Leading a Software Development Team

The current technological advances have significantly improved efficiency and lowered operation costs in various business sectors, including small businesses. This growth has revolutionized the way companies and industries do business, hence the need for organizational change. The tech modern tech world is characterized by high-growth emerging technologies, complexity, and diverse global talent that together present a unique environment, requiring an advanced and distinct set of leadership skills.

Leading a software development team is similar to leading any other business since most developers want a person who will shield them from any business politics, help them solve work-related problems as well as help them achieve their careers. However, developers require a few advanced leadership techniques to encourage their productivity.

Below are some of how you can maintain a highly productive environment as a software development leader:

1. Understand your team

One of the key features of a developer’s leader is the ability to identify, understand, and appreciate the diverse talents, skill sets, and personalities of your team members. Understanding the dynamics of your team enables you to know who fits where during task assignments. However, this principle is usually forgotten by leaders as they go about their fast-paced business mindset. Getting to know your team members on a more personal level contributes heavily to their productivity. As a leader, you should take time to have casual conversations outside of work. This shows that aside from wanting to see a functional feature requested by a client, you also value their well-being and you care about them. Developers yearn for leaders who understand and help them achieve their personal career goals and pursue their interests. Knowing this level of information requires you to create time for casual interactions with your team members.

2. Establish effective communication

Effective communication is one of the major contributors to successful work environments. In software development, communication will mostly be around user requirements, work progress, ideas/opinions on new technologies and features, and feedback or comments on work done. As a leader, you need to foster an environment where great communication is key among the team members. To achieve this, you must create a culture where communication is continually practiced in a safe and trusted way. Do not restrict communication to channels such as email, WhatsApp, etc., because they only act as communication enablers, but they limit good communication. The best communication is where there is a natural exchange of conversation. This way, you will build a good rapport with your team members, and they will feel free to approach you for discussions relating to work. Also, as a developer’s leader, you should always communicate any set goals, user requirements, or feedback very clearly to establish transparency and boost their spirit towards productivity. This includes actively listening to the team’s feedback, comments, and questions. Let’s face it: no developer would want to go back to the drawing board because their leader miscommunicated a user requirement.

3. Know when to manage and when to coach

Every leader must understand the difference between management and coaching and know how and when to use either for a successful business culture. Management refers to a top-down approach that involves overseeing the work of other employees, while coaching refers to a two-way communication process through which ideas, policies, and initiatives are mutually generated, considered, and adopted by a team. Currently, ideas and initiatives are the core propellers of a fast, thriving tech company. You may have stunning ideas as a leader, but forcing the ideas on your team (management) without giving them a chance to voice their opinions is detrimental to both the developer and the team as a whole. Coaching allows your team to express their ideas freely and cultivates trust with your team members. Technically, developers spend a huge chunk of their time reading about new technologies and trying to implement new frameworks. Therefore, 95% of the time, they already know what to do, so what they need is guidance on how to do it. When asked questions by your team, you should take time to help them discover the best solution from within themselves rather than rushing to give advice.

4. Minimize meeting times

Meetings are very essential in any organization. They provide platforms to share ideas and brainstorm on important matters. Different meetings will require different amounts of time to be effective. For instance, a daily stand-up only requires a 15-minute time-box, while a retrospective requires at most 3 hours for a one-month sprint in a Scrum setting. However, the developers’ work is to code. Engaging them in very frequent and long meetings not only distracts their thought process but also reduces their ability to pay attention to the meeting. This costs the team time as well as productivity. Meetings other than the daily stand-ups in the middle of a sprint or the implementation of a task should be avoided to allow the developers to focus. Also, as a leader, you should keep developers away from non-functional work to allow them to maximize their time doing what they do best (coding).