There’s a reason athletes and sports teams spend hours each week in training and practice games. The more you do something, the more efficient you become at it. You identify ways to tweak your performance, process, or mental and physical strength. But in a team environment, a single person’s abilities and methods aren’t enough. Everyone has to practice and train together to learn how to get things moving as a group.
As a manager of any team, finding ways to coordinate the team’s efforts and boost productivity isn’t an overnight process. It takes time to discover each member’s strengths and root out any problems or animosities. Leaders of software teams have the additional pressure of needing to produce features and quality results under a time crunch. Clients are waiting, and there isn’t much room for moving parts to stall or deliverables to fall through.
Increasing a software team’s efficiency involves training and finding what makes the group sync. It’s not always about producing high output with record speed. Instead, boosting productivity is about achieving the best-quality results within the shortest amount of time. Below are four ways to go about it.
1. Find and Use the Right Project Management Software
Whether software teams are working in the same building or separate home offices, they need a way to collaborate. Without a software project management tool, communication and coordination within the group can break down fast. That said, not all tools are created equal or work well for every single team.
Perhaps the group is already using a system that doesn’t adequately facilitate task handoffs or provide a clear overview of projects. Maybe everyone has been inching along without a centralized app at all, relying on spreadsheets and email conversations. Either way, it’s beneficial to take a step back and evaluate whether you should change the tools you’re using.
Look for project management software that supports all stages of a developing app’s lifecycle, including planning and testing. The team needs ways to outline a project’s milestones and requirements. They must also have methods of moving things into design and development. Survey the group to see whether they prefer tools with roadmaps or flow diagrams. And don’t forget to uncover what features and interfaces all team members find simple to understand and use.
2. Work in Sprints
Working in sprints entails dividing and grouping a project’s work into segments. During a designated period or “sprint,” the team focuses on accomplishing a narrowly defined set of tasks. A hallmark of agile methodologies, tackling a project in sprints can be a source of group motivation. Everyone jumps in to work on, test, and finish one of the client’s requirements. The team sees progress and claims victory over one segment before moving on to the next.
Since the group experiences tangible results within a shorter period, they have evidence of their success. A sprint-based approach to development permits intense focus on specific aspects of a project instead of switching gears between multiple pieces. You and the group can also identify whether fixes are necessary before the final test and soft launch.
By working in sprints, you’ll isolate performance issues within each stage. For instance, the group might have to go back to the drawing board on defining a customer requirement. Maybe the client wanted a more dynamic online store that temporarily adjusted pricing with a user’s selections. Communication gaps between the customer and team resulted in static pricing displays, revealing a need for improved descriptions.
3. Establish Ownership
By now, most people have heard about helicopter parents, but sometimes team leaders can also embody their characteristics. Signs and symptoms include constantly checking in with team members and stepping in to do their work for them. When a project lead or manager continues to hold everyone’s hand, a sense of ownership and accountability declines.
Rather than making all of the group’s decisions, put team members in the driver’s seat. Let them decide how to accomplish a task and see a project stage through to completion. Communicate ahead of time that your role is to provide coaching and guidance when they need it. However, it’s up to the group to achieve the project’s objectives and be held accountable for the results.
You can also promote ownership on an individual level by playing to the strengths of each team member. If someone has excellent coding skills, have them lead that portion of the project. Say another developer enjoys working closely with clients and displays superior soft skills. Put them in charge of requirements gathering, client meetings, and feedback reports. By completing specialized or stretch assignments, developers will see how their decisions influence entire projects.
4. Create a Learning Culture
A learning culture promotes skill development and training through a variety of tools and methods. While staff members are ultimately in charge of their professional development, managers should provide employees with guidance and resources. Whether the organization brings in trainers or pays for continuing education courses, the group needs formal ways to learn.
Professional development can also consist of webinars, educational conferences, and mentoring programs. Some organizations let developers use a day of the week for individual projects or self-directed learning activities. Even though these pursuits take staff away from their work, they help employees get better at what they do. Your team has time to try new techniques away from the real-time pressures of high-stakes projects.
Conclusion
A software team’s productivity increases when the group learns to make individual strengths work in sync. In basketball, there will be players with a talent for scoring points and those who excel at defense on the court. In software development, there will be coders who create customer-pleasing features and testers who sniff out bugs. But as long as the team practices with the right tools and mindsets, they can accomplish more together.
