Team Work

What is a team? Building Effective Teams Managing yourself Team obligations Common Team problems Risk Management Meeting techniquescs3141, Fall 2013 Team Work 1

What is a Team

A team consists of1. At least two people, who2. Are working toward a common

goal/objective/mission, where3. Each person has been assigned

specific roles or functions to perform, and where

4. Completion of the mission requires some form of dependency among the group members

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Team Work

Difference from Individual Work 50% or more Interaction with other people

30% Individual work 20% Non-productive activities

Jelled team Productivity is higher than the sum of individual.

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Team Composition Managed Team

Appointed manager (total authority and total responsibility), the manager not necessarily functional member of the team. This type of team is typical for large project or product with many team members.

Chief Programmer Team An authority evolves from within the team, not appointed.

Democratic Team No leader - equal responsibility Difficult to be effective.

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Team Member Roles

Project manager Development manager   Planning manager Quality manager Support manager

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Team Formation

Forming - get to know each other Storming - Struggle to understand each others ideas and ways of thinking

Norming - The project patterns and approaches are agreed upon

Performing - The realization of the project

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Building Effective Teams Team cohesion

The tight knitting of the team members into a unified working group that physically and emotionally acts as a unit

Challenging Goals Specific, measurable Tracked and the progress visibly displayed

Feedback See the progress toward team’s goal Distinguish personal performance from the whole

team Common Working Framework

The path to achieve the goals must be clear Team members understand their roles and

responsibilities and how to accomplish What tasks? When? In what order? By whom?

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The Jelled Team Peopleware by Demarco and Lister

A jelled team is a group of people so strongly knit that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The production of such a team is greater than that of the same people working in unjelled form. Just as important, the enjoyment that people derive from their work is greater than what you’d expect give the nature of the work itself.

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Managing Yourself Being responsible

Acting Responsibly A Failing project story

Not giving up another story

Facing facts Back to the failing project story

Stating the facts A story of a lighthouse Facts are often debatable

The Risks of Being Responsible

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Managing Yourself Striving for Defined Goals

Focusing on the schedule? A story about getting funded, but with wrong product at the end.

Goals provide focus for the efforts and establish priorities

What do you want me to do? Implicit goals

ex: quality Clear goals

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Managing Yourself Living by Sound Principles

Your opinion of yourself Who are you? You are unique with special talents and abilities.

Respect yourself and be objective - Focus on the job itself, not what other people will think about you

Your opinion of Others Respect others is critical. The story of Dick’s case

Your commitment to Excellence It requires conviction, perseverance Resist the temptation to take shortcuts, rush through a design, nor record a defect, …

Make what you do now something to be proud ofcs3141, Fall 2013 Team Work 11

Teamwork Obligations

Communication among team members

Making and meeting commitments

Participation in the Team’s Activities

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Team Communication Communication is essential to success

There cannot be a successful team without effective communication

Listening The best communicators are great listeners. Five levels of listening

Ignoring Pretending Selective Attentive listening ( focus on the words being said) Empathic listening ( with the intent to understand)

Be an active listener, make sure speaker knows that you are listening

“ oh what you mean is … “ “ In other words, you think that …”

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Team Communication Talking

Express your ideas as clearly as possible· 

Other team members will not know your ideas unless they are clearly expressed

Ask for feedback from your ideas  What other people understand from your words is not always what you mean

Negotiating Adopt Win-win strategy When problems arise, if solution is not reached by discussion, establish the problem and gathering more information may help

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Making and meeting commitments Responsible commitments

Team member should make responsible commitments and strive to meet them

Members must trust one another to do what they say

Commitment is an ethic that must be learned Making commitments

Commitment must be freely assumed The commitment is public To make responsible commitment, you must prepare

Define and estimate the work and conclude you can do it.

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Participation in the Team’s Activities Do not caving in too quickly

Ask questions, have them explain to you Supporting the holdout Getting Attention

Story about airplane crash and the warning of the co-pilot

Paying attention don’t be so self-sufficient

When you are in trouble, ask for and accept help

When someone is offering help, pay attention

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Common Team Problems Poor project management, ineffective leader

Failure to compromise or cooperate Lack of participation Procrastination and Lack of Confidence

Poor quality work Function creep Ineffective peer evaluation Under resource estimation Technical challengingcs3141, Fall 2013 Team Work 17

Conflict Among Team Members Conflict is indicative of introduction of variety of ideas

Conflict management is essential to the success

Different 'approaches' to conflict management Negotiating Compromising         Forcing          Avoiding Organized confronting

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Risk Management – Plan for uncertainty and loss One might encounter portions that are difficult to implement

support system failure that causes delays Product might be so defective that testing takes too long

Team might loose control over the product or product changes and spent time on constructing programs that have already been developed

Your team might not be able to work together effectively

Individuals might run into personal problems which reduced productivity

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Setting Goals

Write down your goals Specify how to measure these goals

If not obvious explain why these goals

Distribute goals 

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Basic Team Goals Team goal 1: Produce a quality product

Measure 1.1 Percent of defects found before the first compile: 80%

Measure 1.2 Number of defects found in system testing: 3

Measure 1.3 Requirements functions included at project completion: 100%

Team goal 2: Run a productive and well-managed project

Measure 2.1 Error in estimated development hours: > 20%

Measure 2.2 Percent of data recorded and entered in project notebook: 100%

Team goal 3: Finish on time Measure 3.1 Days early or late in completing the

development cycle: < 4cs3141, Fall 2013 Team Work 21

Team Member Goals Goal: Plan and track all my personal work Goal: Produce quality products

Measure: defect density found during compile: < 10/kloc

Measure: defect found during unit testing: < 5/kloc Goal: fully use the team members’ skills and abilities

Goal: Accurately report team status every week Goal: The team has suitable tools and methods to support its work

Goal: Perform effectively as the team’s meeting facilitator

Goal: Resolve all the issues team members bring to you

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How to avoid procrastination?

Plan your schedule   Keep track of your schedule Record actual time Compare and evaluate for accuracy

Use the time-log forms

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Meeting Techniques Scheduling

As early as possible Regular times Make sure everyone can make the meetings   Start meeting when everyone is there    Meeting time and place have to be sufficient   How far into the project should the team meets Don't spend too much time meeting

Preparation Agenda Distribute agenda to provoke thought

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Meeting Techniques Procedures

Complete (or table) each agenda item before going to next

Start discussions with a presentation of currently known facts  

Comments and criticism should be actively solicited from all team members (invite some controversy) 

Presenting differing idea should be encouraged    Differing ideas should be openly discussed. The differences must be understood and advantages and disadvantages of each must be pointed out

Each person must leave the meeting with something specific to do before the next meeting, that is action item

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