Team development Working in teams

176 Chapter 7 n Controlling your project address, telephone numbers and email address. Hold frequent short meetings, not long infrequent ones. Try to make full use of all the communication tools available to you. These can include facilities such as electronic diaries to plan meetings, email to support team communication, texting, etc. Email can also be used to transfer documents and files between team members as attachments. Also try to set up shared directories on your institution’s computer servers so that all team members have access to the latest project files but ensure some form of configuration management is in place. n Try to create a team spirit. Create an identity with a team name and try to arrange some informal, social meetings as well as your formal ones n Try to maintain a single person to act as a liaison with external bodies such as your client, technical support staff, supervisor etc. Even if two or three of you attend client meetings it should be made clear who the contact person is within the group. This ensures that a consistent message is presented to external bodies and contradic- tions are avoided. It also avoids contradictory information passing into your group from two or three team members who may have approached the client on different occasions and received contradictory requests. n Split the report writingdocumentation into appropriate sections and assign these according to each team member’s abilities and what they have done. Make sure that team members know when they have to provide their particular contribution by; allow time for collating all the contributions; confirm an ‘in-house’ style that the team should adhere to for all documents produced. Get the team’s librariansecretary to coordinate this. n Consider implementing some kind of configuration management process and system such as that discussed in Section 6.9 to ensure, if several members of the team are working on different parts of a software system simultaneously, that the components integrate together seamlessly and version control is supported. n Sometimes a team is dominated by one or more of its members who always seem to want to say something, no matter how irrelevant, about everything during discussions monopolisers. Similarly, some members of the team may always seem reluctant to say anything or contribute to discussions introverts. Divert attention from monopolisers by requesting ideas from other team members. Ask each member of the team to take a turn at providing a contribution thereby including introverts and limiting monopolisers. Split the team into smaller working parties so that the influence of monopolisers is diminished. •

7.6 Summary

n All projects have five elements that require managing to some extent as the project progresses: time, cost, quality, scope and resources. These elements need to be bal- anced against one another so that you achieve your project’s aims and objectives. n Of these five elements, cost is something over which you probably have little concern or control. Quality and scope are the two elements you have most responsibility for and control over. Resources are those that are available to accomplish your project – you, your supervisor, and your project team. The time you are allocated to complete 7.9 Action points 177 your project cannot usually be extended so you need to employ time management techniques to manage this time more effectively. n Time management consists of three stages: decide what you want to do, analyse what you are currently doing and change the way you do things. There are only two ways to reduce the time you spend doing things; ditch them perhaps by getting somebody else to do them – delegation or use the time you have more effectively. n Your supervisor is an invaluable resource. You will probably only see your supervisor at prearranged meetings so these must be planned for and used effectively. n Working in teams brings a number of advantages and disadvantages. Each team member contributes two kinds of skill: team skills and technical skills. When work is assigned to team members, try to balance team roles with technical duties and assign work and responsibilities according to people’s strengths and weaknesses. Meet regularly and maintain good communication. •

7.7 Further reading

Dodd, P. 2008 The 25 best time management tools and techniques: how to get more done without driving yourself crazy, Capstone, Oxford, UK. Evans, C. 2008 Time management for dummies, John Wiley, New York. Forster, M. 2006 Do it tomorrow and other secrets of time management, Hodder Stoughton, London. Gleeson, K. 2003 The personal efficiency program: How to get organized to do more work in less time, John Wiley, New York. Phillips, S. 2002 Time management 247: How to double your effectiveness, McGraw-Hill, London. Rooney, K. ed 2004 Steps to success manage your time: How to work more effectively, Bloomsbury, London. Tracy, B. 2008 Eat that frog 21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more done in less time 2 nd Edition, Berrett-Koehler, San Francisco, USA. •

7.8 Exercise

1. How could the student have managed their time more effectively in Table 7.2? •

7.9 Action points

n Identify how the five project elements resources, time, cost, quality, scope relate to your own computing project. Which of these elements is your main focusconcern at the moment? n Put together a time log for yourself during the coming week. n Categorise your use of time into importantunimportant, urgentnon-urgent, and essential types. How can you reduce the time you spend on unimportant activities?