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Whether in-house or outsourced, the development team’s time should be utilized well to increase productivity in the organization. Learn the best 7 practices to ensure your software development team works efficiently below.
The productivity of the software development team varies by efficiency levels in the organization. Tech companies including Apple, Google, and Netflix are more productive because they focus more on encouraging efficiency, not because they go for talented people. Efficiency allows the development team to use each minute of the project to add value to the organization. Do you want your average company to be like Apple, Google, and Netflix when it comes to productivity? If yes, this blog might be useful to you and anyone else in your organization.
What Is a Software Development Team?
Software development teams have become a solution for individuals and organizations that want to go digital. The software industry has received massive growth and recognition thanks to this team of professionals. Therefore, a software development team are experts that can work on short, medium, or long-term software projects. An organization can use an in-house or offshore team for its task. However, most organizations prefer offshore teams because they are cost-friendly and easy to manage. Nonetheless, they can increase the productivity of the organization and improve the organizational culture. Despite the team you choose, if efficiency is encouraged the organization can still realize its digital goals. How then can an organization ensure the development team works efficiently?
Create A Distraction-Free Environment for The Team
Distraction can affect the development team while working on a software project. However, many organizations have overlooked this resulting in the creation of unrewarding products. Reportedly, one can take up to 20 minutes to recover from distractions and regain focus on the project. This might seem simple but if it happens thrice or more a lot of time will be wasted. Software development requires more concentration time. For that reason, your team needs a quiet environment for increased productivity.
The team tasked to write codes always opts to listen to music to increase the concentration on the work. However, noise cancellation headphones may not be an effective solution. Some members of the software development team are noisy. To ensure those who dislike this noise work efficiently, create an extra quiet environment. The environment should have improved air quality, a desirable light amount, better temperatures, and low-level noise. Nonetheless, you can throw comfy chairs and desks into the mix for team members with back problems. A distraction-free environment should be comfy with fewer injury risks and disturbances.
Assign Projects That Match Interests of the Development Team
Some employers are not keen on the growth and skills of their development team when assigning projects. To be realistic, giving the team projects that are far away from their interests can negatively impact productivity. As an employer, assign programmers with projects that allow them to grow their responsibilities. Nonetheless, you can also vary projects to avoid boredom at work when team members’ faces project they worked on previously to increase engagement at work and continuous development of skills. Employers should also create a system that allows junior developers to learn from seniors and join efforts while working on a software project. This encourages the diffusion of ideas that might result in the creation of a powerful IT team that adds value to the organization.
Encourage Training and Development
Expecting your development team to study new skills alone for projects can be a wrong move. The organization should create programs that allow workers to gain the necessary techniques for various development projects. Your program should offer professional, certificates or even full certification that allow working efficiently when a team member is given a certain position. Support your workers with workshops, seminars, individual training courses, and workshops.
These opportunities increase efficiency and productivity that places the company in a better position to compete. If external training can stress your budget, adopt internal training sessions or self-education programs that add responsibility to the team members. Moreover, encourage mentorship in the organization to help less experienced developers grow.
Cut Unnecessary Tasks and Meetings
Meetings can take longer than the allocated time, negatively impacting the productivity and efficiency of the development team. For that reason, if not avoiding the meeting, prepare adequately to avoid taking an hour for meetings that should have lasted 30 minutes. Discuss with the team to find out where you lose much time and put in place necessary measures to mitigate the issue. Find out if every report, email, and status update is necessary. Nonetheless, discuss if every team member needs to be available at meetings when introducing new clients or talking about future project plans. If not, cut off the meetings to save time. However, if meetings are necessary, create short agendas, set the time limit, and always hit the nail on the head to save time.
Be Clear On Your Goals and Give Attainable Tasks
After meetings, leave the development team with defined tasks to increase efficiency and productivity on the projects. Communicate to them your expectations of the project and the impact the task has on you and the organization. Avoid giving developers small tasks and let them shift their attention to a bigger goal.
Ensure There Is a Proper Flow of Communication
While reducing meetings is necessary, ensure communication flows in the development team. For good communication, ditch emails and opt for something different. While they are among the best means of communication, emails can consume more time of the team delaying development. For that reason, you can set up instant communication devices that keep every team member stay connected every time. In the market, you will find numerous devices that can boost efficiency and productivity with a seamless flow of communication. Ensure you check reviews before making the purchasing decision.
Instill A Sense of Ownership in Your Team
Make your development team feel like they are an internal part of your organization. Help them get a sense of owning the project they are working on. To achieve this, make them leaders of projects and allow them to plan exchange ideas on their own. Create an open-minded atmosphere for the team to allow exchange of ideas.
The Bottom Line
Are you struggling to increase efficiency and productivity in your development team? If yes, this blog has a wealth of knowledge that can give your projects a magic punch whether you use an in-house or offshore team. From HR consultancy to Read the 7 best practices to ensure your development team works efficiently mentioned above and practice them in the organization.