Team Chemistry: Managing and Mastering Software Engineering Team Better Wenfeng Liu

1. Team Chemistry: Managing and Mastering Software Engineering Team Better Wenfeng Liu

2. Outline • What is Team Chemistry? • When and Where does Team Chemistry happen? • Software Engineering Team Management Enhancement • Team Performance - Call of Duty vs Battlefield • Summary

3. What is Team Chemistry?

4. Sports Team Not only Barcelona and New York Knicks, most sports teams must have their own team chemistry.

5. Software Team Facebook spent 1 billion on acquiring Instagram Team. Average is about 80 million. Why are they so “expensive”?

6. Project Team Chemistry • The ability to get along with one another, to work smoothly and unselfishly under the team’s leadership • Each team member’s recognition of the specific role that he/she has in the team approach • Mutual feelings of loyalty and empathy for one another • The ability to anticipate other’s moves and to blend their efforts into the team pattern • A strong sense of team identity coupled with total commitment to the project team

7. When and Where does Team Chemistry happen?

8. Project Team’s Life Circle • Start with brainstorming activities to gather project requirement • Get to know each team member better and sense coherency • Metrics help individuals develop their skills in working as a team • Hold lots of discussions in development and test phase

9. Team Chemistry is accumulated during each phase of ICSM ICSM Model with Team Chemistry

10. Software Engineering Team Management Enhancement

11. Areas of Competence to Improve • Decision Making • Good decision making is critical for success • Accurate and data-driven information • Team Responsibilities • Team members share knowledge and experience to accomplish team task • Team leader is responsible for day-to-day management of team • Team Conflict Control • Win-Win approach • Bring conflict into the open • Interpersonal Awareness • Assess, understand and improve interpersonal behaviors • Networking • Find, adapt and apply knowledge from outside resources

12. Reasons for Meeting Difficulty

13. E-Tools can make all team members keep in touch Tools for Project Team • Communication Tools • WebEx, Skype and Email • Provide convenient online meeting • Allow for real-time editing of documents • Questions and status updates • Allow continuous communication/progress without meeting • File Sharing Tools • Dropbox • Utilize to share files easily • Single location to grab all developed documents

14. Team Performance – Call of Duty vs Battlefield

15. Team chemistry only works for its own team • Call of Duty vs Battlefield • MW2 made the Guinness World Record of the most successful entertainment launch $401.6 million within 24 hours • Vince Zampella and Jason West were fired by Activision Blizzard • Almost the whole development team resigned and joined EA • Now Battlefield 3 is unbeatable

16. Summary

17. Summary • Team chemistry exists but cannot be captured. Each CSCI 577 project team should have it • Team chemistry gives the team • More Motivation • More team responsibilities • Better decision-making strategy • More effective team management • And more… • Team chemistry ensures the software engineering team’s cooperation and efficiency

18. Reference • IEEE Software, November/December 2009 (Vol. 26, No. 6) pp. 17-19 • Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A leadership Fable, PartickLencioni, 2002 • http://www.computer.org/csdl/mags/so/2009/06/mso2009060017.html • The Team Handbook, 3rd Edition, Scholtes, Joiner & Streibel, 2003 • http://www.cse.chalmers.se/~feldt/publications/magazinius_2010_exploring_human_factors_in_cost_estimation.pdf • http://greenbay.usc.edu/IICMSw/index.htm#publish.icm.base-usc/customcategories/icm_welcome_page_D99DA7B2.html • Mastering Virtual Teams, 3rd Edition, Duarte & Snyder, 2006 • http://www.oregonyouthsoccer.org/assets/coaches/Creating_Team_Chemistry.pdf

19. Thank You