Beginning Software Engineering, 2nd Edition

3The Team

Alone we can do little; together we can do so much.

—Helen Keller

No member of a crew is praised for the rugged individuality of his rowing.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson

What You Will Learn in This Chapter:

• Features of an effective team
• Team roles
• Team culture
• Physical environment
• Collaboration software

A team is a group of people working together to achieve a common goal. In practice, the effectiveness of teams can vary widely for many reasons. Some members may not understand the goals, the work environment may not support the team, or the team may not have the skills and equipment it needs to be productive. Some teams sink under the weight of too much management, while others drift aimlessly because of too little. Sometimes outsiders or even team members actively work against the team for their own personal ends.

Because different teams contain different sets of people, have different goals, and live in different environments, every team is unique. That means you shouldn't treat them all in exactly the same way, and therefore you should take any advice about the care and feeding of a team with a grain of salt. What works well with one team (or one team member) may not work well with another.

Rather than trying to cover every possible situation (which would take volumes and is probably impossible anyway), this chapter covers some issues and techniques that seem to apply particularly well to software development teams. (No guarantees that they'll work equally well for ...