Consider these essential roles within a new Pega team

Are you facing the challenge of assembling a new Pega team within your organization? A big responsibility, because the success of each team determines how your organization will execute future projects. In this blog, we’ll tell you which roles are essential by phase and what the rules of thumb are for the relationships of roles within a team.

The basic setup

The Pega platform is often chosen as a solution to build multiple applications. So the team you put together is important not only for executing today’s project, but also for the basics and standards of future projects. To get off to a flying start, you need an experienced team. The basic setup consists of a Product Owner, Delivery Manager, Project Manager and Solution Architect. Then you build the team over at least three phases: the initialization phase, the set-up phase and the implementation phase.

Initialization Phase

In the initialization phase, two roles are most important: the Lead Business Architect and the Lead System Architect. The Lead Business Architect is a business analyst with knowledge of the Pega platform and translates requirements into specifications for the development team. The Lead System Architect is responsible for the best designs and technical choices before and during construction.

Set-up phase

In the set-up phase, you expand the team with one or two Senior System Architects and Business Architects work on the functional requirements.

Implementation phase

During the implementation phase, you implement project-specific functionalities and further expand the team with (Senior) System Architects, Testers and Functional/Technical Operations Engineers.

Variable size

Team size varies from project to project and from time to time. However, there are some rules of thumb for the proportions of roles within a team. For example, there are roles that are always filled by a maximum of one person, possibly in combination with other roles, such as those of Product Owner, Delivery Manager, Project Manager, Solution Architect, Lead Business Architect and Lead System Architect. Roughly, you can assume the following ratio:

• Business Architects – 1 or 2
• (Senior) System Architects – 3 or 4
• Testers – 1 or 2

The right foundation for the future

By assembling the right team for each of the three phases of a project, you also lay a strong foundation for future projects. Pega applications are built from reusable components. If you do this right the first time, you’ll reap the benefits in the future.

Want to know more?

Are you facing the challenge of putting together a new – or first – Pega team within your organization and could use some guidance? Don’t hesitate to contact us, we can help you get started.