CSC 480 Software Engineering Team Issues

Essence of a Successful Team To be successful, teams must  Plan their projects  Track their progress  Coordinate their work  Agree on goals  Have a common process  Communicate freely and often

Why Projects Fail Projects usually fail because of team problems, not technical ones. Some team members have difficulty with the pressure that is caused by a tight schedule. Without a plan and a schedule team members do not know the status of their projects and can not see problems with project progress.

Team Problems  poor communications  inability to compromise or cooperate  weak participation  procrastination  lack of discipline  lack of confidence  ineffective leadership  poor planning  function (or requirement) creep  lack of emphasis on product quality  unclear team roles and responsibilities

A Jelled Team Development teams need to “jell.” A jelled team  works smoothly and efficiently  is tightly knit into a single unit  is greater than the sum of its parts  is fun to work with formstormnormperform

Team Building Principles A team consists of  at least two people,  who are working towards a common goal/ objective/mission,  where each person has been assigned specific roles or functions to perform,  and where completion of the mission requires some form of dependency among the group members.

Conditions for Effective Teams The tasks to be done are clear and distinct. The team is clearly identified. Each member has a clearly defined role. The team has control over their tasks. The team has challenging, specific, and measurable goals. The team is aware of its performance and progress toward their goals. The team has a common framework for their work.

Team Roles Team member responsibility is defined by five team roles  Team Leader  Development Manager  Planning Manager  Quality/Process Manager  Support Manager

Maintaining Communication Internal communication  Teams meet weekly.  Roles, processes, plans, and measurements allow discussion to be focused upon the issues.  A meeting script ensures that all necessary topics are discussed every week.

Maintaining Communication External communication  The team leader makes weekly reports to the instructor.  The instructor can provide guidance when it appears to be needed.

Team Leader Leads the team and ensures that engineers report their process data and complete their work as planned.  Motivate the team to perform their tasks and resolve issues.  Facilitate Team Meetings.  Report to the instructor on project status.  Lead the team in allocating tasks among the team members.  Maintain the project notebook.  Lead the team in developing the Cycle Report.  Also, act as a development engineer.

Development Manager Leads and guides the team in designing and developing the product.  Lead the team in producing the development strategy and the product conceptual design.  Lead the development of the requirements specification (SRS).  Lead the team in producing the design specification (SDS).  Lead the team in implementing the product.  Lead development of the build, integration and system test plans.  Also, act as a development engineer.

Planning Manager Supports and guides the team in planning and tracking their work.  Lead the team in producing the task plan and schedule for each development cycle.  Lead the team in producing the balanced team development plan.  Track the team's progress against their plan.  Also, act as a development engineer.

Quality / Process Manager Supports the team in defining their process needs, in making the quality plan, and in tracking process and product quality.  Lead the team in producing and tracking their quality plan.  Identify where quality performance falls short of objectives.  Lead the team in defining, documenting, and maintaining their processes and development standards.  Act as moderator and lead all team reviews and inspections.  Also, act as a development engineer.

Support Manager Supports the team in determining, obtaining, and managing the tools needed to meet its technology and administrative support needs.  Lead the team in determining their support needs and obtaining the needed tools and facilities.  Lead the development and management of Change/Configuration Management System.  Handle the team's issue and risk tracking system.  Act as the team's reuse advocate.  Also, act as a development engineer.