Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
provided via a résumé or CV. Allowing them to explain the context of their
education or work experience, and to emphasize those points they feel are par-
ticularly important or relevant. This can be particularly useful to a project man-
ager, who might have a difficult time understanding why the candidate felt certain
experiences warranted mentioning. An in-person assessment also allows a candi-
date to comment on or account for the information gathered during the reference/
recommendation phase. In addition, an interview also gives a project manager the
chance to ask the candidate about things that he or she feels were missing or ill-
described in the earlier phases of assessment. During an interview, a project
manager should be mindful of the characteristics exhibited by the candidate. For
instance, this time can be used to further assess communication skills, level of
respect, or work ethic.
The three methods described above are common ways of gauging a potential
team member. More important than the method used though, is the end result. In
order to be effective, a project manager must be able to organize the information
gathered through both these methods and any others that are deemed useful. They
must then synthesize that information into a meaningful evaluation of the candi-
date, and finally determine whether or not that candidate meets the firm's standards
and will thus be an asset to the project. If the candidate in question is chosen to
join the development team, the information gathered during the assessment period
will also play a crucial part in determining the role the new team member will play
in the project.
4.3.2 Team Organization and Role Assignment
In this chapter, we have described how a software engineering project can be
efficiently organized based on decomposition of the entire project into develop-
ment activities. These resulting activities intuitively lend themselves to team-based
development. That is, various portions of the project can be developed semi-
independently from one another by separate teams. The benefits provided by this
practice include the ability to complete different activities in parallel, the ability to
assign a specific activity to the developers that are best suited for it, and the ability
to adjust some development activity without changing the entire project plan.
In a team-based software engineering project, each development team functions
as a smaller version of the whole. That is, each team is led by a team leader, who
acts similar to a project manager on reduced scale, and is composed of engineers.
The team leader is responsible for managing and supervising the progress of the
team, as well as for communicating with the project manager. Within the team, the
leader assigns specific roles and tasks in order to accomplish the activity with
which the team has been charged. The team works to complete a development
activity, and thus to produce any deliverables related with that activity, such as
software or documentation. A team completes a specific activity when they have
met the criteria put forth in the planning phase.
