How To Build an Agile Software Development Team

Want to learn how to build an agile software development team for your company?

Many businesses struggle to deliver software on time, adapt to changing requirements, or maintain alignment among different departments. Without the right team structure, even the best strategy can collapse under miscommunication and delays.

Agile was popularized in 2001 when a group of software developers wrote and published the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Over the years, the manifesto has gained numerous supporters. Modern business environments appreciate their flexible structure.

Agile software teams benefit from quicker product development cycles and improved customer satisfaction.

Among the supporters of Agile methodology are tech giants such as IBM and Microsoft. These companies maintain that an agile approach enables them to grow and scale faster than they would otherwise.

The problem is that building an effective Agile team isn’t as simple as hiring developers and calling it a day. Agile requires a cultural shift: clear roles, collaboration across departments, and tools that make continuous delivery possible.

Companies that fail to establish these foundations often end up with frustrated teams, missed deadlines, and products that fall short of expectations.

The good news is that Agile offers a proven framework for overcoming these challenges. When you structure your team intentionally and embrace Agile principles, you create a culture of adaptability, trust, and collaboration.

That’s how leading companies build high-performing teams that ship faster and deliver greater value.

Keep reading to find out more about how to build an agile software development team!

We’ll cover a step-by-step framework for creating an Agile software development team, along with insights on how to avoid common mistakes and maintain team alignment for long-term success.

If you are interested in developers who are already familiar with Agile development, you are in the right place. Our nearshore and offshore developers have worked on countless agile teams and can assist you and your team with getting started.

What Is Agile Software Development?

Let’s start with the basics. Agile software development is a software engineering approach that prioritizes collaboration between cross-functional teams and end-users, encouraging adaptability.

What separates Agile from traditional methods is its emphasis on how people collaborate. Rather than handing off work in silos and waiting until the end of a long cycle, Agile teams deliver in short, iterative cycles and gather feedback quickly.

The result is faster releases, higher product quality, and a team that can adjust to changing requirements without grinding to a halt.

Principles of an Agile Team

The agile software development team is a cross-functional group of professionals who have all the necessary capabilities and sufficient skills to create a functional product. Having professionals with diverse backgrounds and knowledge helps approach the project from a fresh perspective and brings new ideas to the table.

The size of an agile software development team may vary, but the key roles stay the same: a team leader, team members, product owner, and various stakeholders.

An agile software development team is characterized by its ability to maintain a flexible approach, regardless of the project’s complexity. To be able to do this, agile teams are built upon these principles:

• Communication and feedback – regular revision of work enables an agile software development project to progress smoothly from one stage to the next without experiencing major setbacks. Being open to giving and receiving feedback enables software engineers to adjust the product more quickly.
• Adaptability – a fast-paced, agile methodology requires its team members to be flexible and adapt quickly to changing requirements without interrupting the development process. Teams often use Scrum or Kanban in agile development to manage shifting priorities and ensure the agile team’s adaptability.
• Trust – transparency requires each team member to trust the rest of the stakeholders involved in the development process and provide them with a safe environment where mutual trust can be established.
• Collaboration – the foundation of a successful agile software development team lies in the ability to work together to find the best solutions to the project and make sure the whole team has access to new and fundamental knowledge.
• Engagement – The readiness to face changes and maintain an open mind while learning from others and respecting their opinions is what helps agile teams move at a faster pace compared to other software development methodologies.

Steps to Build an Agile Software Development Team

Building an Agile team doesn’t happen overnight.

It requires intentional effort, the right mix of roles, and a culture that supports collaboration and adaptability.

Here’s a proven framework you can follow to set your team up for success.

Step 1: Define Team Roles Clearly

Start by clarifying the core roles on your team.

A typical Agile team includes a Product Owner (who sets priorities), a Scrum Master or Team Lead (who removes obstacles and facilitates), developers, testers, and sometimes designers.

Defining these roles early prevents confusion, duplication of effort, and gaps in responsibility.

Step 2: Hire for Skills and Mindset

Agile success depends as much on mindset as it does on technical expertise.

Beyond coding ability, look for developers who can communicate well, adapt to change, and collaborate with cross-functional teams.

Hiring with these traits in mind helps you build a team that can thrive in the Agile environment.

Step 3: Build a Culture of Collaboration

Encourage open dialogue, peer recognition, and shared responsibility for outcomes.

In Agile, everyone contributes to success by collaborating to solve problems together. Foster an environment where feedback is welcomed and team members feel safe to experiment.

Step 4: Set Up Communication & Tools

Agile teams run on effective communication.

Tools like Jira, Trello, Confluence, and Slack keep everyone aligned, whether your team is in one office or distributed worldwide.

Standardizing on a few core tools early avoids chaos and ensures work is transparent.

Step 5: Start Small and Iterate

Don’t try to overhaul everything at once. Launch your Agile process with a small pilot project or a single sprint.

This gives the team a chance to build trust, test workflows, and refine processes before scaling. Small wins create momentum.

Step 6: Scale Your Agile Team Sustainably

As your projects grow, you may need multiple Agile teams or sub-teams to manage them effectively. Scaling requires balance: too few roles and bottlenecks form, too many, and communication breaks down.

Add capacity gradually and ensure every new member understands Agile principles and tools.

This is where many companies benefit from a partner like Trio. We provide pre-vetted specialists who integrate seamlessly into your process.

How Agile Teams Interact With Other Departments

All software development teams need to be able to work with other departments that have a stake in the business. This includes departments that manage finances, marketing, design, and more. These departments play a significant role before, during, and after the product launch.

Without a doubt, truly cross-functional teams perform better. They are more productive and efficient. However, while an agile approach is a good fit for the software and information technology industry, it can be applied to every sector.

This means that keeping everyone on the same page should be one of your top priorities. Unsurprisingly, collaborating across departments is not entirely different from how software development teams collaborate.

Cross-departmental collaboration relies heavily on specially designed communication tools for agile teams. Common examples include Jira and Slack, which we use in our own company.

Leadership

Just like the team leader in an agile software development team, having a project manager or business manager to oversee the project’s progress as a whole, forge a path to more defined goals, and promote better organization.

The project manager does not have to be an expert in any one area. But they should understand the responsibilities of each team member and the relevant departments involved with the project. To put it simply, they are the project’s task manager.

Communication

Good communication is likely the most sought-after attribute in any industry, no matter the job. Having good communication tools and skills will mitigate bottlenecks and boost trust – a quality that isn’t limited to any one role. Everyone on the team and beyond should be open about their concerns, suggestions, or anything else that might impact the development process.

Goal-setting

Setting goals that all team members and related departments are wholeheartedly invested in achieving is a surefire way to obtain more results-oriented solutions, enthusiastic engagement, and overall a better result.

The Agile Software Development Team Structure

The agile methodology is heavily dependent on collaboration. Thus, it’s essential to understand the titles and roles of everyone involved in an agile software development team structure.

While the internal structure of an agile team may vary depending on what specific methodology you use, generally, you can expect to have at least the roles specified below:

• Team lead
• Team members (or developers)
• Product owner
• Testers

The general responsibilities allowed for each role are self-explanatory. However, the specific way in which teams are assigned these responsibilities can vastly differ. To clarify, there are five different types of agile teams. 

1. Generalist

A generalist agile team is basically a free-for-all. Any person can pick up a task at any time. Of course, the disadvantage here is a disorganized process and the resulting end product. That’s why this type of agile team is best implemented for small teams with clear goals.

2. Specialist

In contrast to a generalist agile team, specialist agile teams have a different skill set that each team member uses accordingly. The effect is often achieved through high-quality software, thorough testing, and rigorous data analysis.

It is essential to have a balanced mix of specialists vs generalists in agile teams. This ensures both flexibility and expertise within your agile team structure.

3. Transitioning

Transitioning agile teams are teams that have just started working with the agile approach. They don’t use the methodology to its purest intent the first time around, and incorporate bits and pieces of the founding principles. For example, the team may do sprints on occasion to accomplish specific tasks.

4. Parallel

Parallel agile teams offer everyone the chance to wear someone else’s shoes. Each sprint, team members change roles. This can be challenging to manage, but it yields high benefits where cross-training is concerned.

5. Product Sub-Team

Agile product sub-teams are self-contained units within a larger team. In other words, the sub-team will be responsible for a specific area of work, but the final product depends on all the sub-teams coming together.

6 Benefits of an Agile Approach for Development Teams

Urgency, complexity, team organization, and others define whether or not you should apply it. When evaluating your project requirements, consider the benefits that agile software development has to offer.

1. Product Quality

Breaking the project down into smaller, more manageable pieces allows the development team to focus on the quality of the product, testing, and collaboration.

Ongoing testing enables the team to make adjustments and improve product quality as they progress, ensuring that by the time it is ready for its first release, it has already been adapted to market needs and requires only minor changes.

2. Customer Satisfaction

The close involvement of the product owner and testing with direct and indirect users helps to develop software that meets the end customers’ needs in the best possible way. It also allows the development team to deliver the product to the market faster and start generating revenue early.

3. Faster ROI

As mentioned above, the functional product is ready to meet the market early and can therefore start generating revenue for its owner much faster. By working closely with the product owner, the development team can prioritize the app’s functional features and avoid lengthy delivery cycles.

4. Lower Risks

The agile software development method eliminates almost all risk of the project’s absolute failure and allows developers to detect the necessity for vital changes during the early stages of the project.

The mindset that accepts changes as new challenges and the direction for improvement and errors as necessary information to learn from also helps the team stay motivated and not get discouraged by minor setbacks.

5. Efficiency

The collaborative culture of agile software development helps teams complete their work faster and minimize the need to go back and fix major defects.

Dividing work into smaller chunks and testing it as soon as possible – thereby increasing your agile team’s efficiency – optimizes product delivery and helps narrow down the timeline, allowing you to meet market demands faster in today’s fast-paced environment.

6. Adaptability

The adaptability or flexibility of this approach is what has gained it so many supporters.

Agile adaptability enables the project to navigate changing market and business needs without the need to implement core changes, saving both time and money for the clients.

Agile Methodologies for Software Development Teams

The most popular agile methodologies include Scrum, Kanban, Lean Development, Crystal, and Extreme Programming. In reality, many more methodologies differ from one another, but all follow the same Agile mindset of continuous improvement.

It is essential to consider factors such as team size and project requirements when selecting agile methodologies.

Scrum

Probably the most well-known methodology of the agile family, Scrum is characterized by having small development cycles called sprints. Transparency, inspection, and adaptation are the three core principles of Scrum.

Advantages:

• Constant focus on quality results in fewer mistakes
• Helps to reorganize priorities, bringing forward the sprints that haven’t been completed yet
• Smaller sprints motivate software developers to meet the deadlines

Disadvantages:

• The roles within the team are not well-defined, which can confuse team members
• Focusing on the smaller parts may lead team members to lose track of the project as a whole

Kanban

The primary focus of Kanban methodology is continuous delivery. Kanban utilizes transparency and open communication to maintain a “just-in-time” workflow, thereby preventing the software engineering team from being overloaded with development tasks.

It helps improve workflow and optimize processes thanks to its visual information interpretation.

Advantages:

• Very helpful in task organization
• Shorter cycle times can deliver features faster
• Possible to make changes mid-cycle
• Allows balancing the number of tasks every team member carries out
• Helps to implement sudden changes in requirements

Disadvantages:

• The tasks in the Kanban board can be misunderstood or misinterpreted
• No time frames associated with each cycle can lead to delays in delivery

Lean Development

The primary goal of Lean Development is to enhance software efficiency by eliminating unnecessary waste. Lean Development has seven core principles at its foundation:

1. Eliminate waste;
2. Build quality in.
3. Create knowledge;
4. Defer commitment;
5. Deliver fast; respect people; and,
6. Optimize the whole.

Advantages:

• Allows the team to focus on the most important tasks
• The clear priorities help to shorten the delivery time
• This methodology can be adapted to most projects of any scale 

Disadvantages:

• Requires a clear idea supported by documentation to avoid errors during the development process
• The team needs to be dedicated to following the Lean principles

Crystal

The foundation of the Crystal methodology lies in human-powered principles, including people, interaction, community, skills, talents, and communication. The idea behind this methodology is that teams and individuals of different skill sets can still develop the final product without strict guidance.

Advantages:

• Promotes closer communication and interaction within the team to optimize the software development process
• Offers small cycles with frequent deliveries to ensure the quality of the product
• The adaptable approach makes it easier to implement changes

Disadvantages:

• Lack of pre-defined plans may affect the development process
• The constant need to communicate and exchange information requires team members to be based pretty close geographically

Extreme Programming

Extreme Programming or XP is based on the principles of simplicity, communication, and feedback. XP is very similar to the Scrum methodology, the difference being in the length of sprints: Scrum uses 2-week to 1-month sprints, while XP uses up to 2 weeks.

Advantages:

• Constant testing makes the software development process more agile than with other methodologies
• A short timeframe and visible goals will motivate your development team
• Simpler code allows faster revisions according to the feedback received

Disadvantages:

• Needs the team to be based in close time zones to enable fast-paced communication
• Focusing on the code can result in a weak design

These are only a few of the many Agile methodologies that gained popularity. When selecting the right one for your agile software development team, it is essential to evaluate both your team’s capabilities and the project requirements to choose the best option.

Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM)

The DSDM is an interactive and incremental approach that involves a stringent adherence to fostering business growth. This method comprises several phases: a feasibility study, a business study, functional model/prototype iteration, system design and build iteration, and implementation.

Advantages:

• Stakeholders have a clear idea of the project’s business value
• Strong emphasis on testing means fewer major fixes later on

Advantages:

• Constant testing makes the software development process more agile than with other methodologies
• A short timeframe and visible goals will motivate your development team
• Simpler code allows faster revisions after receiving feedback, according to the feedback received

Disadvantages:

• Strict time and budget requirements
• A narrow focus on rapid application development (RAD) can affect code quality

Feature Driven Development (FDD)

FDD is a lightweight, agile method that combines several industry best practices. These practices are based on the clients’ assessment of the software product’s functionality and/or features.

Advantages:

• Built on set standards that always guarantee success
• The approach is user-centric
• Works well with large-scale and long-term projects

Disadvantages:

• Each feature or group of code is assigned to a single developer; therefore, team collaboration is limited
• Iterations are not well-defined, making testing more difficult

Building an Agile Software Development Team

When you think about an agile software development team, you might imagine a group of professionals that functions like a well-oiled machine with 150% efficiency and first-rate delivery speeds.

Although that can be an ambitious goal for your development team, building an agile software development team demands intentional and perpetual effort. There is no one perfect solution or secret to creating a highly effective agile team, but here are some tips that can help you put together a solid team.

Don’t Rush It

It takes time for people to get used to each other. Create a trustworthy environment and learn about the ways your team members work.

Well-organized operations and harmonious work result from the combination of failed attempts, mistakes, and misunderstandings with determination, resilience, and engagement.

Continuous learning and adaptation lie at the core of the agile approach; therefore, the same principles apply to people when they first come together to work.

Rather than focusing on one grand success that will define your team, focus on more minor improvements and achievements that reflect the progress your team is making.

Working with experienced developers and agile development experts, such as those from Trio, can significantly accelerate your team-building process while ensuring that you maintain high quality.

Reach out to us to get started and build an agile team with Trio.

Get Everyone Involved

Though those in agile teams should have their own duties and responsibilities, everyone has a shared role in the success of the final product. The keyword is team. An environment where everyone is working towards a shared goal fosters better collaboration and engagement in finding solutions.

Recognizing everyone’s efforts, whether that takes the form of peer acknowledgment or praise from leadership, is similarly vital in sustaining a persistent cycle of feedback and engagement.

Embrace Changes

Agile focuses on the results and outcomes of the project rather than on overthinking procedures and processes. This means that constant changes must be made to cater to the final product.

The ability of an agile software development team to respond to recurring change is much more important than maintaining the status quo. Flexibility within the team requires frequently reevaluating priorities and adjusting processes accordingly.

Every change is ultimately made to improve the final product. Members of agile teams should embrace changes, not dread them.

Collaboration Is Everything

Effective collaboration is undeniably one of the most essential attributes of a successful agile software development team. Promoting collaboration within the team is necessary for your business to run smoothly.

Defining and solving challenges together helps cross-functional teams develop more productive solutions, which a sole software developer might struggle to achieve. Collaboration within agile teams requires regular and personalized communication among team members.

Collaborative approaches can lead to conflict. This is why it is crucial to build trust within the team. No one should feel silenced or discouraged from sharing a different opinion. Growth is based on new ideas.

Conclusion

Although it may seem like everybody is creating an app left and right, day after day, successful market launches – that is, projects that don’t crash within a couple of months – require structure and planning. 

If you want your next project to be successful, consider adopting the agile software development approach. It is becoming increasingly essential to develop projects quickly and efficiently in today’s competitive landscape.

This approach specializes in collaboration and meeting the needs of your customers. There are many ways to implement an agile approach, but regardless, you must ensure that you build a team that is adaptable, communicative, and engaged.

Don’t know where to start?

Trio can lend you qualified developers who have been trained to work together on a per-project basis and seamlessly integrate themselves into your business without disrupting normal operations.

Reach out today to start your project!

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