Team
management
Lecturer：
Date:
Contents
• Concept of team management
• Types of Team Organizations
• General Team Principles
• Something about Motivation
• Something about Teamwork
• Practical Guidelines
• Team management difficulties and solution
• Some special cases
Concept of team management
Stephen Robbins believes that the team is
carried out in order to achieve a certain goal
cooperation with each other to form a more
formal groups. Robbins emphasizes three
priorities of team : a target, mutual cooperation
and formal groups.
Team management refers to techniques,
processes and tools for organizing and
coordinating a group of individuals working
towards a common goal.
Types of Team Organizations
• Hierarchical
• Business
• Matrix
• Chief Programmer
• SWAT
• Open Structured
• Search and Rescue Team
• Professional Athletic Team
Types of Team Organizations
—Hierarchical Team
• Project is divided into major subsystems
• Each subsystem is headed by a project
manager
• If a subsystem is complex, it may be further divided
into smaller components
• Most of the work done at the leaves of the tree
• Peter Principle
• In a hierarchical organization each employee in
general rises until reaching a level at which he is
incompetent
• Rewards management more for rising up the tree
Types of Team Organizations
— Business Team
• Most common of the team structures
• Peer group headed by a technical lead
• Aside from the leader, the team members are all
equal in status and differentiated by expertise
• Technical lead is also an active technical
contributor but also responsible for final decisions
and communicates externally for the team
• Streamlines communication with management,
allows team members to work in their area of
expertise, allows the team itself to sort out who
should work on what
• Strength and weakness is its generality
Types of Team Organizations
— Matrix
• Basic units with specializations
• Individuals with their specialty assigned to projects requiring those
talents
• Each feature team is responsible for developing one feature of the
product
• Good for problem resolution teams
Networking Graphics Databases QA
Project A X X X
Project B X X
Project C X X X
Types of Team Organizations
— Chief Programmer
• The chief programmer is the team leader. This
person must be a superstar and design/code
much of the project
• Other people just provide support services
for the star
• They act as assistants in various capacities,
documentation, administration, etc.
• Similar to a surgeon in the OR
• Makes good use of superstars; but hard to find
anyone “super” enough
• Can have conflict with the leader who makes
all decisions
Types of Team Organizations
— SWAT
• Skilled With Advanced Tools
• Based on the RAD methodology
• Typically builds incremental versions of a
software system
• Focuses on
• Reusable components
• Use of development tools
• Software generators
• Groupware and workflow management software
• Members must be experienced with multiple skills
Types of Team Organizations
— Open or Weakly Structured
• Combine open management style with clear
structure on team roles
• Technical leader
• Responsible for resolving issues for which no
consensus can be reached
• Moderator for meetings
• Rotate among members for various tasks
• Tries to combine a focus on individual
specialists as well as centralized coordination
of activities
Types of Team Organizations
— Skunk Works
• Take a bunch of talented people, hide them
from the rest of the world, and see what they
can do
• Based on the “black program” model
• Covert development of sensitive systems
• May get extremely high creativity in exchange
for low visibility and high risk
Types of Team Organizations
— Search and Rescue
• Focuses on solving a particular problem
• Needs very specialized product knowledge
• Like a “tiger team” to attack a
specific problem
• Consists of software and hardware specialists
with detailed business environment knowledge
• Often used for emergency maintenance
Types of Team Organizations
— Professional Athletic Team
• The developers are the stars of this team.
• Managers and everyone else are secondary.
• Roles are very specialized
• Good for tactical execution teams, which need
specialized skills
• Lots of stars may not get along
General Team Principles
• Use fewer and better people
• Highest productivity is achieved by a relatively small
group of people
• Large groups require exponentially more
communication, which has a negative effect on
productivity
• Need to keep one person in charge of the project’s
overall vision (chief programmer or architect)
• Try to fit tasks to the capabilities and motivation
of the people available
• Select people for a well-balanced and
harmonious team
• Someone who does not fit the team should be
removed
Motivation
• Researchers have found a 10:1 range of
performance among people with the same
levels of experience
• Key to this is their motivation
• Problem is that motivation is hard to measure,
quantify, or express
Motivation
• Types of motivating factors will vary from
person to person
• Career growth potential
• Management potential
• Personal life: is it possible to have one?
• Status
• Peer recognition
• Personal achievement...
Motivation
• More motivating factors:
• Money! (or grades in our case)
• Company ownership
• Job security
• Work environment
• Home environment (travel, entertainment, …)
• No single thing motivates everyone
Top Five Motivational Factors
• Achievement (reaching goals)
• Possibility for Growth (personal improvement)
• The Work Itself
• Personal Life
• Technical Supervision Opportunity
Top Five Motivational Factors
——Achievement
• Ownership: Get developers to own (set
and agree to) the schedules they are working
to achieve
• Goal Setting: Set specific goals for
development (speed, quality, etc.)
• Keep it to one or two specific goals
Top Five Motivational Factors
—— Possibility for Growth
• Support continuing education
• Conferences (attending, maybe presenting)
• Mentor new staff
• Avoid unrealistic schedule pressure
• Expect 2-3 weeks per year for training
and education
Top Five Motivational Factors
—— The Work Itself
• Five main aspects
• Skill Variety: to avoid boredom and fatigue
• Task Identity: to be able to identify
your product
• Task Significance: to work on
something important
• Autonomy: to control how your task is done
• Job Feedback: to see your work in action
Top Five Motivational Factors
—— Personal Life
• Traditionally, is a significant motivation
for developers, not managers
• Respect holidays and weekends as much
as possible
• Respect family and emergency needs
• Avoid extensive travel
Top Five Motivational Factors
—— Tech. Supervision
Opportunity
• Motivation for developers, not managers
• Project Leads: Can assign leads for each technical
area in the project: graphics,
database design, etc.
• Functional Leads: Or assign leads for each process
area: system testing, technical reviews,
performance evaluation, etc.
• Assign mentor positions to all but most
junior staff
Other Motivational Factors
• Rewards and Incentives - prizes, promotions,
bonuses, …
• Pilot projects - adds importance to project
• Try something new each project
• Performance reviews - need proper reviews to
ensure good performance feedback
Motivation Killers
• Lack of hygiene - a clean office is required
• Good lighting, office ergonomics, up to date
equipment
• Management manipulation - don’t pretend your
staff are dumb
• Excessive schedule pressure - have we
emphasized this enough yet?
• Lack of appreciation - kudos are
not optional...
More Motivation Killers
• Meddling by technically inept managers
• Leaving developers out of decisions
• Productivity barriers in the environment
• Low product quality - destroys sense
of achievement
• Blatant motivation campaigns - be subtle
Teamwork
• The Amish barn raising is cited as a prime
example of teamwork
• Barn raised in a single day without electricity or
power tools
• Jobs for entire community
• Kids carry food, tools
• Men cooperate
• No gripes or distractions
• Nobody leaves until the barn is complete
• Model of the perfect team?
Teamwork’s Importance
• Major factors
• Effectiveness of teams can vary by a factor of
2-6 on the same project
• Group cohesiveness is a key factor in
team effectiveness
• Developers’ experience is also significant
Characteristics of High
Performance Teams
• A shared elevating vision or goal
• A clear objective builds trust and focus,
keeps perspective
• Challenging work
• The project must be challenging to be worth
the team’s focus
• A sense of team identity (who are we?)
• Team name, dress code (IBM’s Black Team), etc...
Characteristics of High
Performance Teams
• A results-driven structure
• Must have clear roles, monitoring, feedback, and
decision making methods based on fact
• Competent team members (not expert)
• Select people based on technical skills, desire to
contribute, and teamwork skills
• Commitment to the team
• Sometimes merely asking is enough to get it...
Characteristics of High
Performance Teams
• Mutual trust
• Honesty, openness, consistency, respect
• Interdependence among team members
• Share decisions, balance strengths
• Effective communication
• Need to be able to communicate bad news, while it
still can be fixed or accommodated...
Characteristics of High
Performance Teams
• A sense of autonomy (independence)
• In spite of a chance of making mistakes
• A sense of empowerment (authority)
• Can say ‘no’ to a request, or break a little rule
• Small team size
• 3 to 5 per team, max of 10
• A high level of enjoyment (fun!)
How to Manage a Team
• Establish a vision for the team
• Create change needed to bring about
the vision
• Manage the team as a team, not
as individuals
• Make the team responsible rather than individuals
for their individual actions
• Delegate tasks clearly to the team
• Let team work out the details
Team Failure
• If team isn’t working, examine the motivation,
organization, and information
• Other possible causes include:
• Lack of vision
• Lack of identity
• Members that would rather work alone, or lack of
commitment
• Lack of recognition
• Productivity roadblocks
• Environment too stifling?
Team Failure
• More causes:
• Ineffective communication
• Lack of trust
• Problem personnel (don’t ignore them!)
• Members that are belligerent, cover up ignorance rather
than try to learn, are territorial, grumble, don’t pitch in
• “My code is too complicated to test”
• “No one else can fix the bugs in my code.”
• In a review of 32 management teams, the most consistent
and intense complaint from members was their team
leaders were unwilling to confront and resolve problems
with poor performance by team members
• First approach is for the entire team to coach the problem
person on how to work as part of a team
• Second resort is to fire the person
Practical Guidelines for Team
Leaders
• As a team leader I will
• Avoid compromising the team’s objective with
political issues
• Exhibit personal commitment to the team’s goal
• Not dilute the team’s efforts with too many priorities
• Be fair and impartial toward all team members
• Be willing to confront and resolve issues associated
with inadequate performance by team members
• Be open to new ideas and information from team
members
Practical Guidelines for Team
Members
• As a team member I will:
• Demonstrate a realistic understanding of my role
and accountabilities
• Demonstrate objective and fact-based judgments
• Collaborate effectively with other team members
• Make the team goal a higher priority than any
personal objective
• Demonstrate a willingness to devote whatever effort
is necessary to achieve team success
• Be willing to share information, perceptions, and
feedback appropriately
Practical Guidelines for Team
Members
• As a team member I will:
• Provide help to other team members when needed
and appropriate
• Demonstrate high standards of excellence
• Stand behind and support team decisions
• Demonstrate courage of conviction by directly
confronting important issues
• Demonstrate leadership in ways that contribute to
the team’s success
• Respond constructively to feedback from others
Some special cases
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