Balance of Development Skills within Team

Question

We are trying to build a team of 6 developers for our website and web services with ASP.Net, WCF and DotNetNuke. How should we try to balance the skills between the web site team and web services team?

This SO question seems to cover the balance of personalities but what suggestions are there for ensuring sufficient skill balance within the two teams?

Answer 1

37signals recommends 3 people - a developer, a designer, and a sweeper (who can do both).

Assuming everyone can pass the Joel test, I'd suggest (and it's just a guess):

3 Developers:

• A web developer who has build a dynamic website before (team leader).
• A web developer who knows lots about sysadmin (security, database management, project infrastructure, bug tracking, version control, fuzzing, etc).
• A web developer who knows lots about math, statistics, and / or algorithms.

All your developers should know a bit of HTML, HTTP, javascript, and have some idea of what user interface design is all about.

1 developer / designer (who is good at both).

2 Designers:

• An interface designer, who is passionate about user interface design. Business analyst / second in command.
• A designer who has really good design taste. Somebody who can make your site look good.

Hiring a good team leader and interface designer is going to be difficult. A bad lead developer will sink your project. A bad interface designer will make your project suck.