Understanding the team
• Introduction
– Software development projects too large.
Need more people
– Software development is through the efforts
of a software development team.
– Collaborative work is often a key issue in
software engineering
• Definition
A team : group of individuals who possess a
level of constructive interpersonal skills, and
who are dedicated to the achievement of a
common goal
Challenges of Software
Development
Challenges
• Larger teams
Chief Programmer
Team
Business Team
• Specialization
• Distribution
• Rapid technology
change
Tester
Team
Rescue Team
Democratic Team
Understanding the team
Aspects of Teamwork
No optimal team structure , any structure
consists of variety of roles :
• Project manager
• Architect
• Application development
• Tool smith
• Quality assurance person
• Suystem integrator,
• build and relaese person
• Designer.
Understanding the team
Creating the right team
1.
Put the right people together
Issues :
Availability of the right personnel
Competitive task to get ”good”people
2.
Good team not necessarily composed of all
the best ones
Ways that People can Work Together
Individual Improvement
Jelled Team
Group Sharing Tools
Team Workflow - Outline
• Understanding teams
• Structuring team environments
–Team management structure
–People structure
–Shared space structure
• Defining teams
• Building a team
• Supporting team activities
Team management structure
• Time needed to be planned and organized
efficiently.
• People resources must be structured
efficiently
• Shared space must be designed to
optimize communication between team
members
Shared Space Structure
• Physical
• Communications
• Symbolic shared space :Team members sharing a
Unified modelling language for the modelling of the
solution to be implemented
• Interpersonal sharing
The Concept of Shared Space
UML
Symbolic : Sharing a Unified Modeling Language for
the modeling of the solution to be implemented
Interpersonal :
Physical: facilitates face to face
and interpersonal exchange
Meeting and workshop can
be used to increase the interpersonal exchange
Communications :new technologies
facilitate team activities
Team management stucture
Team - Outline
• Understanding teams
• Structuring team environments
• Defining teams
 Distinguishing a group from a
team
 Team fundamentals
 Team organization and behavior
• Building a team
Defining the team
Introduction
Dev processes involve several stakeholders, each of has a
different understanding of what needs to be done.
As stakeholders increase their common understanding of the
product to be built, they converge to a common approach on
how the work is to be distributed.
Defining the team
Basic Definition
At least 2 people working toward a common
goal/objective/mission, each is assigned a role .
The completion of the mission requires some form of
dependndecy and collaboration among group members
– Too many stars within the same team could create
distractions.
– Alack of stars can leave a team strugling with even the
smallest of problems.
– few stars are appropriate
Team # group
• Working together cooperatively can be more productive than
working together less collaboratively on the same problem .
• Interdependence among group members marks the
transition from a group to a team (negotiate decision making).
• Results by team depend on these strong interdependencies
• A team implies superior group performance.
• Team players work together and build contributions from
every team member to a common goal
A Typical Group is a Collection of Individuals
•
•
•
The same people in
requirements
through
implementation
– Minimize handover
Well-balanced teams
In general, teams
should be composed
of no more that 5-7
people
New
Members
Consultants
Test Group
Requirements
Group
Architecture
Group
Implementation
Group
Analysis & Design and
Implementation Group
Team fundamentals
• No more than 5 to 7 individuals
• Dedicated to a project , specific goals
• How to form a team ?
– Members recruited
– Agree om a team goal (goal well defined)
– Plan created ( plan for work , team member
roles, )
– Common teamwork process
– Plan monitored by the project manager
– Commitments are made (to the goal , role and
plan)
– Physical environment must be supportive and
adapted to the team
– Mutual respect and support of all members
Team Behavior within Organizational Structures
Tennis Double
Hockey Team
Each member adapts to other
Whole team moves together
Baseball team
Software development
Difficult to say which team
structure is more appropriate.
Every player has a fixed position
Team Workflow
- Outline
• Understanding teams
• Structuring team environments
• Defining teams
• Building a team
–The four-stage team development model
–The five phases for building team spirit
–The three steps to creating a jelled team
• Supporting team activities
BUILDING A TEAM
• Teams do not just happen
• Teams are developped.
• Development through a series of well-defined
steps to learn how to work :
• together cooperatively
• with commonly held purposes and goals.
3 models for describing how teams evolve :
– Four stage Team dev Model
– Five phases for building team spirit
– Three steps for creating a jelled team
Four-Stage Team Development Model
•
Forming or initial phase of team building
– Individuals usually focus on their own areas of knoledge.
– Groups seek purposes and relevance.
– Social relationships are established.
– Group begins to work with the leader.
•
Storming
– Members challenge each other, argue .
– Conflicts emerge between members due to differences in goals
and struggle for control and direction.
– Members discover differences and learn how to deal with
them(resolve conflicts)
– Addressing conflicts constructively results in gaining confidence
in bring up issues without going on the attack and blaming
others.
– Learn to listen to other members and Build trust
Four-Stage Team Development Model
• Norming
– Commonalities and shared interests are recognized and
processes for communications are established.
– Team starts to jell
– Team establishes ground rules and its own norms for acceptable
behavior
•
Performing
– A team identity has formed and members associate strongly with
the group.
– Team members are able to diagnose and solve problems
Note : Difficult to reach such maturity
Very easy to fall back into the forming stage
(leader replaced , new people join)
Team spirit Endorses a Five-Phase Spiral Model
Purpose : Create a true bonding of high performance team
•
Initiating
– Sharing of personal interests : learn about each other
interests
– Short informal social activities : lunches
•
Visioning
– Development a shared vision or purpose as a group
– Peer reviews of team works
•
Claiming
– Identifying and aligning members with roles and goals in the
team
– Democratic team structure
Team spirit Endorses a Five-Phase Spiral Model
•
Celebrating
– Recognition of team and individual accomplishment : Team
members express their appreciation and positive regards
toward others.
– Social events outlining project milestones ( small celebration
marking the progress)
•
Letting go
– Constructive feedback among team members
– the whole team acknowledges each task completed by a
team member (member appreciated for having completed it).
– Valuable and trustworthy feeling
Jelled team
All teams in a jelled state have this in common:
– A jelled team has a specific goal, a goal that is shared by
all members.
– All members of a jelled team have a high sense of
responsibility and commitment.
– All members of a jelled team feel they are accomplishing
something of value.
Jelled team
– All members of a jelled team take interest in each others
work, since it’s part of their goal.
– The members are enjoying themselves. They long to get to
work to spend time together while moving the project
forward. Laughter is frequent.
– A jelled team has great communication: with customers,
management and in between members.
Once a team begins to jell, the probability of
success goes up spectacularly
Jelled Team
Strong Cohesion
Clear Goal
Explicit task
Creating a jelled team
• Agree on common goals.
– detailed plan, performance target, quelity objectives,
schedule milestones
• Agree on strategy and plan
• Defining the process , establish the essential artifacts.
• Right skills to the right roles
• Adapting the use of tools with their roles
• Know what , how and when to start and finish their tasks.
• Aware of responsibilities and unique skills.
Team Members are not Interchangeable
Performance
Engineer
• Define roles
Analyst
Project
Manager
• Right skills
Developer
Tester
• Appropriate tools
Release
Engineer
Team Workflow - Outline
• Understanding teams
• Structuring team environments
• Defining teams
• Building a team
• Supporting team activities
–Virtual teaming
–VTA Tools for collaborative activities
Supporting team activities
Introduction
We Need to unify a team´s effort around a
common process, Modelling language and set
of artifacts. Each member should share the
same understanding of the artifacts and
methods used. Open communication is key .
With the advent of the Internet , some team
activities are distributed over various time
frames and geographic locations
Virtual teaming
• Electronic meeting vs face to face meetings
• Support for geographically distributed teams.
• Provides repository for team documents and
knowledge (real time shared object)
• Integrates a host of computer communication
channels (audio , videos, email , chat …..etc)
• Also used to support collaborative activities using a
number of tools.
Virtual Teaming Approach-VTA
Electronic Brain Storming Tool
• Allows group to diverge from customary thinking for new and
creative ideas
Categorizer
• Encourages team members to converge to key issues
Team outliner
• Allows to create on a multilevel tree of topics.Helps a
team explore issues in depth and details
Virtual Teaming Approach-VTA
Alternative analyzer
Provides a shared environment for making decision based on many
criteria.
Voter
Provides methods to reach a consensus or decision
Conclusion
• Team
– Group of people working together
– Sharing the same working space and tool
• Before creating a team
– Understand the culture of the organization.
• Team do not occur accidentally
• Team development passes through many steps
• Jelled team : strong cohesion , clear goal , explicit task
definition.
• Various electronic tools can help team members
brainstorm and reach consensus
Questions
• What is needed in order to guarantee the success of a
team
• Explain the expected benefit of a jelled team
• Difference between a group and a team
• Pros and cons of a team composed of ”stars” ?