HUMAN RESOURCES IN A SOFTWARE PRODUCT

QUESTION

In this essay, it is expected that you will refer to recent literature on organisational behaviour research, and it is expected that you will all read and refer to at least 8 journal articles to achieve the basic requirement. This is in addition to reference to books, academic internet sites etc. Please discuss with your tutor if you are unsure of what is required.

Research Question:

You have been assigned to lead a software project over the next year that requires the full-time involvement of approximately 100 people with diverse skills and backgrounds. Using your knowledge of team size and dynamics, what steps would you take to develop an effective team under these conditions? How would you effectively lead and motivate these teams?

Useful links on further developing your research skills are:

o UCAcademicSkillsSupport: http://www.canberra.edu.au/studyskills/writing

o UCLibraryResearchSkillsSupport: http://www.canberra.edu.au/library/research-gateway/research-skills-training

(please see marking and feedback sheet at the provided in this unit outline).

* This is an ESSAY assignment. Essay format could be used such as including titles to each section of writing.
* HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION: You are a software project leader who is managing full-time involvement of approximately 100 people with diverse skills and backgrounds.
* YOUR TASK/TOPIC: What steps would you take to develop an effective team under the given conditions? How would you effectively lead and motivate these teams?’
* One key focus in this assignment is your research outcome in ‘team/group size and dynamics’. The reason is that your plan/proposal is based on your knowledge in term size and dynamics. However, this is not the ONLY area that you should look at. Feel free to research and reference other relevant organisational behavior theories that might contribute to your final plan.
* Another important aspect of writing is your own plan/proposal based on your research outcome.
* RESEARCH SCOPE: Apart from the textbook, you are encouraged to research other relevant textbooks, academic sources and at least 8 academic journal articles.
* WORD COUNT: 2000 (+/- 10%) * REFERENCES: either Harvard or APA referencing style is ok. * Refer to the marking sheet at the end of Unit Outline for specific marking criteria. Please ignore details such as ‘assessed for Questions xxx’.

SOLUTION

A SOFTWARE PROJECT LEADER WHO IS MANAGING FULL-TIME INVOLVEMENT OF APPROXIMATELY 100 PEOPLE WITH DIVERSE SKILLS AND BACKGROUNDS

Introduction

Team formation for a software project is as critical as reaching the objectives of the project, because this part will need the team manager to emphasizes on the qualities of a good team manager so as to form a team which will work towards the growth of the project and also towards the delivery of the project with utmost quality and timelines with the best from each contributor in the team., This increases the burden of the team manager when the team members are from different backgrounds, skillets, ethics, cultures, and values. This the team manger have to manage well the diversity in the organization and thus will have to work for better project management with enhanced diversity management in the project with extracting the best of the skills from each team member and using them for the enhancement of the project quality. The team will also need the motivation to work in an environment which is not according to their perceptions as it is a changing team with diverse people and diverse personalities and hence the employees will need the motivation from the organization apart from the monetary benefits been provided to them, so as to be able to have their ego satisfied with the sense of positive gain from the organization and positive contribution towards the project with their efforts being valued in the same.

Developing Team

Groups and Teams

A group is simply a collection of individuals who come together for a common purpose and they do not necessarily have the professional skill sets and they do not usually assist each other in the time of need. The group is formed by the people who have common interests and believe to join each other for a limited time period till the time their needs are fulfilled.

A team is a more organized set of individuals who have a common objective, a common goal in sight and the performance of each other will affect the end result. For example, a cricket team, an army battalion, a class project team, etc. are some the collections of individuals where everyone acts as a part of the team and their performance will affect the end result and the goal attainment of the team in whole.

The features of a great team comprise of the skillet of their members, their dedication towards team, their dedication towards the common objective, their efforts for the team and the objective, their leader, their capability to attain goals in any situation, and their commitment to make things happen. The great teams are made and not born, and this holds true everywhere in the nature where achievement occurs in an unusual manner then it would have been from the efforts of a great team (Thamhain, 1998).

Stages of Team Development

The team goes through different stages of developmental process and they mature differently at different rates. The rate of maturation of team is slow in some of the teams and is higher in some others, and hence when the software team is assigned, it will take different stages to go through the right and proper team formation level wherein everyone will work and act like team for each other. Below are shown the three stages which the teams follow for the right development and growth throughout the project lifecycle and even after that if the teams need to be stay framed (Belassi, 1996).

Formation

In the initial stage when the teams start to form, the team members have a little interaction and low level of informal communication, whereas the formal communication may be of higher pitch,. But the time when teams are formed, it takes some walk to each team member to be able to contribute and work towards the team’s objective. In the initial stage the team members will focus more on the tasks assigned and less on the team building or interacting with each other informally. This stage is transient and in this stage the team members since being from different backgrounds and ethics with different cultures may have a conflict of interest and this may raise problems for the leaders and even take their leadership as negative or resists the change in the organization. The good leaders stay calm at this stage and they tend to focus more on the communication and counseling of each member who seemed to be unhappy with the team policies. This stage is crucial and requires the utmost attention from the team manager or leader to help the members to be able to develop as a team. The leader has to show the trust in the team and show the positive attitude towards the team’s achievements and resolve any discrepancies persisting within the team  (Prasad, 2002).

Enrichment

In this stage the team members will start to focus on their personal needs rather than the team’s achievements and objectives. At this stage the leader of the project manager needs to intervene and develop and sustain the effective communication strategy of the team and also build the trust among the employees. At this stage the team members will look forward for the guidance from the team leader and to help them pass through this stage of inconsistencies and value their achievements and sophisticated behavior to be taken off to build the confidence within the team (Armstrong, 2000).

Sustainment

This stage will arrive when the team has been fully matured and developed and the team member understand and know each other well with assisting each other in attaining the common objective of the team and in addition focusing on each other’s needs in the challenging times. This stage will arrive when the team members will have enough formal and informal communication between them and thus will need the team manager to be managing the bigger issues and not micromanage the strategy of the team. This stage will need the manager to sustain the team and use it for the project parts and develop the objective of the organizational goal, along with fulfilling and satisfying the needs and deeds of the team members  (Dyer, 1977).

Diversity Management

The team manager or the project manager is the one who is responsible for managing the diversity in the team which persists because of the nature of the project and the employee diversity is a part of the organization’s policy. Thus for managing the diversity he will need to follow the below strategies or policies.

Faith and beliefs: The software project manager will have to build the faith and belief in his/her team members towards the team, towards the organization, towards him/her, and towards the project., The faith and belief will comprise of the acceptance and trust in the project deliverables and different parts of it including the projects delivery and its feasibility to be finished, and the leaders’ qualities which is going to lead the project. The faith is also to be developed in the project manager himself/herself towards the team and their capabilities to be able to work efficiently on the project and this will help the team to grow and sustain the diversity within because each team member even after being with different skill set, values, cultures, ethics and other countries will work towards a common goal and will be well accepted and trusted by another member of the team and the project leader (Kruglianskas, 2000).

Relationships: This is the part of diversity management which has to be developed with the team members and the team manager or the project manager because the project manager will have to take the team as an integral part of his life and this will enhance their trust in him/her with the acceptability of the diversity in the  team and thus the team members will also develop the relationships among themselves and towards the team project manager, thus helping the team to grow and survive in the diverse environment  (Williams,  2002).

Community:  This type of factor will add to get the team members closer and work well on the project with each other being accepted in each other’s life and daily schedule with an attitude to learn and understand the ethics and culture of other. This factor also adds to positive communication between the team members and will make them enjoy their work which will give the positive and fruitful results for the project and thus getting the customer or client satisfaction  (Barner, 1997).

Training: This is an integral and important part of the diversity management within the team and will play the game changer role when applied in the organization, with effects on the project team, their members, the managers and the project leaders. Training is something which may help most of the individuals with their common errors for correcting them, lead them to accept change and thus work together with the people of diverse nature culture, ethics, and values (Thamhain, 2003).

Motivation of Team members

Motivation of the employees is best enhanced by:

Training: Training is the best way to achieve most of the goals in an organization and is also the most feasible to help the employees get motivated towards the organization and their respective teams for better productivity and efficiency and also to manage change and diversity in the organization.

Communication: It is an important tool to enhance the team motivation, including the ones who are involved in the project team also the ones who support them. The informal and formal communication between the team members and the stakeholders of the project keep the project alive and make the team happy with a positive energy in the employees. The software project manager will have to take the charge for communicating the relevant information regarding propjet every time to the project members and this will help them to grow faster in the project goal achievements race. The project manager has to take care that the information is not lost or translated to some other meaning in the transit from him or her to the team members and also that the meaning remain same with minimum attrition to the information content (Jasswalla, 1998).

Job Participation: Participation in the job is another important motivating factor for the employees including their participation in the financial as well as technical aspects of it. The participation in the project essentially implies on the project manager that he/she will let the team members to get the required information and also the information which may be helpful for them to be able to suggest the improvements and do the improvements in the project and for brining the positive change in the project. This type of participation in the project activities of the employees will let them feel that they are being valued and thus will help them to improve their own performances along with improving the project quality and timelines for delivery.

Job Enrichment: This type of initiative or policy will include the enhancement of the responsibilities of the employees which will bring the positive change in their personalities and will add the responsibilities to their daily project structure with positive sense of being valuable to the team.

Conclusion

The software project team thus will need numerous efforts from the project manager and will need to imply in the work place right from the construction of the team and team building. The project manager will have to play an important role and will be centre of gravity for most of the project related activity. Once the team is been built and starts functioning well in the organization, the same will impact the project quality, its timelines, its deliverable and its structure. The team has to be managed for the diversity because the team will involve the people from different values, ethics, cultures and regions of the world and thus will involve an intense attention from the project manager in the team management for resolving conflicts and training them to be acquainted to the change in the organization and thus to take it in the positive spirit for the enhancements of their daily project related activities. The project manager should employ different tools and techniques to the management of diversity in the organization and to his team member’s of the software project. This situation will also need the morale of employees to be enhanced and managed which will again need the attention from the project manager side for the application of various tools to let him/her team members know that they are being valued in the organization and the project needs them with their valuable skill set and capabilities.

References

• Armstrong, D. (2000). Building teams across boarders. Executive Excellence, 17(3), 10.
• Barner, R. (1997). The new millennium workplace. Engineering Management Review (IEEE), 25(3), 114-119.
• Belassi, W., & Tukel, O. (1996). A new framework for determining critical success/failure factors in projects. International Journal of Project Management, 14(3), 141-151.
• Dyer, W. G. (1977). Team building: Issues and alternatives. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
• Jasswalla, A. R., & Sashittal, H. C. (1998). An examination of collaboration in high-technology new product development processes. Journal of New Product Innovation Management, 15(3), 237-254.
• Kruglianskas, I., & Thamhain, H. (2000). Managing technology- based projects in multinational environments. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 47(1), 55-64.
• Prasad, B. (2002). Toward life-cycle measures and metrics for concurrent product development. International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 15(1/3), 1-8.
• Thamhain, H. (2003). Managing innovative R&D teams. R&D Management, 33(3), 297-312.
• Thamhain, H. J., & Wilemon D. L. (1998). Building effective teams in complex project environments. Technology Management, 5(2), 203-212.
• Williams, J. (2002). Team development for high-tech project managers. Norwood, MA: Artech House.

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