How to Build a Strong Team for Embedded Software Development?

We live in the age of rapid development of IoT technologies. The modern market is overloaded with a myriad of powerful and multi-featured embedded solutions ranging from simple smartwatches to complicated automotive devices and guidance systems. However, building embedded systems is not easy. The first and foremost task is to gather a team of professional, experienced, and skillful developers that have many years of experience in this niche and know for sure how to tackle all the challenges related to building an embedded software system.

In this insightful post, we’ll take a deeper look at this question and help you build a strong team for building your embedded software development project. Get comfortable and have a look!

What Makes a Successful Software Development Programmer?

The first and foremost task is to find professionals that know the peculiarities of embedded software development inside out. Therefore, you need to be very specific in your requirements. We created a list of mandatory skills any software programmer whose everyday work is related to building embedded systems must have:

• At least three years of experience with C and C++ programming;
• Understand how basic (I2C, UART, SPI) and advanced (SATA, USB, PCIe) protocols work;
• Understanding how to deal with microcontroller architectures;
• Understand design patterns;
• Understanding RAM, Flash, ROM, and other types of memory;
• Knowledge of Real-Time Operating Systems and General-Purpose Operating Systems.

Basic knowledge of other programming languages would also be appreciated.

Recommended for you: Software Development Project Roles and Responsibilities.

The General Requirements to the Candidate

We’ve just reviewed professional skills and now, it is time to move on to discussing the general requirements for a programmer. Firstly, you must be doubly sure that this person has strong communication skills as he is going to work in a team where a wide array of issues related to programming will be discussed on a regular basis. Secondly, you must also check organization skills. A candidate must be able to organize his or her work and understand the meaning of the term “deadline”.

In a recent interview with Alex Nikitenko, the CEO of Sirinsoftware.com, we have talked about remote working and its future a lot. As he nicely mentioned the point in the discussion, “It goes without saying that if it’s a remote developer, self-discipline is needed to complete the tasks on time. All programmers, working for us have these skills and do everything to keep up-to-date with the latest trends in this area.”

Overview of the Best Platforms Where You Can Find Professional Programmers

We live in the 21st century and the first thing that we usually do to find the right candidate is going online. Let’s take a closer look at the most popular online platforms where you can find the right candidates:

• HackerEarth – a popular online platform where you can find coders based on their experience and tech assessment results;
• Hired – a well-known online platform where you need to create your own profile and other companies offer their services to you;
• Youteam – a high-rated online platform where many remote programmers are registered;
• Angellist – a website where you can post your job offer and choose the best freelancers that mostly suit your requirements.

Beware that a lot depends on your requirements. You can hire a team on an outsourcing or outstaffing basis.

How to Establish the Right Communication?

You know that effective communication is the main formula for success. Sometimes, it may be a major pain and the main challenge for many companies, especially when you hire workers from different time zones. It would be more effective for you to hire a team working in the same time zone as you. It is really hard to set up effective communication when one part of your team is from Europe and another – from the USA.

To make communication with your remote team even more effective, you can use the below-listed tools:

• Group calls;
• Group chats;
• Video sharing;
• Files sharing;
• Archiving.

The most popular examples are Skype, Zoom, Slack, WhatsApp, etc. What’s more, you should also set the working hours when all the members of your team should be available.

Define the Roles and Create a Roadmap

Sometimes, companies neglect this issue but all these may lead to a wide array of problems. Beware that building a clear roadmap for your project is mandatory as well as defining short and long-term goals. Check-up if you have your deadlines and milestones properly specified. You need to be doubly sure that absolutely every member of your team understands their goals and their duties and knows how to complete the tasks on time. When you define the responsibilities of each team member, it will be easier for all of you to pursue the goal.

You may like: Tips for Self-development as a Remote Software Developer in COVID-19.

What About the Management Process?

When talking about building a strong embedded software development team, we simply couldn’t pass by this aspect. The success of your future project depends on many issues and proper management is one of them. You can’t keep everything under control and some details may go out of your attention. On the plus side, we live in the digital era and have many tools that allow us to improve management and make it more effective.

Let’s take a deeper look at the best and most powerful tools for project management:

• Wrike – If you surf the net trying to find the testimonials, you’ll see that Wrike has numerous positive reviews. What’s more, it is considered one of the most powerful tools for collaboration, project planning, and reporting. Besides, it can easily be integrated with other tools and is absolutely free for five members.
• Jira – a superb solution for project management. It doesn’t matter what the size of your team is as you can buy the subscription that suits your requirements.
• Backlog – an easy-to-use project management instrument that can meet the requirements of the most demanding experts. Statistically, Backlog is the most widely used tool among teams that consist of around 8-10 members.

There’s one more aspect that should also be considered. You shouldn’t be focused on how long every developer works. You should be mostly focused on the results. They should understand their goals, tasks and do the utmost to complete them on time.

Support Company’s Culture

Unfortunately, distributed employees usually don’t experience strong connections with the company and they can’t be compared to in-house experts who see each other every day and understand the company’s culture inside out.

The company’s culture is not only about pursuing one goal and one mission. It is also about communicating, collaborating, reporting on performance, and sharing the company’s values. Make sure each member of your team feels comfortable and safe at work. If they experience some difficulties with the task, they should immediately get the assistance of experts or coaches that can help tackle all the obstacles that don’t allow them to complete the task on time!

Check up on the below-listed tips that will help you maintain the company’s culture:

• Remember that simple team-building activity can help establish much better connections with each other.
• Make sure your remote programmers and other team members understand the main values of your company and do everything possible to follow them.
• Check-up if all your employees are compliant with the main mission.

Sometimes, project managers neglect this issue thinking that following strict directions and completing the tasks on time is enough. But in doing so, you won’t be able to build a strong team. Remember that establishing personal connections is a superb tool for building the company’s culture. Prosperous software development companies usually invest in organizing dinners, corporate meetings, and outdoor activities. All these events will help the members of your team find out more about each other and establish good personal connections.

What Are the Main Goals of Embedded Software Development Team?

In general, the primary objective of a software dev team is to deliver a properly-built product on time. It may probably sound plain but achieving all these goals may be challenging. Let’s take a closer look at the main goals that must be achieved on the way to building solid software:

• Usability. It is clear that any software product must solve specific tasks easily and quickly. As this application is expected to be used on a regular basis, a dev team must do the utmost to make it visually appealing.
• Security. Considering the number of cyberattacks that happen regularly, security must be the question of utmost concern.
• Functionality. Every option must fulfill its goal. To guarantee functionality, a development team must carry out a user survey.
• Time to Market. Timely delivery of the software product to users must be ensured by the development team.

You may also like: Software Development: What are the Key Roles in the Team?

Final Words

So far, we’ve reviewed the main aspects that will undoubtedly help you build a strong embedded software development team. Following all these directions, you’ll easily create a team that can help turn your ideas into reality. Beware that the success of any project is contingent on the skills and professionalism of engineers that are working on this project. So, make sure you follow all these tips to achieve your goals!