Top technical talent is in limited supply, as many businesses are all too aware of; technical posts now take an average of almost two months to fill, and hiring difficulty has risen recently. Many businesses are looking for creative ways to assemble their software teams in order to meet the skills shortage. Fetchly Labs as a whole has a defined strategy for how Project Managers manage duties and tasks for development teams. It's not as simple as it seems to be a good manager and guide a productive software development team. As managing a software team is challenging, and anyone who has worked with engineers can attest to that. Even though software tasks are frequently well-defined, team leaders nevertheless have to deal with a group of individuals on a daily basis. A group of highly educated individuals, each with their own unique characteristics and interests.
In many ways managing a team of developers is similar to leading any other team. To understand how the members of your team complete their tasks, you don't necessarily need to know how to code. Even if you don't understand the technical parts of programming and architecture, you can still understand their typical challenges, go-to resources, and best practices. It is essential to learn the telltale indicators that things are about to go wrong and try your best to lead without micromanaging.
If the quality of the step to manage tasks are poor, the tasks completed could fall short of the customer's expectations or the process may take longer to complete than planned. However, if the appropriate steps are taken to provide high-quality task descriptions, such jobs are likely to be completed effectively, precisely, and on schedule.
At the very least, half the story of a job's successful execution is a task that is adequately defined. More success elements are concealed in what happens to the task later on, particularly in how the appropriate feedback is given and handled throughout the task’s execution.
Read on to find out how to effectively manage tasks for your development team in order to support their success and steer your project.
Task management for your development team
Here are a few approaches employed by Fetchly labs, a software development company, to carry out their responsibilities as they explore how tasks are managed for development teams:
Make sure your developers are aware of the priorities for completing the work in the backlog and which tasks they should fall back on in case of bugs. The PMs prioritize the tasks according to what adds the most value, and you can do this by holding a meeting with the Devs, asking questions, and when a suggestion is made for a task to be assigned priority, asking for proof. This helps drive the focus of the team on what adds value.
- Constantly Communicate with Devs
Given how poorly communicated tasks and roles can make or break a project, it is preferable to communicate properly to allow for a better flow of information leading to effective project execution. You can accomplish this by having daily stand-up meetings with the dev team to review work from the previous day and set goals for the upcoming day, as this would allow you to monitor the progress of the tasks throughout the day to ensure that they met their target.
- Assign roles and responsibilities
The "one team for all" method could be ideal for you if you believe it will be easier to assign tasks and monitor the team when they are all working together. At Fetchly, project managers typically set the size of the team or, if possible, divide it into a few smaller ones before carefully selecting the specialists they'll need for the project.
Every time a project is launched, a team must be formed to manage its progress. And in order for the team to function well and for each member to understand their responsibilities, task breakdown is important. You can simplify tasks so as not to overwhelm the developers by breaking them down into several smaller steps that are easier to track and manage.
- Send out reminders for deadlines
Every time a task's deadline is missed, every other project that is currently underway or in the pipeline immediately runs the risk of being delivered late. Therefore, it is ideal to prevent any of such situations from occurring. If a deadline must be met, make sure developers are constantly reminded of it, and if necessary, stress the importance of completing the tasks by the time limit.
- Clearly describe tasks for devs
To effectively move forward with development, the developer must understand both the problem/domain and the product owner's expectations; here are a few approaches that Fetchlys project managers adopt to describe tasks for a dev team:
- Maintaining all the most recent requirements needed by the developer in one place for simple access and update. This aids the developer in understanding the status of the project and any necessary adjustments or specifications.
- Creating a list of the approved requirements can assist the developer in understanding the context of an issue. Although implied requirements are normally preferred, detailed requirements can be quite helpful in some situations.
- If the goal is to integrate the product being produced with another service, ensure your developers have access to the service, a sample of the file(if possible), and its documentation.
- Starting a project typically requires the creation of a flowchart, block diagram, or other sorts of idea representation, as this makes it easier for the developer to comprehend the job and its scope.
What happens when you don't do the things listed above;
- When tasks are poorly defined and ambiguous, it can put the brakes on any project, delaying the product's release and raising the development expenses. You must be aware of future key areas and discuss them in advance with your dev team to avoid any potential misunderstanding. All of this demonstrates the need for organized communication and a mutual understanding between you and your dev team.
Final Thoughts
It takes more than clear work descriptions to ensure the development process runs well and the team members are happy and productive. Communication of priorities, updates, deadlines, timely removal of roadblocks, and restraint are all essential for achieving a smooth development process. In any firm, there should be a streamlined procedure for managing a dev team to ensure that the dev's activities fit with the project requirements.
*This is not the official Fetchly opinion but the opinion of the writer who is employed by Fetchly*