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R&D SDM 1
Software Project ManagementTeam Management
Project organizations
2009Theo Schouten
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Content
People, motivation, managementWorking in groupsGroup organizationOrganization paradigms
Book:(21.) Project Management Concepts (especially 21.2)(2.6.2) Team Software process(4.2.2) Human Factors (Agile team)(17.3) The Web engineering Team
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People• People are an organisation’s most important assets.• The tasks of a manager are essentially people-
oriented. Unless there is some understanding of people, management will be unsuccessful.
• Poor people management is an important contributor to project failure. People
Technology Process
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Stakeholders• senior managers: define business issues• project (technical) managers: plan, motivate, organize
and control the workers• practitioners: deliver the technical skills• customers: specify the requirements or have other
interests in the product (finance, maintenance, etc.)• end-users: use the software after release
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People management factors• Consistency
– Team members should all be treated in a comparable way without favourites or discrimination.
• Respect– Different team members have different skills and these
differences should be respected.• Inclusion
– Involve all team members and make sure that people’s views are considered.
• Honesty– You should always be honest about what is going well and
what is going badly in a project.
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MOI model of leadership• Motivation:
– the ability to encourage (by push or pull) technical people to produce to their best ability
• Organization:– the ability to mold existing processes (or find new
ones) that will enable the initial concept to be translated into a final product
• Ideas or innovation:– the ability to encourage people to create and feel
creative even when they must work within bounds
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Motivation by satisfying needs (Maslov)• Physiological needs (e.g. food, sleep, etc.)• Safety needs• Social needs
– Provide communal facilities;– Allow informal communications.
• Esteem needs– Recognition of achievements;– Appropriate rewards.
• Self-realization needs– Training - people want to learn more;– Responsibility.
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Personality types• Motivation should also take into account different personality
types:• Task-oriented
– The principal motivation for doing the work is the work itself
• Self-oriented– The principal motivation is personal success and
recognition. The work is a means to an end which is the achievement of individual goals - e.g. to get rich, etc.
• Interaction-oriented– The principal motivation is the presence and actions of
co-workers. People go to work because they like to go to work.
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Characteristics of software teams
InnovationDelivery of reliable software with predictable good
quality and performanceSolving complex problemsWorking under time pressureMany different roles (programmer, analyst, architect,
tester, librarian, database administrator, technical project leader, program manager, etc.)
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…continued
Interaction between software team and user organizationCombination of ‘technical skills’ and ‘soft skills’:
getting user requirementsuser interfaces for non-technical usersweb design team, content providers
Combination of technical, human and management aspectsCombinations present in whole team and individual members in different ways
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Working in groups factorsThe following factors influence the working in groups:
Group composition: Is there a good balance of skills, experience and personalities in a team?
Group cohesion: Thinks the group of itself as a team or is it a gathering of individuals that work together?
Group communication: Is the communication in the group effective?
Group organization: Is the group organized such that every member feels that he is respected and is satisfied with the role he plays?
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Group composition• Group composed of members who share the same motivation
can be problematic– Task-oriented - everyone wants to do their own thing;– Self-oriented - everyone wants to be the boss;– Interaction-oriented - too much chatting, not enough work.
• An effective group has a balance of all types.• This can be difficult to achieve software engineers are often
task-oriented.• Interaction-oriented people are very important as they can
detect and defuse tensions that arise
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Group cohesiveness• In a cohesive group, members consider the group to
be more important than any individual in it.• The advantages of a cohesive group are:
– Group quality standards can be developed– Group members work closely together so
inhibitions caused by ignorance are reduced– Team members learn from each other and get to
know each other’s work– Egoless programming where members strive to
improve each other’s programs can be practiced.
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Developing cohesiveness• Cohesiveness is influenced by factors such as the
organizational culture and the personalities in the group.
• Cohesiveness can be encouraged through– Social events– Developing a group identity and territory– Explicit team-building activities
• Openness with information is a simple way of ensuring all group members feel part of the group
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Group communications• Good communications are essential for effective
group working.• Information must be exchanged on the status of work,
design decisions and changes to previous decisions.• Good communications also strengthens group
cohesion as it promotes understanding.
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Factors in group communications• Group size
– The larger the group, the harder it is for people to communicate with other group members.
• Group structure– Communication is better in informally structured groups
than in hierarchically structured groups.• Group composition
– Communication is better when there are different personality types in a group and when groups are mixed rather than single sex.
• The physical work environment– Good workplace organization can help encourage
communications.
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Group organization• Small software engineering groups are usually organized
informally without a rigid structure:– The group acts as a whole and comes to a consensus on
decisions affecting the system.– The group leader serves as the external interface of the
group but does not allocate specific work items.– Rather, work is discussed by the group as a whole and tasks
are allocated according to ability and experience.– This approach is successful for groups where all members
are experienced and competent• For large projects, there may be a hierarchical structure where
different groups are responsible for different sub-projects
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Describing groupsDescribed on 3 levels (Constantine, 1993):Operational level, the level of observed behavior
Process level, the structures which leads to patterns in observed behavior. E.g. the way in which a report is written is done according an instruction.
Paradigm level, the model and culture that influence the organization and the behavior of a group. The whole of assumptions that form the basis of the structure and way of working of an organization is called the organization paradigm.
Oxford English Dictionary: "a pattern or model, an exemplar." Merriam-Webster dictionary: “a philosophical or theoretical framework of any kind”
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Organization paradigm: 4 extremes
Intr
insi
cIn
trin
sic
Flex
ibili
tyFl
exib
ility
GroupGroup
CohesionCohesion
OPENAdaptiveCollaboration
CLOSEDTraditional Hierarchy
SYNCHRONOUSHarmony
in same direction
RANDOMInnovative
Independent
Antithe
se
Antithe
se
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Traditional hierarchyalso called closed paradigmstandards and rules of operation aim at increasing continuity and stabilitya control mechanism prohibits deviations from norms and patternsstructured as a hierarchical pyramid with clearly described tasks, authorizations and responsibilitiesInformation streams are strongly controlled and decisions of managers are passed downwards to be executed.The general goals of the organizations are leadingExamples are the military or governmentusable for teams which have to solve routine tactical problems
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Innovative, Independent•antithesis of the traditional hierarchy •also called random paradigm•direction and decision process of the project organization is dependent on independent initiatives of the individuals•directed towards innovation and creative autonomy•the freedom of the individual with as goal creative and independent operation is more important than the collective goals•examples are research&development departments of large companies or project teams which have to develop completely new products•especially suited for teams that have to realize creative breakthroughs
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Adaptive collaborationalso called open paradigm a synthesis between the random and the closed paradigm.innovation is integrated with collective goals by means of discussions and negotiations.it is a model of equal partnership in which roles and responsibilities are shared and assigned in a flexible waythe open paradigm is especially suited for teams which have to solve complex problems
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Synchronous paradigmworking in harmonythe antithesis of the open paradigm.team members share a common vision of a common goal and a way of working to achieve that goalsuch a group maintains its common and parallel action by means of silent agreement and shared knowledge of what should be achieved and howExample is a group of agricultural workers busy getting the harvest inEspecially suited for teams that must achieve repeated critical performance
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Exercise
A.Which paradigm is best suited for a software team?B. Which paradigm best fits your own GIP team?
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Web Engineering team
•Content developers/providers•Web publisher•Web engineer•Business domain experts•Support specialist•Administrator, the web master
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Kolb
Kolb's learning styles
Concrete Experience
Feeling
Reflective Observation
Watching
Active Experimentation
Doing
Abstract Conceptualisation
Thinking
Processing Continuum
how we do things
Perc
epti
on
Cont
inuu m how
w
e th
ink
abou t
thin
gs
Assimilating(think and watch)
AC/RO
Diverging(feel and watch)
CE/RO
Converging(think and do)
AC/AE
Accommodating
(feel and do)CE/AE
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Belbin Team rolesThe 9 Belbin Team Roles are:
Action Social Thinking Completer Finisher Co-ordinator Monitor Evaluator
Implementer Resource Investigator Plant
Shaper Teamworker Specialist