Team Coordination

1
Team Coordination

• Large software systems require a coordinated
  team of software engineers for effective
  development
• Team organization involves devising roles for
  individuals and assigning responsibilities
• Organizational structure attempts to facilitate
  cooperation

Team Formation and Organization Group
Management Meeting Techniques
2
Team Organizations

• Organizing is building a team
• Appropriate organization depends on project
  length and complexity
• For long-term projects, job satisfaction is
  extremely important for reduced turnover
• Need mix of senior and junior engineers to
  facilitate both accomplishing the task and
  training
• Adding people to a project introduces further
  delays

3
Team Organizations

• Hierarchical organizations minimize and
  discourage communication, while democratic
  organizations encourage it
• Appropriate size depends on complexity
• small teams lead to cohesive design, less
  overhead, more unity, higher morale
• but some tasks too complex
• optimal size between 3 and 8
• Appropriate design leads to appropriate
  assignment of tasks and appropriate team
  organization

4
Centralized-Control

• Hierarchical organizational structure and
  matching pattern of communication
• chief programmer team
• chief programmer reports to peer project
  manager
• programmers report to chief programmer
• librarian responsible for central repository
• specialists added as needed
• Works well with simple tasks that can be
  grasped by one good engineer, but single point
  of failure

5
Decentralized Control

• Ring organization and connected communication
• democratic team
• decisions made by consensus
• all work is group work ego-less programming
• leads to higher morale and job satisfaction
• not appropriate for large teams
• More appropriate for less understood and more
  complex programs with longer term project

6
Mixed Control

• Hierarchy with extra communication
• senior engineers report to project manager
• junior engineers report to senior engineers
• control is vested in project manager and senior
  engineers
• communication is decentralized among each set
  of peers and their supervisor
• Limits communication to a small group and
  realizes benefits of group decisions by vesting
  authority

7
Effective Teams

• Team members
• desire to be part of group task
• have an interest in task with social
  interaction
• are interested in improvement and can accept
  constructive criticism
• are genuinely interested in sharing knowledge
• do their own share
• Team approach
• generates conflict
• requires good strategies
• forming initial meeting to get acquainted and
  assess skills
• storming characterized by conflict and open
  brainstorming
• norming establishing normal patterns of
  behavior and approach
• performing documenting the results

8
Conflict Resolution

• Conflict is a positive attribute indicative of
  multiple ideas
• Conflict management is selecting between
  alternative actions
• Conflict resolution can be done by
• compromise great appeal, but may indicate
  avoiding
• forcing one person insists on action
• avoidance ignore conflict, hoping it will go
  away
• confrontation examine areas of disagreement,
  discuss differences and bring solution out in
  open
• Group cohesion leads toward cooperation and
  good conflict resolution

9
Meeting Techniques

• Schedule early, at times when all can attend,
  at good venue, started when all arrive
• Prepare well, with detailed agenda and list of
  action items
• Procedures complete agenda, discuss facts,
  solicit input from all members, take action,
  everyone should leave with something to do before
  next meeting
• Group Interaction pay attention and react,
  concentrate on group, watch for nonverbal
  communication, backtrack when problems arise