Team Management

YTech had a great idea, smart people, and a bright future, but they still struggled with producing quality software. Production bugs were the norm and they experienced constant frustration from their customers. The problems came down to a team issue. The balance between developers, automation engineers, and testers was not correct. This resulted in constantly missed bugs and slipping schedules. Getting the right balance solved the majority of their problems. Testing became less of a bottleneck and as the quality improved so did the relationship between the test team and the developers.

Megacorp had a problem with two sub-systems that needed to interact. For the QA team, it was like shooting fish in a barrel to find bugs. For management, it was a constant source of frustration. It didn’t matter what process was put in place or how much testing was done, there were always issues where the sub-systems interacted. It took some time and careful digging, but eventually the root cause was revealed. Dale on team 1 and Bob on team 2 hated each other with a passion. Because the two sub-systems were so inter-dependent it was critical for them to communicate well. No amount of processes or testing would ever fix this issue. Finding a better fit for both developers vastly improved the quality of Megacorp's flagship product.

Fun Nonprofit had a team of volunteers that could only be described as failing. The team consisted of four people at the most and their events were lucky to get half of the team to show up. Turning the team around included helping them find a vision, communicate it to others, and have a forward going strategy that led to success. Within 2 years the team had grown to over 30. The leader created three teams out of the one by mentoring and training leaders and releasing them. Mentoring the leader was critical to the success of the team.

Teams are at the heart of everything we do. Whether you’re working with a remote team that is located all over the world, or a team that is centrally located in a corporate office, the challenges can be distilled down to a few simple principles. Problems such as communication issues, lack of team cohesion, and an inability to work together will all have a negative impact on the quality of your product. As with quality issues, team issues usually have simple solutions. It may be that managers need mentoring, or your teams need a better balance of roles. Whatever the team issue your company is facing, bringing in the experts at Hillcity Technologies will help you find the right solutions.