How Difficult Is it to Manage a Team of Developers?

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Developers and the managers who lead development teams face the same issues from both a leadership and employee perspective, according to Scott Stiner, CEO of UM Technology in his article for Forbes. Both he and the other team leaders in his company have noticed that their struggles stem from basics such as lack of focus or setting achievable goals.

According to a study developed by Geneca, more than 75% of business and IT executives anticipate their software projects will fail. And a study conducted by PWC revealed that 44% of project managers don’t use any software, even though the same study revealed that the use of commercially available project management software can significantly increase performance and satisfaction.

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One solution for making everyone’s job easier is becoming more engaged in the industry ecosystem, according to Stiner. And going by these basic rules:

  • Projects should be broken into challenging, but achievable goals. This will make the timeline and scope more realistic.
  • Keep developers focused on developing. If they are focused on nothing but code, this is exactly what they’ll build.
  • Encourage continuous learning, which keeps your team on the cutting edge.
  • Offer praise and reward. Compliments always go a long way.
  • Spend money on developers wisely. After all, you get what you pay for.

How to motivate your team of developers

  1. Listen to them and offer respect: Each individual is different and motivation methods work differently from person to person. Some of your developers can be introverts, staying focused on code, while others are definitely willing to participate in a conversation. Find out what makes them tick and use this to your advantage. The best way to motivate them is to genuinely care about what makes them happy.
  2. Make use of new technologies: 43% of developers prefer to learn on-site according to the 2017 Annual HR and L&D Survey Results infographic from Find Courses. Set up a proper knowledge sharing platform, so they can easily store and share their experiences with the team.
  3. Offer them opportunities to grow and innovate: To best manage a team of developers, you should understand their career goals and provide opportunities for them to excel, and eventually become leaders themselves.
  4. Offer flexible hours and the possibility to work remotely: Developers are constantly solving problems, and can sometimes get stuck. Allowing them to take a breather and enjoy flexible hours could be a big plus for their productivity and your company. Same goes for the possibility of working remotely, which can be managed through the proper tools – which we talked about in this article about improving the management of your agile development team.
  5. Simplify and streamline: Always look for the best ways to streamline your processes and simplify the tools you’re relying on. By doing so, you allow your team of developers to focus on the project at hand.
  6. Surround them with talent: Developers who are stuck with a team where they constantly fix others’ mistakes will eventually start looking for a better environment. Top talent needs to be teamed together in order to magnify their productivity, which is further increased by a great leader.

Bridging the gap between developers and managers can be difficult. This real but funny article from TechCrunch says it like it is. But it can be done with the help of the right tools, we cannot emphasize this enough.

This allows managers, as well as stakeholders, to observe work status, adjust priorities and even offer feedback to their developers, while also allowing developers to respond to requests. And most importantly, they help developers share knowledge and contribute to overall faster problem solving, and better deliverables.

Happy Knowledge Sharing!

Looking for a great way to ask questions and build knowledge with your co-workers? Quandora enables simple, efficient knowledge sharing with your team, way more fun than a mailing list or a forum. Try Quandora

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