Now, more than ever, we see digitalization in all industries, for example in finance, healthcare and transportation. Of course, it’s sometimes difficult to integrate technology into a business without qualified IT professionals, which is why many organizations choose to have in-house IT teams.
However, each and every company in the world today has different needs, they face different business problems, and they use different technologies. Therefore, the size, roles, and structures of their IT teams vary greatly.
In this article, we will talk about the most common types of IT teams, their roles, and responsibilities.
Responsibilities of IT teams
The type of IT team a company has depends on what IT needs that business has. Usually, IT teams take care of these areas:
- Managing and maintaining IT systems - IT teams maintain and upgrade systems that are being used by the company and its employees.
- Automating processes - IT teams use appropriate technology to automate various business operations.
- System integration - IT teams are responsible for integrating the various systems a company uses.
- Managing data - IT teams take care of storing, protecting, validating, and processing data.
- System security - IT teams develop and implement procedures to make that operating systems work effectively.
- Technology support - IT teams assist users when they need help with technology and they fix operating systems when they malfunction.
Now that we know what responsibilities IT teams usually have, let's move on to what types of teams you see across different companies.
Types of IT Teams
Although businesses have their own IT needs, you typically see the same kinds of IT areas being covered by each business. Here are the types of IT teams you typically see in companies today:
- IT Architects - are responsible for selecting and optimizing technology and methodologies that businesses use to meet their goals.
- Operations - are focused on managing tech infrastructure, maintenance, and monitoring. They ensure that networks, or data centers, are performing as expected.
- Development - as the name suggests they focus on developing an application. Such teams are not usually permanent, because they exist for a specific time period (usually until a project is done).
- QAs - ensure that a product is of outstanding quality.
- Support - provide technical assistance to users. They address software and hardware issues and they help to keep operations running smoothly.
- Security - are responsible for protecting an organization's sensitive data, they look at ways of protecting data and to stop potential threats.
In smaller companies, it’s common to see IT professionals covering a wide range of IT areas. The IT team's structure is far simpler in these companies. In larger organizations, on the other hand, teams are usually more specialized, and more IT specialists cover more IT areas.
You now know what types of IT teams exist today and what their responsibilities are. But who exactly makes up these teams?
The roles in IT teams
There are many different roles in IT, and many of them are incredibly creative or require business expertise. Let's go through the most common roles you’ll see in IT teams:
- Project manager - is in charge of planning and seeing a project through from the start to the end. He or she coordinates the work of different teams, oversees all the processes, and ensures a project runs on time and on a budget.
- IT analysts - are responsible for analyzing a business’ needs, reviewing existing IT systems, and finding opportunities to optimize work processes.
- Developers - are people who write code. They develop software applications using various programming languages. While back-end developers take care of product functionality, front-end developers develop the visual elements that users see and interact with.
- QA professionals - ensure that applications work as expected and identify defects that must be fixed.
- UI/UX designers - they make sure that an application is easy to use and visually appealing for end users.
- Data Scientists - collect, validate, and analyze data to help businesses make data-driven decisions.
- Solution Architects - design IT systems and ensure that new solutions fit into the existing IT architecture.
- Security experts - protect organizations from cyber threats and attacks. They foresee possible security issues and implement measures to prevent these attacks.
- IT engineers - are responsible for installing, maintaining, and configuring an organization’s hardware, software, and networks.
Modern approaches like Agile and Scrum frameworks allow for all the various departments to effectively work together. For example, developers, Ops, and QA professionals often share overlapping responsibilities.
Conclusion
As you can see, IT teams can come in different forms and sizes. There will be different job titles from company to company but it’s not an issue. As long as the IT specialists who work in a particular company understand their company's strategy and business goals, then their titles are irrelevant.
However, it’s important to remember that each team must have a clear range of responsibilities, as this will allow them to effectively solve the problems their business faces.