software Development Team

How Many People Does It Take to form An Android Development Team?

Estimated read time: 7 minutes

Do you need to assemble an Android development team? Read on, as we explain how many people you need in it. We also explain the underlying assumptions for the estimate.

A general guideline on the strength of your Android development team

We offer a set of general guidelines on how many people are needed in an Android app development team. These are as follows:

A. The size of an app development team in a simple Android project

You need the following mobile development team structure and strength for a simple Android development project:

  • Project managers (PM): 1
  • Product owners: 1
  • UI (user interface) designers: 1
  • Mobile app developers: 2-3
  • QA engineers/Testers: 1-2
  • DevOps engineers: 1

B. The size of an Android application development team in a medium-complexity project

You need the following mobile app development team structure and strength for a medium-complexity Android project:

  • Project managers (PM): 1
  • Product owners: 1
  • Business analysts: 1
  • UI (user interface) designers: 1
  • Android developers: 4-6
  • QA engineers/Testers: 2-3
  • DevOps engineers: 1

C. The size of a complex Android mobile application development team

You want the following Android development team structure and strength for a complex project:

  • Project managers (PM): 1
  • Product owners: 1
  • Business analysts: 1
  • Software architects: 1
  • UI (user interface) designers: 1
  • Android developers: 6-8
  • Developers with the applicable niche skills like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), etc.: 2-3
  • QA engineers/Testers: 4-6
  • DevOps engineers: 2

Assumptions for the general guideline on the Android mobile app development team’s strength

1. Mobile application development project complexity

Our guidelines to estimate the number of Android development team members assume the following categorization of complexity:

A. Simple Android development projects

Simple Android development projects meet the following criteria:

  • You only need a standardized UI design.
  • Your app will use standard user login and authentication processes.
  • You will have a user management functionality.
  • The app will have a standard administration functionality.
  • You will offer standard features like push notifications, mapping support, etc.

B. Medium-complexity Android development projects

A medium-complexity Android development project has the following characteristics:

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  • It has a customized UI.
  • You provide features like payment, in-app messaging, etc.
  • Your app integrates with 3rd party APIs.
  • You need to develop simple APIs.
  • You only need a simple back-end with standard database operations.

C. Complex Android app development projects

Complex Android development projects have the following characteristics:

  • You need a highly customized UI.
  • The app has features like video streaming, audio streaming, in-app chats, and real-time data synchronization.
  • You offer features that use cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), Augmented Reality (AR), and blockchain.
  • You need to develop complex APIs, furthermore, your app utilizes several 3rd party APIs.
  • Your mobile back-end has complex operations.

D. A note about too simple or too complex projects

You need to tweak our guidelines with your judgment of the project scenario if you have too simple or highly complex projects. Are you developing an app like a mobile calculator? You have a very simple project at hand. You need a small team.

On the other hand, do you plan to develop an exceptionally complex app? An example could be an Android app that uses highly complex Ethereum blockchain smart contracts. Your smart contracts need data inputs from multiple external sources via different oracles. You will need a larger team with enough Ethereum smart contract developers with considerable experience.

2. Usage of an MBaaS (Mobile-Backend-as-a-Service) platform

Our guidelines to estimate the strength of an Android app development team do not include a mobile backend developer. We assume that you will use an MBaaS platform.

MBaaS platforms like AWS Amplify are cloud computing platforms. MBaaS providers manage the cloud infrastructure including cloud storage. They also manage persistent storage. Furthermore, they make it easier to implement features like user management and push notifications.

Your mobile backend development and management workload reduce considerably if you use an MBaaS platform. You can focus on the front-end and business logic of mobile apps. Therefore, your mobile development team doesn’t need backend developers.

3. Skills in the software development team

The general guidelines for software development team structure make assumptions about skills. These are as follows:

  • Simple Android projects will need native Android developers with Java or Kotlin skills.
  • Medium-complexity projects will also need Java or Kotlin skills.
  • A complex project will require niche skills in addition to Android developers. The niche skill requirements depend on the features. AI/ML, IoT, blockchain, analytics, and augmented reality (AR) are niche skills.
  • Testers will need general mobile testing skills.
  • DevOps engineers will need skills in standard DevOps processes, methods, and tools.

4. Complex technologies used for developing the proposed Android app

Our estimation guidelines for Android app development projects take complex technologies into account. E.g., we factor in the usage of cutting-edge technologies in AI and ML in complex projects.

However, we assume that you won’t use any untested technologies. We assume that you will use commercially available and established technologies.

5. The mix of experienced and junior developers

Our Android app development project estimation guidelines assume that you will use a judicious mix of experienced and junior developers. Such a mix includes the following proportions:

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  • Experienced developers: 20-30%;
  • Mid-level developers: 50-60%;
  • Junior developers: 10-20%.

If you have a majority of junior developers, then your team strength will be higher. A majority of senior developers will require fewer developers. However, development costs and hiring lead times could go up.

6. Hiring approach

Our guidelines to estimate the Android development team’s strength assume that you have a dedicated team. If you don’t have an in-house team, then we assume that you will hire from a mobile app development company.

A hybrid app development company like DevTeam.Space provides full-time developers. Such mobile app development companies provide sufficiently skilled Android and iOS developers. Their Android and iOS developers have the required experience and motivation.

What if you hire software development team members from a freelance platform? You might find it hard to gauge the actual skill level and relevant experience. Freelance mobile app developers don’t work full-time on your project.

Furthermore, you never really hire an Android or iOS development team from a freelance platform. You always have to plan for integrating the work of different freelancers.

Hire developers or app development teams from a trusted hybrid software development company. You can then use our estimation guidelines.

7. Usage of the agile methodology in the development team

We didn’t provide a list of functionalities and app features while providing a guideline to estimate the strength of an Android app development project team. That’s because many mobile app development projects start only with an app idea.

Such project teams don’t have a complete list of functionalities and features to start with. Therefore, they can’t use the waterfall methodology.

The waterfall methodology has clearly defined app development stages that are sequential phases. You need to finalize the requirements before you proceed to the design and development stage. However, most of the Android development teams don’t have full and final requirements initially.

Business requirements evolve as the project progresses. That’s why they use an iterative app development process.

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You might only have an initial app prototype. You might launch an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). Based on the market feedback, you develop a full-fledged mobile app.

Our guidelines assume that you use the agile methodology to support this iterative development. We assume that you will use the scrum framework, where each iteration is called a “sprint”. Use our guidelines to estimate the team strength for one sprint.

8. Usage of industry-standard mobile app development processes, methods, and tools

Our estimation guidelines assume that you use industry-standard development processes. We don’t want you to overburden your team with processes and documentation. We assume that you will follow the whole app development process applicable to agile projects.

Our guidelines assume that you will use industry-standard tools. That would include Android Studio, the popular IDE (Integrated Development Environment). You should use established testing frameworks like Espresso.

We assume that you will follow important processes like code review. You should apply adequate quality assurance rigors. We assume that you will use established bug tracking systems for defect management.

Want to form an Android app development team? Contact DevTeam.Space to hire expert Android app developers.

FAQs

1. Should I use the native or cross-platform development approach for Android development?

We recommend you use the native Android mobile app development approach. Native apps offer the best user experience, performance, and security. Cross-platform apps cost less to develop. However, hybrid apps can’t match the user experience, performance, and security of native apps.

2. Should I use Java or Kotlin to develop native apps for Android?

You can use either Java or Kotlin to develop a native Android mobile application. Both are powerful languages with great features. Both offer performance, security, and productivity. Kotlin is relatively new. You will get Java developers more easily since Java is a more popular programming language.

3. Which are the best MBaaS platforms?

As we explained in our guide to hosting mobile backend, the best MBaaS platforms are Back4App, Google Firebase, AWS Amplify, Kinvey, Backendless, and Heroku.


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Alexey Semeney

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