This tag is for all questions related to leading and managing project teams and project team members either directly or indirectly.
1
vote
0answers
17 views
Should development team leaders be line managers?
In a development team with a leader, should this leader be a line manager or is it better to separate the two roles?
How much admin should a hands-on leader actually do before it becomes the ...
2
votes
1answer
53 views
How to structure a software development team
Given a 15x strong software development team working on individal projects, and small, medium, and large projects; what is the best way to structure this team and what is the best software development ...
0
votes
0answers
46 views
Agile/Scrum Software Comparison [closed]
I've been looking for comparisons between various pieces of software for tracking a team of about twenty developers (including stakeholders, managers, and area leads).
I'm currently looking at either ...
3
votes
1answer
145 views
What is an appropriate quality standard for requirements specifications?
In my role as a Business Analyst working for a offshore company (7 developers, 4 QA, 1 PM, 1 Architect) but being onsite, I go through the Business Requirement Document's, Epics and Stories briefed by ...
11
votes
7answers
316 views
How can I track the work done by a remote team of coders?
I just started a project with a team of coders working remotely. I trust that they will get the job done, but I want a way to track their progress day to day. I know they are using a Git repository to ...
0
votes
2answers
66 views
Critical communications during product roll outs
My current project is to roll-out a new technology product throughout my company.
I want to come up with a website that will give a high level insight to the roll-out. I don't know how should I do ...
0
votes
0answers
137 views
How do I structure a modern web development team (sites, apps, production work)? [closed]
I am in the process of restructuring our development teams. Our business (ad agency) has had 2 different development teams for several years. Creative Developers (banners, flash demos/apps/sites, ...
5
votes
2answers
136 views
Can somebody be his/her own Scrum Master in a programming company?
If a programmer in a small company wants to be his own Scrum Master, and Scrum teams are supposed to be self-organizing, does that mean no one can manage him? If that's true, then:
How can he manage ...
3
votes
1answer
93 views
How can I manage multiple large, parallel, distributed projects with different workforce commitment levels?
I'm starting a Games Development club. I'll be thrown lots of people with their own skill-sets, commitment levels, goals, etc. I need to ensure they are pointed towards appropriate yet stimulating ...
5
votes
5answers
111 views
Is interspersing different teams a good idea?
Update: (a PM-specific concern) Having developers working close together is valuable to my team - people tend to naturally ask more questions, get involved in code-related conversations they overhear, ...
0
votes
1answer
49 views
How should support be provided for existing software?
In our organization, sales people and administrators ask developers for support whenever they experience a problem. How should support time be structured/provided for existing software without ...
5
votes
2answers
117 views
Should meeting minutes be captured during Scrums of Scrums?
We hold daily Scrum of Scrums meetings on our project. The participants (i.e. non-technical managers) each manage several smaller projects and provide updates on their projects (from their daily ...
5
votes
3answers
180 views
What should a project manager do to on-board remote team members efficiently?
What can I do as a project manager to ensure new team members are quickly brought up to speed within the project team?
The team is multidisciplinary, having mobile software engineers, UI & UX ...
20
votes
5answers
805 views
Managing team distractions (chit chat)
I work with a team of developers who are talented but often distract each other with chit-chat. They can waste hours of the day with these 20-30 minute, non-project related jam sessions. Since I am PM ...
7
votes
4answers
349 views
In an Agile environment, how should a developer update team members and managers when there's no “visible” progress?
A developer is working on a research project that involves working with new technologies. The concepts are also new to the developer, and the developer is working on building a product on top of the ...
10
votes
3answers
496 views
How to spot the lazy team member in a self-organized team?
Some context first: I am a project manager in a software development company with a Kanban environment. In the team I am managing there is no such thing as people reporting their work to me, or people ...
8
votes
4answers
568 views
How do you motivate people to work overtime to meet a deadline?
I have a deadline one week away, and we have set up pretty extensive expectations with the client. Should I talk to the client to try to manage the expectation? If they work overtime, do I have to ...
8
votes
4answers
342 views
Handling non-team working, good programmers
Let's say, you have a project and a very good team. The team leader is a very good programmer, with high professional performances, but without any team-playing competencies and with some ...
11
votes
8answers
408 views
Should I collect all the phones before a meeting?
It's no surprise that when a meeting is in place there are a select few that cannot seem to take their eyes off of their phone. I find that this distracts not only that one person, but it also ...
3
votes
1answer
92 views
What is the best way to get a UX/UI team to adopt standards?
We're a team of around 4 UI Developers, 1 Designer and 2 UX. We work on a series of ongoing projects and every month or so, we start a new small project from scratch. All projects are owned by the ...
4
votes
3answers
152 views
What is a good “lightweight” approach for managing team resources and action items?
A team member who manages a small team has asked me for ideas to help her better manage what her team is doing. I'm trying to pull examples together that wouldn't require a lot of overhead but will be ...
4
votes
2answers
146 views
Hiring new team with limited resources using Scrum
My team consists of 4 people
Myself (Division Director, Senior Developer and Project Manager (adhoc PM))
Emp1 (Data Administrator/Data Entry for entire agency)
Emp2 (Junior Developer - Have not ...
2
votes
1answer
101 views
Management techniques apply to hierarchies, but teams in real world are cyclical graphs
There is so much literature about working with organizational hierarchies and methods to monitor them and measure performance, but in reality teams behave more like (heavily) cyclical graphs, ...
13
votes
6answers
368 views
How to better balance resources in a cross-functional agile team?
I am the project manager for a team composed of employees who were hired specifically as QA or development prior to agile/scrum being adopted by the organization. Just for background, I came into the ...
6
votes
6answers
286 views
Best way to handle different stakeholders?
There are different stake holders like the quality team,client, peers, sub-ordinates, seniors.
As a manager, do we need to have a strategy to handle different stakeholders? Sometimes we might not be ...
6
votes
8answers
525 views
Should team members report to the project manager?
Should the project manager be the team members' supervisor/manager? (In other words, should team members report directly to the project manager?) Or should the project manager be in a separate line ...
13
votes
4answers
631 views
Difference in responsibilities between lead developer and project manager for support workload
Full disclosure: I am working as a lead developer for a team of around 6 developers, not as a project manager. But this seemed like a good place to ask.
Background: Recently the team is covering more ...
7
votes
4answers
284 views
Should small teams use Continuous Integration?
I recently switched to a start-up organization providing a social network site. In my new organization, we are a small team of 8 developers/designers.
I heard a lot about continuous integration (e.g. ...
23
votes
5answers
809 views
Is Scrum a status report meeting or a developer meeting?
I'm a developer and we started using Agile last year (October 2011). And, it has been rough to say the least. I was always taught Scrum was to discuss the following:
What you did yesterday
What ...
8
votes
5answers
382 views
How to split developers/QA into smaller teams?
Our web development company has grown from five to twenty people over a year. We do 2-4 month projects, and usually team size is 2 devs, 1 QA, 1 BA/PM/Scrum master. Our development methodology is ...
10
votes
11answers
368 views
Badges for project team members for motivation
Stack Exchange is using nice way to motivate contribution through Badges. I was thinking of implementing this same idea for my project team members. Badges will be awarded to project team members in ...
7
votes
9answers
421 views
How to determine the skills of a software developer in a job interview?
I have come to a new challenge in my career that involves handling some job interviews, and I must determine if the applicant really has mastered the skills he/she lists in his/her CV.
How do I ...
3
votes
2answers
365 views
What are the key roles in a Scrum team?
Based on my understanding, Product owner, Scrum Master and Development team are the major roles in a Scrum team. I have to setup a .Net Scrum team with 5-8 members. I don't have enough knowledge about ...
10
votes
10answers
354 views
How do you manage a team of developers when their preferred working hours vary?
I recently read a question on here about - How to balance Teamwork and Babble? - and David Espina's answer pointed out that despite developers being contracted as 100% FTE (full-time equivalents), in ...
14
votes
13answers
1k views
Are 40 hour work-weeks (no overtime) acceptable for development teams?
No matter what our current conditions are, it seems like my team is always working 40 hour work-weeks.
Under normal work conditions this would be fine, but as we approach a deadline on a major ...
6
votes
6answers
256 views
How to balance Teamwork and Babble?
I have sensed conflict in an organization, which works like this:
They want to encourage teamwork and good personal relationships
They want discuss work-related personal matters and design decisions ...
6
votes
5answers
355 views
How should a project manager assess probationary employees?
I'm a new project manager, and I have the authority to accept new employees who are still on probation. I'm assigning points to people in the following categories:
Attitude
Skills
Teamwork
Is ...
12
votes
5answers
739 views
What Should a Project Manager Do If Development is Not Completed On Time?
I am a project manager of a development team. Oftentimes, the deadline for the development project is not met.
About my team:
I have 4 people in my team, and they are older than me.
Sometimes I ...
3
votes
4answers
329 views
How to Adapt to a New Team Culture?
I work for a boss/project manager at a new company who is a total 180 from my former boss (which is why I picked him) and creates a completely different culture in the project team. He is very ...
5
votes
2answers
237 views
Which is the best methodology to manage a distributed team, working in several short term one-man projects?
I lead a team of around 20 people, distributed around the world (different timezones, most of us haven't met in person).
Most of the projects we work on are short term (3-4 weeks) customizations with ...
0
votes
1answer
84 views
What are the steps to be taken in the initial projects in Software Companies? [closed]
I'm working in the middle level of a software company. My role is a software developer. I don't know what processes are to be handled in the Software Development company?
Can you explain me in ...
3
votes
6answers
330 views
How To Manage Inactive Team Members In A Non-Professional Environment?
I am participating in a ~2 years OpenSource computer science project involving my school, we are 8 students joining the development team and contributing to the project.
Half of the members didn't ...
1
vote
2answers
107 views
Remote developers: does seeing a result really matter?
I am interested in a psychology-related issue.
Let's imagine that we have a consulting company (and let's call it BusinessSoftwareInc) which does small and medium software projects for its clients. ...
13
votes
8answers
452 views
Implementing new software development process
Question:
Apologies for the long post, but I'm not sure how to handle this.
Background:
We have a development team of 3 situated in another city. The lead developer has been around for 6 years and ...
16
votes
14answers
2k views
Dealing with a coworker who keeps making the same mistakes over and over
I've been struggling in a peculiar situation since a while ago and would like your inputs on it. In our project (which is a maintenance project), there are some tasks that are done from time to time ...
1
vote
4answers
214 views
What features every Agile software tool should have? [closed]
I have been task to recommend an Agile tool for my team. I am still a month away from my recommendation due date, but I wanted to get started on my due diligence. Our organization have some ...
2
votes
3answers
181 views
Best project management methodology for virtual office
We're a team of 10 developers working in a virtual office. It basically means that we're not located in one office but in different towns and countries. All of us are in the same timezone and only one ...
2
votes
2answers
194 views
Project management tool that bubbles up from employee to CEO [closed]
Few days ago, I encountered a new tool that in essence makes people write 5-minute reports every week/month, of which their managers send the important things up to their managers and so on and so ...
8
votes
4answers
440 views
Tool suggestion to manage multiple projects / people working on several projects at once? [closed]
This is the situation in our office and I would need a recommendation which tool to you to facilitate our work. At the moments, things are slowly slipping out of my hands.
What we have:
many ...
2
votes
2answers
71 views
How should I organise my podcast project? [closed]
I want to organise a podcast with some friends, with a gradual release schedule. We're about 6 people who meet up personally, but we can't get productive enough in our meetups, so we decided to use ...
