Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Selecting self-managing teams...

Selecting and understanding self-managing teams...
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5287005&contentType=Journals+%26+Magazines&sortType%3Dasc_p_Sequence%26filter%3DAND%28p_IS_Number%3A5286993%29

The dream about self-managing, high performance teams is still out there. Although it seems that benefits of those teams are plenty, one could always start thinking about the environment where they function best.

In this article in IEEE Software the authors look at these environments. Shared leadership, common decision-making and trust seem to be one of the most important internal characteristics of the teams. Knowledge sharing and organizational support were the most important factors at the organizational level.

I recommend this article as it can open eyes on the fact that having x-functional teams (testers, designers, analysts,...) might not be enough to achieve high team performance. And high team performance is one of the first steps towards high organizational performance.

@MiroslawStaron

Sunday, June 3, 2012

Aligning decisions around RE - case study

ALIGNING SOFTWARE PROJECT DECISIONS: A CASE STUDY http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/S0218194006003002

 Looking for interesting insights on how decisions are made in software development today, I've come across this article which looks at aligning decisions around RE.

The article has a nice touch on the practice since it is a case study. The authors studied 5 strategic decisions, 10 tactical ones and several operational ones using a framework developed by them.

What I liked best about this article is the fact how the authors reported on the interplay between different stakeholders when discussing decisions. Since that report was based on the interviews, reading it allows one to reason how much the decisions were related to personalities of the decision makers.

Generally, very insightful for us who try to understand why politics in software development plays such a role...

@MiroslawStaron