Sommerville-Software-Engineering-10ed

658 Chapter 22 ■ Project management
Case study: Team spirit
Figure 22.9 Group
cohesion
Alice, an experienced project manager, understands the importance of creating a cohesive
group. As her company is developing a new product, she takes the opportunity to
involve all group members in the product specification and design by getting them to
discuss possible technology with elderly members of their families. She encourages
them to bring these family members to meet other members of the development group.
Alice also arranges monthly lunches for everyone in the group. These lunches are an
opportunity for all team members to meet informally, talk around issues of concern,
and get to know each other. At the lunch, Alice tells the group what she knows about
organizational news, policies, strategies, and so forth. Each team member then briefly
summarizes what they have been doing, and the group discusses a general topic, such
as new product ideas from elderly relatives.
Every few months, Alice organizes an “away day” for the group where the team
spends two days on “technology updating.” Each team member prepares an update on
a relevant technology and presents it to the group. This is an offsite meeting, and
plenty of time is scheduled for discussion and social interaction.
days” are also good ways of promoting cohesion: People relax together while they
help each other learn about new technologies.
Whether or not a group is effective depends, to some extent, on the nature of the
project and the organization doing the work. If an organization is in a state of turmoil
with constant reorganizations and job insecurity, it is difficult for team members to
focus on software development. Similarly, if a project keeps changing and is in danger
of cancellation, people lose interest in it.
Given a stable organizational and project environment, the three factors that have
the biggest effect on team working are:
1. The people in the group You need a mix of people in a project group as software
development involves diverse activities such as negotiating with clients, programming,
testing, and documentation.
2. The way the group is organized A group should be organized so that individuals
can contribute to the best of their abilities and tasks can be completed as
expected.
3. Technical and managerial communications Good communication between
group members, and between the software engineering team and other project
stakeholders, is essential.
As with all management issues, getting the right team cannot guarantee project
success. Too many other things can go wrong, including changes to the business and
the business environment. However, if you don’t pay attention to group composition,
organization, and communications, you increase the likelihood that your project
will run into difficulties.