This week I’m focusing on the 4 Quadrants of Development Process Maturity. Team work is one of the axis to a high performing team, but it’s not just developer collaboration that’s important. The most important team work is between the developers and the stakeholders.
Who decides what your software should do? Are they part of your development team? This is the most important starting pillar of a collaborative development team. These are the folks who have a vested interest in the software being developed, the stakeholders. Identifying these people and including at least a subset of them in the development team is critical to team work.
These team members must be present any time system features are being discussed. They are responsible for defining the what and when of the features that will be included in the system. This means creating and regularly grooming a backlog as well as keeping that backlog in prioritized order.
Without these folks, the developers will decide the what and when. This can but often doesn’t align with the best interests of the business. Limited access to stakeholders leads to:
- Re-work: features must often be re-worked because they are either wrong or hard to use
- Feature bloat: features are often added to the system that are rarely or never used
- Shiny object syndrome: the team spends excessive time trying out “cool” new technologies
- Apathy: team members may request reassignment, “quiet quit”, or turn in their resignation
Software developers love to build software that users love. Having stakeholders involved allows them to do what they love.
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