1. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 1

2. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 2 Introduction We will discuss  Team Organization  Team Formation  Reflective practice

3. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 3 Team Organization Structures:  The democratic team: all team members are involved in making decisions and involve informal leader  The hierarchical team: there is a team leader or manager who makes decisions and carries some responsibility for the team.  The ego-less team: ‘everyone does everything’ team Responsibility for the work is jointly assumed by all team members, decision-making has to take place by consensus since there is no leader.

4. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 4 Team Organization …continued Team roles: rotate roles or allocate the crucial roles  Team leader: this person has responsibility for clarifying the aims of the meeting and its agenda. partitioning of tasks and allocation of activities.  Record keeper: (meeting secretary) keep a record of what decisions have been taken, who is doing what, and the date of the next meeting.  Report coordinator: (team secretary) coordinating the production of team documents and reports.

5. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 5 Team Organization …continued  Progress chaser: ensuring that the team is keeping to the schedule and ensuring that they will meet the external deadlines, ensuring that everyone is doing what they are supposed to.  Timekeeper: is to monitor the passage of time and alert the team when that period of time has elapsed.  Technical director: advises the team and particularly the team leader upon technical issues can be invaluable.

6. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 6 Team Organization …continued  Process consultant: make positive suggestions on how the team could improve their working practices and relationships with other team members.  Client liaison: clarify exactly what is required by the client.

7. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 7 Team Organization …continued Which roles should you have? 1-A team leader: whose role may encompass several of the above roles. 2- A record keeper: whose role it is to maintain the official record of meetings, including documenting any decisions that were made. 3-A progress chaser: who ensures that the project runs according to plan and that the team’s reports are produced on time. 4-A report coordinator: who coordinates the production of documents by the team and manages the various versions of documents as they are produced.

8. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 8 Team formation Tuckman’s model of the development of teams  Forming: Team members try to get to know each other. In co-located teams, this often takes the form of a workshop with ice-breaking and social activities that are designed to help the team to get to know one other. Facilitators with experience of building teams may be brought in to run these introductory workshops. The team attempts to understand the task or project they have been assigned. This understanding will include trying to scope and define the boundaries to the task. Individuals within the team will be trying to work out what role they want to play in the team, and what roles they want other team members to play. For example, ‘who do I want to lead the team? Who do I not want to lead the team?’ As well as establishing what roles team members will take on, the team will also begin to establish some rules by which the team will operate.

9. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 9 Team formation …continued  Storming: differences of opinion over the task can arise and disagreements between team members.  Norming: A team identity has established itself and disagreements between team members are largely settled.  Performing: the team will be working productively together.  Adjourning: (Mourning) project coming to an end and the team being disbanded. Try to avoid this problem by keeping in touch.

10. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 10 Reflective Practice Reflective practice means Practical enquiry undertaken for the purposes of understanding and improving one's professional practice.

11. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 11 Reflective Practice …continued

12. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 12 Reflective Practice …continued What is the value of reflective practice? Reflection is what allows us to learn from our experiences. It is an assessment of where we have been, and of where we want to go next. It is an activity that should lead to greater confidence both in our ability to perform and also in our justification for what we do when we perform

13. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 13 Reflective Practice …continued Hazzan and Tomakyo indicate that there are two major factors requiring reflection as a habit of mind in software engineering:  the issue of coping with complexity  coping with (communicating with) colleagues

14. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 14 Reflective Practice …continued knowledge-in-action: we exhibit the ‘more’ that we know in what we do and in the way in which we do it. The reflective process itself: It is useful to impose a time line on our reflection and to think of it as an ongoing process of reflection before action, reflection during action, and reflection after action.

15. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 15 Reflective Practice …continued The need for evidence based on both qualitative and quantitative data you need to refer to the facts to back up your feelings and to justify your conclusions. based on the collection, analysis and presentation in your project log of evidence.

16. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 16 Reflective Practice …continued Reflection on reflection  meta-reflection level: assisting you in improving your skills, improving the quality of the processes and improving the quality of the products.

17. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 17 Reflective Practice …continued Learning from mistakes: My Biggest Mistake’ (Hodges 1996)four major reasons for failure.  Firstly, many people did not set clear goals, or they had too many competing priorities.  Secondly people did not handle the information available to them adequately. They tended to ignore information that did not fit their suspicions or their preconceptions.

18. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 18 Reflective Practice …continued  Thirdly, people tended to act on impulse rather than thinking before they undertook an activity.  Finally, people failed to observe what they were doing carefully enough

19. 26 February 2016M253 Team working in distributed environments 19 Summary  Team Organization -Team structures -Team roles  Team formation Tuck man's model of the development of teams  Reflective Practice Practical enquiry undertaken for the purposes of understanding and improving one's professional practice. Read The resource sheets carefully. ------------------------------------------------- Good luck and Have fun