How to Improve Communication in a Development Team
No matter what type of industry you work in or the team that you manage, communication is essential to success, but development teams live and die by their ability (or inability) to collaborate. With more and more companies embracing remote workers, there is a real focus on communication and its impact on productivity. When a development team does not communicate efficiently, it leads to confusion, errors, conflict between team members, wasted time, poor products, and reduced profits when they have to spend their days repeating themselves or answering numerous emails. Here are some tips to improve communication in a development team.
Make Use of Collaboration Software Platforms
There are some great collaboration tools and platforms which enable every team member to see what all their colleagues are doing, communicate via instant messages, update projects, share documents and resources, and log their progress. Many businesses rely on Slack for their internal communications, but development teams might want to choose a Slack competitor that has been specifically designed for development teams.
Write Down Your Team Structure
Every development team needs to be agile, flexible, and able to respond to the quickly evolving landscape of technology. This does not mean, however, that you should not establish a team structure and framework that your projects are built around. For example, the structure should outline who is responsible for the different elements of the project, what actions need to be taken, and, if possible, within what timeframe. You may find that your team needs to deviate from the structure occasionally as they react to changing circumstances but having a solid foundation to start from will help to keep the team on track. This means that your team will know who to ask questions of for specific tasks and where their role fits into the project.
Define Each Project’s Parameters
Your developers need to understand exactly what is expected of them in each project. They need clear instructions and examples to use as guidelines so they can hit their targets on the first try. It is natural that a good developer will have questions and will highlight potential problems that you have not envisaged, so be sure to have plenty of information to give them from the outset. If you do not have adequate guidelines for them, it will lead to complications and poor results, so put your project into writing with as much detail as possible.
Involve Developers in Strategy Creation
Too many companies do all their planning and strategizing and then bring in the developers expecting them to make it happen. This nearly always results in issues, complex projects, and eventual compromises. Instead, get the development team involved when planning the project so that the business or client objectives can be aligned with what is possible from the developer’s point of view. Often, developers will have their own ideas on how to improve the project. This should save a lot of time and effort and result in a superior result.
Create A Glossary of Preferred Terminology
Not all developers use the same terminology, and this can lead to confusion and delays during a project. When bringing on a new developer, it is important that you bring them up to speed with the development terms that your team uses. A document that lists the terms, variables, classes, etc., should be shared with all members to make sure everyone is on the same page.
