Traditionally, software quality is thought to depend on sound software engineering practices and development methodologies (such as structured programming or agile development). However, software quality has also been shown to depend on good teamwork, specifically with respect to the interaction processes within a team.
Since software development is primarily a team effort, it is important to understand the factors or characteristics in software development teams that influence team performance .
In today's environment, it is really challenging to stay productive individually, and the same applies to team productivity. Luckily, there are many ways to optimize the performance of a development team without increasing its size or the number of working hours.
Various tools are available to help increase team productivity. However, tools are just one element of the equation. A complex system is required that allows developers to get most out of their workdays and eventually, as a team, to meet their goals.
Before thinking about increasing the performance, it is necessary to define certain metrics, based on which conclusions will be drawn.
Following are some objective metrics that should be monitored continuously.
The basic metrics for agile processes include lead-time, cycle time, team velocity, and open - close rates. These metrics aid planning and making decisions about process increase.
- Open/Close rates - Defined as the number of production issues that are opened and closed within a specific period. The general trend matters more than specific numbers.
These metrics give valuable information about where the essential processes need attention.
However, one cannot assume root causes based on these numbers.
2] Production Analytics
- Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF) - refers to the average amount of time a software/product works before failing.
- Mean Time To Recover/Repair (MTTR) - MMTR refers to the average time required to troubleshoot and repair failed software and restore it to its working state.
Both these metrics are useful in measuring software performance in its production environment.
None of these three cadent tells you about individual features or users afflicted. However, the smaller the number the better. Modern operations-monitoring software make it incredibly easy to gather detailed metrics on individual programs and transactions.
3] WHAT FACTORS INFULENCE PERFORMANCE
Five factors particularly influence team performance.
- - A team has a common performance goal to achieve. A goal-oriented, achievement-oriented team and a team's ability to define clear and concise goals has major influence towards performance.
- Team Learning - Shared mental models represent the state of the team. On the contrary, team learning blends process and state. Team learning includes reflection and action, identified by asking questions, seeking feedback, reflecting on results and experimenting
HOW CAN DEVELOPER PRODUCTIVITY AND EFFICIENCY BE INCREASED
In the context of economics, productivity is how to measure outputs from units of input.
In a factory, the measurement of productivity is very straightforward. However, in the context of software development, productivity cannot be measured like a supply chain. Productivity is not about working harder, but smarter and can be increased in various ways.
Breaking down big problems into smaller milestones helps decide exactly what the team needs to work on.
- Eliminating and Minimising Unimportant Tasks - Sometimes, team meetings can be a huge waste of time. Meetings cannot totally be avoided, so there are several ways to make them efficient.
- Set a time limit.
- Have an agenda ready for the meeting.
- Close every meeting with an action plan.
Since lots of companies follow agile methodology, the performance management should too. Apart from clear goals and frequent communication, the work environment has to support productive work as well.
Software-teams are going to face more and more challenges related to productivity in the future, as the projects get more complex and ambitious.
Large-scale software development is a collaborative activity, which requires human resources and coordination among them. As the scope of projects increases day by day, it is incredibly important for organisations to focus on optimizing team performance and get the most out of the team in the smartest way possible.
The systematic ways of measuring team performance help in identifying high-performance teams in organisations and are useful in optimising the teamwork in software organisations.
