MODULE 12. Maintaining a Cohesive Work Environment.ppt

MODULE 12. Developing and Maintaining a Cohesive Work Environment PEOPLE IN THE PROCESS People are an organisation’s most important assets. The tasks of a manager are essentially people- oriented. Unless there is some understanding of people, management will be unsuccessful. Poor...

MODULE 12. Developing and Maintaining a Cohesive Work Environment PEOPLE IN THE PROCESS People are an organisation’s most important assets. The tasks of a manager are essentially people- oriented. Unless there is some understanding of people, management will be unsuccessful. Poor people management is an important contributor to project failure. PEOPLE MANAGEMENT FACTORS Consistency Team members should all be treated in a comparable way without favourites or discrimination. Respect Different team members have different skills and these differences should be respected. Inclusion Involve all team members and make sure that people’s views are considered. Honesty You should always be honest about what is going well and what is going badly in a project. SELECTING STAFF An important project management task is team selection. Information on selection comes from: Information provided by the candidates. Information gained by interviewing and talking with candidates. Recommendations and comments from other people who know or who have worked with the candidates. STAFF SELECTION CASE STUDY 1  STAFF SELECTION CASE STUDY 2 The next stage is to try and find people from within the company with the necessary skills. Howev er, the company has expanded significantly and has few staff available. The best that Alice can negotiate is to have help from an alarm expert (Fred) for 2 days/week. She therefore decides to advertise for new project staff, listing the attributes that sheÕdlike: 1. Programming experience in C. She has decided to develop all the assistive technology control software in C. 2. Experience in user interface design. A UI designer is essential but there may not be a need fo r a full-time appointment. 3. Experience in hardware interfacing with C and using remote development systems. All the devices used have co mplex hardware interfaces. 4. Experience of working with hardware engineers. At times, it will be necessary to build completely new hardware. A sympathetic personality so that they can relate to and work with elderly people who are providing requirements for and are testing the system. MOTIVATING PEOPLE An important role of a manager is to motivate the people working on a project. Motivation is a complex issue but it appears that their are different types of motivation based on: Basic needs (e.g. food, sleep, etc.); Personal needs (e.g. respect, self-esteem); Social needs (e.g. to be accepted as part of a group). HUMAN NEEDS HIERARCHY Self- realisation needs Esteem needs Social needs Safety needs Physiological needs NEED SATISFACTION Social Provide communal facilities; Allow informal communications. Esteem Recognition of achievements; Appropriate rewards. Self-realization Training - people want to learn more; Responsibility. PERSONALITY TYPES The needs hierarchy is almost certainly an over- simplification of motivation in practice. Motivation should also take into account different personality types: Task-oriented; Self-oriented; Interaction-oriented. PERSONALITY TYPES Task-oriented. The motivation for doing the work is the work itself; Self-oriented. The work is a means to an end which is the achievement of individual goals - e.g. to get rich, to play tennis, to travel etc.; Interaction-oriented The principal motivation is the presence and actions of co-workers. People go to work because they like to go to work. MOTIVATION BALANCE Individual motivations are made up of elements of each class. The balance can change depending on personal circumstances and external events. However, people are not just motivated by personal factors but also by being part of a group and culture. People go to work because they are motivated by the people that they work with. MANAGING GROUPS Most software engineering is a group activity The development schedule for most non-trivial software projects is such that they cannot be completed by one person working alone. Group interaction is a key determinant of group performance. Flexibility in group composition is limited Managers must do the best they can with available people. FACTORS INFLUENCING GROUP WORKING Group composition. Group cohesiveness. Group communications. Group organisation.  GROUP COMPOSITION Group composed of members who share the same motivation can be problematic Task-oriented - everyone wants to do their own thing; Self-oriented - everyone wants to be the boss; Interaction-oriented - too much chatting, not enough work. An effective group has a balance of all types. This can be difficult to achieve software engineers are often task-oriented. Interaction-oriented people are very important as they can detect and defuse tensions that arise. GROUP LEADERSHIP Leadership depends on respect not titular status. There may be both a technical and an administrative leader. Democratic leadership is more effective that autocratic leadership. GROUP COHESIVENESS In a cohesive group, members consider the group to be more important than any individual in it. The advantages of a cohesive group are: Group quality standards can be developed; Group members work closely together so inhibitions caused by ignorance are reduced; Team members learn from each other and get to know each other’s work; Egoless programming where members strive to improve each other’s programs can be practised. DEVELOPING COHESIVENESS Cohesiveness is influenced by factors such as the organisational culture and the personalities in the group. Cohesiveness can be encouraged through Social events; Developing a group identity and territory; Explicit team-building activities. Openness with information is a simple way of ensuring all group members feel part of the group. GROUP LOYALTIES Group members tend to be loyal to cohesive groups. 'Groupthink' is preservation of group irrespective of technical or organizational considerations. Management should act positively to avoid groupthink by forcing external involvement with each group. GROUP COMMUNICATIONS Good communications are essential for effective group working. Information must be exchanged on the status of work, design decisions and changes to previous decisions. Good communications also strengthens group cohesion as it promotes understanding. GROUP COMMUNICATIONS Group size The larger the group, the harder it is for people to communicate with other group members. Group structure Communication is better in informally structured groups than in hierarchically structured groups. Group composition Communication is better when there are different personality types in a group and when groups are mixed rather than single sex. The physical work environment Good workplace organisation can help encourage communications. GROUP ORGANISATION Small software engineering groups are usually organised informally without a rigid structure. For large projects, there may be a hierarchical structure where different groups are responsible for different sub-projects. INFORMAL GROUPS The group acts as a whole and comes to a consensus on decisions affecting the system. The group leader serves as the external interface of the group but does not allocate specific work items. Rather, work is discussed by the group as a whole and tasks are allocated according to ability and experience. This approach is successful for groups where all members are experienced and competent. WORKING ENVIRONMENTS The physical workplace provision has an important effect on individual productivity and satisfaction Comfort; Privacy; Facilities. Health and safety considerations must be taken into account Lighting; Heating; Furniture. ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS Privacy - each engineer requires an area for uninterrupted work. Outside awareness - people prefer to work in natural light. Personalization - individuals adopt different working practices and like to organize their environment in different ways. WORKSPACE ORGANISATION Workspaces should provide private spaces where people can work without interruption Providing individual offices for staff has been shown to increase productivity. However, teams working together also require spaces where formal and informal meetings can be held. OFFICE LAYOUT Meeting room Office Office Window Communal area Office Office Office Office Shared documentation Office Office KEY POINTS Staff selection factors include education, domain experience, adaptability and personality. People are motivated by interaction, recognition and personal development. Software development groups should be small and cohesive. Leaders should be competent and should have administrative and technical support. KEY POINTS Group communications are affected by status, group size, group organisation and the gender and personality composition of the group Working environments should include spaces for interaction and spaces for private working.