Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
13.1.1 Team Composition
The success of a team is based heavily on the members of a team and their ability
not only as developers, but as team players. In an academic background, especially
one where the students have progressed through the same series of courses, there
may be a less than typical diversity of skills. Selecting a project manager that has
had some real-world leadership ability is important for the delegation of duties,
and for the insurance of a smooth and elegant development process. Selecting the
project manager is the first order of business.
The democratic process is particularly useful in determining the project leader. In
order to have a fair and unbiased election of a project leader, a closed election, with a
round of nominations and runoff of the top two candidates, is quick and effective for
electing a popular and capable leader. The first duty of the project manager should be
to break the class into teams. It may seem preemptive to divide the class into teams
without first accessing their capabilities, but there will be room in the future for
tweaking team sizes and members. The point of the project is academic, and
introducing students to new roles and challenges is important to maintain their
interest (Acharya and Burke
2008
). After each team has been designated, a team
leader is needed. Each team's leader should be announced to the class.
13.1.1.1 Successful Leadership
Successful leaders are those that are able to effectively communicate goals and
motivate their teams to achieve these goals. In software engineering, team leaders
should be able to convey the ideas and progress of their developers to the cus-
tomers in a way that the customer can understand. In turn, they must be able to
take the ideas and requirements of the customer and translate them into technical
issues for their teams to resolve. Software engineering project leadership requires a
few specific tasks of the project leader (Stiller and LeBlanc
2002
)
• Establish project files that include items such as work reviews, deadlines, and
budgets.
• Conduct peer and self reviews.
• Provides independent product assurance to the customer.
• Management
of
technical
documentation
destined
to
be
received
by
the
customer.
• Provide project level technical oversight.
• Announces items of revision to the development teams.
There are, of course, other more subtle tasks for the project manager, and to a
slightly lesser extent, the team leader to handle. Managers must create obtainable
and definite project goals and deadlines. Not only will deadlines promote the
promptness of completion, but they will allow for team members to have a sense of
achievement. Leaders need to create opportunities. Good team members will work
