| <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> |
| <org.eclipse.epf.uma:ContentDescription xmi:version="2.0" |
| xmlns:xmi="http://www.omg.org/XMI" xmlns:org.eclipse.epf.uma="http://www.eclipse.org/epf/uma/1.0.4/uma.ecore" |
| xmlns:rmc="http://www.ibm.com/rmc" xmlns:epf="http://www.eclipse.org/epf" |
| epf:version="1.2.0" xmi:id="-HYO1lwAFOxlT7ncq8EjSng" |
| name="new_guideline,_Jq64EJjsEduad8I_c-ogIA" guid="-HYO1lwAFOxlT7ncq8EjSng" changeDate="2007-04-10T12:20:19.375-0700" |
| version="1.0.0"> |
| <mainDescription><p>
 |
| Good software development teams are made up of a collection of people who collaborate effectively. How the project team
 |
| is staffed, by either adding or removing people, will greatly impact the team's productivity.
 |
| </p>
 |
| <p>
 |
| When staffing a development project, consider the following advice:
 |
| </p>
 |
| <ol>
 |
| <li>
 |
| Include people who fit into the existing team culture. Good teams don't just appear magically one day, but instead
 |
| are grown and nurtured over time. Invite people onto the team who will add value and furthermore who will not be
 |
| disruptive. Similarly, you may need to invite someone to leave the team if they do not fit well with the existing
 |
| team and they don't seem to be able to change.
 |
| </li>
 |
| <li>
 |
| People should want to be on the team. People are far more productive when they're working on a project that they
 |
| believe in and want to see succeed.
 |
| </li>
 |
| <li>
 |
| Build your team with "generalizing specialists". A generalizing specialist is someone with one or more technical
 |
| specialties who actively seeks to gain new skills in both their existing specialties as well as in other areas,
 |
| including both technical and domain areas. Generalizing specialists add value to the team because they have
 |
| specialized skills that you need while at the same time appreciate the full range of issues that a general
 |
| understanding of the software development process and the business domain offers.
 |
| </li>
 |
| <li>
 |
| Include stakeholders. Stakeholders, including business stakeholders such as end users and technical stakeholders
 |
| such as operations staff, can add significant value to your team. Instead of just interviewing them to gain
 |
| information from them, or asking them to review your work, why not include them as active participants on the team?
 |
| </li>
 |
| <li>
 |
| Include specialists for short-term, specialized work. Specialists can still add value on an agile development team,
 |
| particularly when they have specific skills and experience which existing team members do not have. It can often be
 |
| more effective to bring a specialist into the team for a short period of time to help with a specific task, such as
 |
| installation and setup of an application server, the development of an architectural spike, or simply taking part
 |
| in a review.
 |
| </li>
 |
| <li>
 |
| Give people opportunities to evolve their skills. At the beginning of a project the team may not have the full
 |
| range of skills that it needs, or perhaps a few individuals may not have the skills required to fulfill the roles
 |
| they are filling. This is a very common risk taken on by the majority of project teams for the simple reasons that
 |
| you often can't find the perfect combination of people and even if you could you still want to provide people with
 |
| opportunities to grow as professionals.
 |
| </li>
 |
| <li>
 |
| Remember Brook's Law. Adding people to a late project will only make it later [<a href="./../../../openup/guidances/supportingmaterials/references_6CCF393.html" guid="_9ToeIB83Edqsvps02rpOOg">BRO87</a>]. The corollary is that removing people from a late project may speed
 |
| things up [<a href="./../../../openup/guidances/supportingmaterials/references_6CCF393.html" guid="_9ToeIB83Edqsvps02rpOOg">AMB04</a>].
 |
| </li>
 |
| </ol>
 |
| <p>
 |
| Sometimes you will need to go against some of this advice due to environmental constraints. Perhaps only specialists
 |
| are available (although there's nothing stopping a specialist from becoming a generalizing specialist), perhaps there
 |
| aren't as many opportunities for people to try new things as they would like, or perhaps the stakeholders aren't
 |
| available to be active members of the team. The advice above is designed to lead to as high-performing a team as
 |
| possible, but even partial adherence to this guideline will improve the team.
 |
| </p></mainDescription> |
| </org.eclipse.epf.uma:ContentDescription> |
