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Software Development Team Management
Understanding the Needs of a Team
Often a software development manager steps up to the plate having come from a
successful past of delivering solid development products and solving complex
technical problems. Those who chose to step forward into management,
should the opportunity arise, quickly find out that managing development
projects requires a whole new skillset with different rules to
learn and different players to work with.
Foremost among the new territory skillsets is the need to develop an
understanding and administration of the needs of your development team.
From personal needs, to interactive team dynamics, to resolving dysfunctions of
teams, to empowering teams, the quicker you learn to master these skills, the
smother your career path will glide. Areas you should study:
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Effective hiring processes
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Effective termination procedures
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Getting the right people on the team
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Team Accountability
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Team Empowerment
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Functional Conflict vs Dysfunctional Conflict
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How to handle that highly-talented programmer that no-one can work with
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Cubes, vs, rooms? Maximizing performance in a cubed environment
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I need to promote him, but he can't manage people. What do I do?
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Common dysfunctions of a team
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Functional team-building vs Dysfunctional team-building
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How to motivate your team
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How to improve team morale
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How to build trust with your team
Offshore Teams? Some say it works. Some say it can be a
disaster. What should I know before I proceed?
Offshore development has become popular with huge and medium-sized
companies. Many companies even have development groups in multiple
countries. Originally, cost was the driver for this practice, but
now finding available resource (programmers) is becoming the rationale, given
the low un-employment rate in the U.S. and the lowering rate of IT-skilled
college graduates. There is a magic formula to follow that seems to be a
primary factor in offshoring and near-shoring success. Download the
free whitepaper to learn more.
Download Free white-papers on Software Development Offshoring Techniques (.PDF)
Measuring Employee Performance
As a manger, you are hired to sustain the needs of the company first, but then
the needs of your individual employees should come immediately
thereafter. The secret to building trust as a leader it to let your
employees know that you value them and will cater to their needs. Part of
your responsibility of leadership is to develop leadership in you direct
reports. Jack Welch, former chairman of GE, states in his book Winning,
that "developing leadership in people you manage should be something like 40%
of your job, not 5%." The whole company benefits for employees that can
tie their daily goals to the departments goals, and then the organizations
goals. To assist with this process, we have created an employee review
form that we encourage you use with your employees every six months, and as a
bonus review.
Download Free Employee Review Form (.doc)
Recent Posts on Development Team Management...
Book Review: Motivating Employees (6/23/2008)
Employee motivation is an ever-present concern for most proactive managers. Interestingly enough, motivation can come from both functional and dysfunctional sources.
I’ve seen employees motivated for many different reasons: recognition, financial incentive, empowerment, personal growth, tension release, fear, and finally there’s that weird Lord of the Flies thing where employees get motivated together against another employee.
In their [...]
Software Production Support (5/20/2008)
In a conversation with a friend once, they jokingly described their inability to play racquetball against other seasoned players as ”They are playing racquetball, while I am just hitting a ball around the room.”
I’ll borrow that reference and apply it to Software Production Support.
Is your Software Production Support group ”playing racquetball,” or are they “just hitting a ball [...]
What does it mean to be a Professional? (4/11/2008)
Decades ago I had a friend tell me this question was posed to their High School class. I never found out what the class concluded.
Over the years I have thought often about the answer to this question.
My earlier conclusion was that professionalism meant a separation of work and personal life. This is something that I [...]
The Three P’s of a Quality Management System (3/28/2008)
A Quality Management System, sometimes referred to as a Total Quality Management (TQM) System, is a simple concept that will dramatically improve software production quality over time.
Companies that don’t have a quality system are commonly reacting to production and support issues due to omissive events.
A simple rule of thumb is to ask yourself how many fires your development team has put out this [...]
The Bat-Phone (3/28/2008)
Do you have one of those executives that harasses you with status updates to projects, yet never attends the status update meetings?
Perhaps they call you, email you, stop in to your office, and want to know what the latest on project X is?
Is the behavior effecient? What suggestions do you have about how to convey [...]
Anti-Values (3/5/2008 1)
I was sitting in a KFC eating lunch, reading the slogans muraled on the wall. This particular KFC is supposedly the first KFC in America. Yes, it’s in Utah. Along with some chicken legs and a drink, you can enjoy a small exhibit showing Colonel Sander’s original briefcase, white suite, shoes, etc.
One mural read, “Somehow [...]
Your First Week as a Software Development Manager (2/28/2008)
Wether you are starting a new job, or you just got promoted, the first week as a Software Development Manger, VP, Director, etc, can be a dizzying experience.
Depending on your particular situation, you’ll likely have to meet many new people, learn about new systems, and remember to smile often.
A good starting point is the be sure the following items [...]
What to look for when interviewing a candidate (2/22/2008)
My sister was recently promoted to manage a team of software project managers for a large bank on the East coast. She told me she gets to hire someone for the first time in her career.
I told her that hiring is always a bit of a dice roll, but I offered her some advice after [...]
Book Review: What Got You Here Won’t Get You There (2/11/2008)
Marshall Goldsmith’s New York Times Bestseller, What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful is an excellent self-help book for executives and managers wishing to improve their “soft skills” and other interpersonal traits.
Goldsmith is an executive coach who has worked with more than 80 of the worlds foremost CEO’s. As [...]
Book Review: The 360 Degree Leader (1/22/2008)
John C. Maxwell’s book, The 360 Degree Leader, is an excellent field-guide for navigating the challenges of leadership at all levels of an organization.
Maxwell starts his book by dispelling many common dysfunctional myths that are found at line-level, or middle-level management. Ideas such as “When I get to the top, I’ll be in control,” and “If I were on top, [...]
Three-dimensional value systems (1/2/2008 1)
What is a value system?
As of late, corporations have discovered that mission-statements are only somewhat helpful in providing direction to a company. Being strategic in nature, they don’t provide enough detail to govern tactical decisions made by the corporate employees on a daily basis.
To answer this need, value-statements, and value-systems have come into vogue. Many companies have [...]
Great Mission Statements (12/28/2007)
Jack Welch, in his book, Winning, talks about how to create great mission statements.
He says most mission statements are dull, uninspired, and even unhelpful. Most groups write their mission statement to describe only what they are in business to do. While this is not wrong, it creates a whole bunch of mission statements that all look the same among [...]
Improving Employee Morale (12/27/2007)
As a software development management consultant, I’m always looking for innovative ways to improve employee morale.
My friend and associate, Greg Wright, told me about an interesting process for improving morale that his company practices.
They have an appeasement committee and budget. The appeasement committee is a group with one representative from each department. Each month, a [...]
Book Review: Under Pressure and On Time (12/6/2007)
Ed Sullivan’s book, Under Pressure And On Time, is a no-nonsense guide for delivering software products to market in a timely manner.
In this industry where the average software project is late, over budget, or a complete failure, there are so many books written about what not to do. It’s refreshing to read a software development book that [...]
Book Review: Software Project Survival Guide (11/29/2007)
In Steve McConnell’s book, Software Project Survival Guide, he describes the foundation and procedures for managing a successful software development project.
Researching from NASA, IEEE, and some other industry giants like Grady Booch and Tom Demarco, McConnell summarizes software development into six stages:
Planning
Design
Construction
Testing
Release
Wrap-up
McConnell also offers some great ideas like keeping a project history to record lessons learned [...]
Book Review: The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership (11/26/2007)
With a forward by Zig Ziglar, John C. Maxwell’s book titled The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership is an assured home run.
Maxwell breaks down leadership into 21 categories. He then goes to great lengths to explain each category and give real world examples.
He describes the progression of leadership by highlighting great leaders who have created momentum in others around them. For example, he explains [...]
Book Review: The No AssHole Rule (11/24/2007)
Despite it’s brash title, Dr. Robert I. Sutton’s book, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, is a valuable text that effectively treads where few business authors have treaded before.
Sutton makes a case for the need for insight and direction in handling Bullies, Creeps, Jerks, Tyrants, Tormentors, Despots, Backstabbers, Egomaniacs, [...]
Book Review: Results (11/24/2007)
I finished reading Results: Keep What’s Good, Fix What’s Wrong, and Unlock Great Performance, by Gary L. Neilson and Bruce A. Pasternack.
I have to admit this book seemed much like many of the other “improving business performance” books that I have read, except that this book kept me confused through most of it.
The authors discuss [...]
Book Review: The First-Time Manager - 5th Edition (11/23/2007)
The First-time Manager, 5th Edition, by Loren B. Belker and Gary S. Topchick is an excellent book on management.
Although it has been titled for “The First Time Manager,” there are enough gold nuggets in this book for seasoned managers as well. Now, in it’s 5th edition, you can be assured it has been refined and reality-tested.
Belker and Topchick [...]
Book Review: Winning (11/22/2007)
Jack Welch, together with is wife Suzy, have a Wall Street Journal and New York Times bestseller with their book titled Winning.
Following Jack Welch’s direct, no-holds-barred style, he presents quite plainly the road-map to successful management.
He talks about constructing corporate values and effective mission statements. He talks about the importance of candor, respect, and effective reward-systems. He continues [...]
Book Review: Confessions of an UnManager (11/22/2007)
Recently I read Debra Boggan & Anna VerSteeg’s book titled Confessions Of An Unmanager: Ten Steps To Jump Start Company Performance By Getting Others To Accept Accountability.
This is an interesting book that speaks to the great “divide” in corporate America. The divide, they say, is the distinction between how management conducts themselves in relation to their teams [...]
Book Review: How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere (11/15/2007)
How to Talk to Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: The Secrets of Good Communication, by Larry King, is a fun, short book to read.
Larry did a service to the public by writing this book and elaborating on some guiding principles that have helped him succeed in his career of–well, talking.
Novel among his concepts is the premise that [...]
Book Review: Integrating Agile Development in the Real World (11/15/2007)
Hooray, another book on Agile Development!
In Integrating Agile Development in the Real World, Peter Schuh explains in depth how to get your team to adopt the Agile Development Model.
Schuh covers several Agile Metholodogies including the problems to watch out for during the process.
I do have to say, this book seemed like a “whole bunch of everything” and so [...]
Book Review: The Five Dysfunctions of a TEAM (11/15/2007)
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, written by Patrick Lencioni, he discusses–well, five dysfunctions of a team.
Lencioni’s style with his books seem to be a sort of fable-story-type narrative in the first part, and then real meat in the latter part. I have to confess I skipped about half of the fable stuff, [...]
Meetings? We don’t need no stinkin’ meetings? (11/8/2007)
There seems to be no set standard for development meetings. Some groups complain about being ‘meetinged to death,’ while others complain about a lack of communication, direction, or group cohesion. Given the two options, it is generally agreed that overcommunication is much better than undercommunication.
One of the more innovative approaches to cutting down on meeting [...]
Improving Accountability Within your Development Department (10/31/2007)
Many Software Development Managers find their way into the “coveted” position from atrition after being a development team lead, or senior architect.
Having a technical background is an obvious advantage in terms of understanding the complexity dynamics the team deals with. One big reality, however, is that these vast technical skills are only a subset of what is required to become a great manager, [...]
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