Due to growth in competition and the present economic climate, the role of the software development team has become critically important. In this competitive business environment, the quality of such a team impacts not only the projects’ failure rate but also the business failure rate.
Having this in mind, what makes an effective software development team?
The Individuals
Each team is made out of individuals and each of them must bring a set of skills to the team. The software developers should not only be experts in their designated area but should have at least a general understanding of the other roles and related technologies involved in the project.
All the individuals should be driven by the desire to add value to the team and to the software project as a whole. After all, the software product is delivered by the team.
Having a broad range of experience, the ability to rapidly learn and adapt to new situations and be a natural when it comes to solving problems.
The Environment
An ideal software development team requires a quality work environment. Having a great work environment does not necessarily mean having good quality office equipment and collaboration tools. The mutual support and trust between the team and management are absolutely necessary for any ideal software development team. Having a solid trust between members of the team and management means transparency in terms of knowing what is going on in the company.
The best development environments are not limited to using only one methodology but are instead open to changing methodologies based on business needs.
The Communication
Communication is the foundation for any kind of team. It’s typically what makes or breaks a software development team. Even if all the other aspects of the team are perfect, when communication is lacking, the team will have lower performance.
With a good and strong communication between the members of the team, you can overcome any issue. Also, with a strong communication the team can be better at understanding the roles of each team player in order to exchange ideas in the most intelligent way about their cooperative efforts.
The Direction
In order to function effectively, any software development team must have clearly defined goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.
The software development team should feel a sense of ownership of the work, to believe in the goal, schedule and the success of the project.
Having a common goal, with clear expectation and direction is absolutely necessary for an ideal team.
The most successful teams certainly consist of individuals who know their roles, excel at them and are perfect team players when working with others.
Remember that if a software development team is an engine then communication is the engine’s oil.