How Many People Should You Hire To Start an IT Project?

The secret behind a successful IT project is setting up a solid foundation. Trying to do this on your own is next to impossible, which is why you need a team of competent people in all the right places. While the needed capacity varies from project to project, the following five spots are the ones which you should primarily focus on.

1. Project Manager

Although it’s often considered unnecessary, this role can have a very noticeable effect on the overall productivity and morale. A project manager oversees the progress and usually works with every employee regardless of their position. He is responsible for keeping the project on track, defining the goals and providing guidance. A project manager assigns tasks while ensuring that the deadlines are met – all the while implementing necessary quality control and risk management techniques.

Project managers have to be highly communicative and flexible, as well as proficient in the areas in which the project requires them to be. They should be able to understand the main purpose of everyone’s job, ideally with multiple years of experience under their belt. Furthermore, studies have shown a higher turnover rate in projects with poor management, which is a further testament to the importance of this role.

2. Developers

These people are going to be the driving force behind your idea. They should specialize in the specific roles that your project requires – for a website, you’ll need to hire net developers

and designers, a mobile app will require knowledge in either C#, Python, Swift or other languages with native iOS and Android support and if you want to create a game, you’ll need a mix of designers and programmers. It’s important to do as much research as possible in order to find out which positions will be the best fit towards achieving your goal. Depending on the size of the project, you might need multiple devs from the same branch,

To avoid spending all of your finances here, it’s in your best interest to take advantage of an offshore software development company. Ukrainian-based Qubit Labs does all of the hard work for you by forming a team consisting of only the most skilled Ukrainian developers. They’ll be on the top of your project for eight hours a day, five days a week working from the office that’s up to par with the latest technology standards. All that’s required from you is to specify the type of your project as well as the primary languages, and your team will be ready to start in no time.

3. Marketing Specialists

Good Internet presence is a must if you want to spread your audience reach. In recent years, marketing has become a very wide concept and involves multiple branches such as social media marketing, SEO optimization, content marketing and others.

For example, if you want to rank high on Google’s search engine list, there’s no better way to achieve this than through effective SEO optimization. This includes proper keyword placement, good website accessibility and high-quality backlinks.

Social media and content marketing have a more direct influence – the former implies taking advantage of accounts with a high number of followers, while the latter usually refers to methods such as guest posting.

Although this role depends on what you’re trying to achieve, you should always seek someone who has a more expanded skill set and who’s open to continuous learning.

4. QA Manager

Certain quality standards have to be determined so that your employees know what to aim for. Similarly to the project manager, a QA manager is tasked with making sure that everyone works in sync while fulfilling certain metrics.

However, they are more focused on working with statistical data and taking note of any quality issues that might occur. QA managers usually have to train and correct employees, but if you decide to outsource your software development, this is an aspect that the QA manager won’t have to worry about. A person in this position has to have certain leadership skills as well as knowledge in quantitative data and its analysis.

5. Sales Manager

In order to actually profit from the successful execution of your project, your sales team has to be well organized. The manager’s role is to present and initiate new sales strategies with his team in an attempt to attract potential customers/users. He’s also responsible for maintaining and working on existing relationships and partnerships. Being able to identify potential emerging markets while keeping an eye on the competitor’s actions are some of the traits of a skilled sales manager. This is someone who is likely going to have to travel a lot and communicate with other people, especially where new opportunities arise.