Project Teams & Leadership

kerry1981

Hello all,

I know this is probably not the correct forum for this but I was unsure what it would fall under and I could do with some help!

I am currently in my fourth year of a Software Engineering degree and I have
to deliver a presentation for Software Project Management on the following:

Many programmers view group development & team building with scepticism…
They were selected for their programming skills – not their social skills, for coding more than cooperation.

I am looking for a few opinions from, specifically, project managers on how
important teamwork is in delivering a project on time and within cost. I am
just looking for a few points of view from people that are involved in project
management so I can compare my feelings and opinions so I can deliver what
will hopefully be a balanced and well argued presentation!

Any help that you are willing to offer me will be much apprecaited

Chippy_Minton

The classic book The Mythical Man Month has a lot of information about this topic.

kerry1981

Thanks for that Chippy_Minton, I will see if they have it in the library :j

Andy_Davies

As a project manager/software development manager/whatever you want to call me and was a developer earlier in my career, I'd say team work is vital but perhaps you shouldn't thing of it as team work in the way team building course approach it.

Most software development is done by teams of people, unless the standards are being imposed on them, they'll have to agree coding standards, the way the software (or product) is structured, how version control is set up etc., etc., etc.

Some developers may come across as insular, but they also appreciate the beauty of well written code, many enjoy having 'religious' discussions with their peers about technology, or the best way to approach a problem. If these things are facilitated in a postive way then you can build great teams (look at Google for example). I think the key thing is they have to respect one another and each others differences.

As a manager I view my role as to guide the team as to what needs to be delivered and enabling them to get one with their job free of distractions i.e. remove the barriers that get in the way of them getting things done, shielding them any sh*t that might be hitting the fan, doing the crappy jobs that would be a distraction for them etc.

Tom De Marco's peopleware is another book that it's worth grabbing a copy of.

If you've and questions feel free to PM me.

Good Luck...

albertross_2

If the spec and standards are pinned down in the first place, then programmers (who are mostly human, not all beard and sandals brigade) should be able to code to the spec, and produce a working system. Problems occur when timescale is unrealistic, the spec is woolly, constantly changing, or prototyping of subsystems by different coders produces different styles of gui which don't fit together properly - this can be worse in a small team when the coders can't agree on a common style and standard.

kerry1981

Thanks for that guys, it is really helpful to get an idea of what it is like from a management perspective.

Thanks alot

Astaroth

One of the "issues" of team building across the larger team of the project is that the controls that should exist get broken and "management" are not informed of changes or risks.... its easier to phone Fred in Docs to say that the letter will now be 2 pages long rather than the originally expected one and get him to change the printer/ mail sorter than to fill in a project issue report form and escalate it to the PM and go through a whole change request process.

Of cause this really is a problem with individuals not following due process however by having strong team relationships across teams does further facilitate this sort of behavior.

Another issue that it can cause is that it can, if not done correctly, either cause "management" to lose the respect of their teams if they get too close or create a real "us & them" mentality which can cause obvious problems when you are trying to drive through things which require the teams to put in that extra bit of effort

I personally think that on the balance teamwork certainly is a benefit... just wanted to point out at least some of the potential pitfalls

Andy_Davies

Other thing it's probably worth doing is reading up on agile methodologies, as they rely on intensive collaboration and team work to get things delivered