploying different static or dynamic applications.

Along with the technology revolution and ways to structure and market websites over the last few years, so is the increase in demand for an excellent website development team. Composing a web development team structure is not an easy task. To become as efficient as possible, you must bring the right individuals with relevant knowledge and skillset for a specific field. Each individual has a particular role in the website or application development and maintenance to meet the client's requirements and needs.

Below are some of the vital roles of the web development team:

Project Manager

The project manager is like the captain of the ship. They serve as the leader of the web team and are responsible for making important decisions relating to the project. The project manager's tasks involve recognizing, analyzing, planning, organizing, monitoring, and maintaining every part of the project. This can also include managing the team and monitoring the accomplishments of each task assigned to each team member for a particular field. The project manager ensures the project is delivered efficiently on time, and within budget.

Other tasks of the project manager include:

• Overall site planning and implementation of the entire project.
• Creating project documentation.
• Constant communication with the client.
• Conducting regular meetings with the web development team.
• Raising other essential concerns about the project.

Project Architect

The project architect's role involves establishing the project's structure including design and feasibility. Its primary role lies in the design planning and specifications of elements that project designers and web developers can use to create the ideal product based on the client's requirements and goals. The project architect plays a vital role in creating the project's blueprint to help developers materialize the proper infrastructure, content, functionalities, features, and behavior for the website project.

UI Designer

The UI designer or user interface designer is the one responsible for the design of the user interfaces of the website. The role of UI Designers is primarily to establish the foundational interfaces or website components that users can use to interact with the website. This can include creating interface elements such as controls, cards, buttons, sliders, forms, pagination, and more. A UI Designer usually works with UX Designer to provide a better experience to the users. However, for the most part, a UI Designer role focuses mainly on the visual experience rather than the workflow.

UX Designer

The role of the UX designer or user experience designer focuses primarily on optimizing the website user interfaces and workflow to provide a better and more meaningful user-product experience. While there are plenty of responsibilities that may be attached to the role of the UX Designer, it usually involves interaction design, usability, feasibility, branding, and some forms of marketing strategy. The UX Designer role covers all user interaction and flows from navigation to customer interaction.

Graphic Designer

A graphic designer produces a variety of visual design components for all forms of media, such as website banners, logos, and other marketing resources. The graphic designer's role covers print and digital media to communicate messages, information, and product advertisement/promotion. Using various design elements such as text, images, shapes, icons, and styles, the graphic designer can create cutting-edge designs essential for every type of niche, whether for physical or digital resources.

Web Developer

The web developer's role is vital to the entire team. Without a developer on the team, no website will be built or launched. A web developer's primary role focuses on the project's coding aspect, ensuring that the developed website is visually appealing, functional, easy to use, and achieves the client's or business requirements and needs. There are two typical types of web developers: front-end (client-side) and back-end (server-side), although sometimes an individual can work on both roles as a full-stack developer. Front-end developers use web languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to produce beautiful and interactive websites that are often seen or viewed on a browser. On the other hand, back-end developers are responsible for coding websites with application logic, producing APIs, and dynamic features using server-side languages such as PHP, Ruby, and Python. Back-end developers are also responsible for maintaining databases and ensuring the website is available 24/7.

Software Tester/QA Engineer

The software tester is the individual responsible for monitoring the website's efficiency, which involves testing and identifying bugs, errors, or any software issues. The software tester's role primarily revolves around the quality assurance process to ensure that the website does what it's supposed to do based on the client's requirements and user expectations.

It's impossible to manage a successful online business without the help of many individuals. Your web development team can make or break your website or application. This is why choosing the right team members is very crucial for the success of the entire project and its operations. Understanding the web development team structure can help you achieve the client's goals and needs as efficiently as possible with minimal impediments.

Below are some of the tips you can follow when assembling or creating a website development team:

• Define your web development project's scope, size, and budget first before doing anything.
• Identify the specific skillset you need for your web development project.
• Research where to find the best possible team members.
• Hire team members not because of degree or length of experience. Although experience can be a vital factor when hiring the right team members, the drive, purpose, and characteristics of a person are some of the significant predictors of how the individual can fit into your web development team and company.
• Try team members for a test task or small project before making a permanent commitment to see if that's the right individual for your team for a specific field.
• Hire developers with a dynamic skillset and aptitude. Almost every year, a new technology comes out, and some skills become obsolete. Hiring developers that can quickly learn and adapt to new frameworks, libraries, and tools can give your team an edge on your project.
• Identify the work environment setup and its advantages and disadvantages. Analyze if your web development team needs to work in-office or can work remotely or both.
• Create a working model to establish each project's working environment style.
• Pay your team members right and on time. Employees getting paid right and on time will add more value to your company especially if they felt valued.