Approaching Team Management in Software Development

Team management can be compared to a circle where internal procedures and management depend on client work and vice versa.

Balancing these elements isn’t always an easy task, but there are rules that allow project managers to achieve equilibrium in which clients use solutions that help them succeed and specialist teams utilize their skills to contribute to that success.

Also, the more projects the developers deliver, the more experience they gain. And the circle is complete.

Golden Rules of Workload Management

#1 Leadership Embedded into Company Culture

It’s important for team members to have a leader who keeps an eye on what should be done next and ensures there’s logical order in project objectives.

But for a software development project to truly succeed, teammates have to participate in leadership as well. Such participation is a good way of making the team invested in the project and getting more of that beneficial creativity going.

Again, this is a matter of balance—a leader distributes tasks among teammates and controls the to-do list at the same time encouraging team members to evenly participate in project discussions, boosting their self-motivation and project engagement.

#2 Streamlined Work Organization

Having a set of processes helps streamline work and manage the expectations of team members. However, the procedures should be in place only to make sure project operations are clear to everyone and are well understood by the team.

That said, there are areas where being flexible is more than called for. For example, flexible working hours and workplace improve work-life balance, which directly translates into increased employee productivity.

Using team feedback to create workflow procedures is an opportunity to nurture employee engagement and initiative. Click To Tweet

For onboarding purposes, those processes should be put in writing and available in a common space online. An employee guidebook decreases integration time and makes sure everyone is on the same page.

Pro tip: To assure the work moves steadily forward, identify all project objectives clearly as, for example, to-do, in progress, and done.

#3 Smooth Communication Flow

Efficient communication is at the heart of every highly functional software development team. It stretches far beyond email and follows a stable and tested strategy where team members know exactly how to communicate.

A set of tools facilitating project management and communication helps:

• deliver projects on time
• control project expenses
• maintain coherence among teammates

Our recommendations:

Project management and communication: Trello, Asana, Redmine, Taiga

Read more about PM tools in our article for UpWork.

Time tracking: Worksnaps, Toggl, Tempo add-on for JIRA, Time Timer clock

Communication: Skype, Rocket.Chat, Zoom, Jitsi, Daily.co

#4 Effective Programming Methodologies

To deliver projects on time and utilize available resources efficiently, software development teams rely on tested principles of Agile methodology.

Because software development is a challenging process that often requires dynamic responses, Agile methodology maintains consistency in team performance. The work is delivered in increments, which fosters project adaptability and organization.

At Polcode, we use Agile’s Scrum framework in most of our projects.

Scrum:

• boosts productivity
• increases cooperation
• elevates team spirit

Pro tip: Depending on project type, available budget, and client expectations, choose a software development methodology that best fits these variables.

Skillful Team Management Bolsters Satisfaction

Defining clear team roles, project objectives, and a set of procedures ensures the workflow is consistent and the delivery moves forward. Combining this with shared leadership and project engagement helps software development teams build products that satisfy all parties involved in a project. At Polcode, we strengthen the whole process by sharing the same values.

Polcode is an international full-cycle software house with over 1,300 completed projects. Propelled by passion and ambition, we’ve coded for over 800 businesses across the globe. Have an interesting project in mind? Let’s talk it over. We’ll be happy to advise and answer all your questions.