Be Nice

Well put

I don't care how good you are at programming, finding bugs, whatever. If you're rude, or if you speak poorly to people who don't understand your... quirks.... you will wind up being shunted to the side. No one wants to work with someone who makes them feel beat down all the time, or someone who they simply can't understand, or someone whose reaction to every issue is to start wailing about the end of the world

Check out Catherine Powell full blog at http://blog.abakas.com/2009/06/be-nice.html

What makes a group of people a team?

A group of people are a team when they,

• Have Common Goal
• Have Mutual Commitment
• Synchronize their effects and
• Trust and Respect Each Other

Otherwise they are just a group of people not a team.

Check out my other blogs on Team at http://bizdriven.blogspot.com/search/label/Team

Fresher and Experienced Developers - Friends or Enemies ?

There are many articles written about pair programming. I wanted to write something specific about pair programming between a fresher and experienced programer.

Lets look at some benefits of pairing a fresher with a experienced developer.

Benefits:

1. The fresher gets a good a mentor whom he can ask questions and clarify doubts.
2. Learn from experienced developer. Learn concepts in minutes which might take years if left alone.
   

There are so many other benefits in pair programming. My interest is finding problems that could occur when pairing a fresher with a experienced developer.

Problems:

1. Fresher can slow down experienced developer, so productivity may go down.
2. Experienced dev might get frustrated explaining everything to fresher.
3. Fresher might be intimated so would not question experience developer's decisions.
4. Fresher might feel discouraged as they don't know many things compare to experienced developers.
5. Fresher might not get sense of accomplishments as they feel they finished a task because they paired with some experienced developers.
   

Now we have a good set of problems. Lets see what we can do it avoid these problems.

Solutions:

1. Give freshers some tasks that they can do by themselves so they will get a sense of accomplishments.
2. Experienced developers can clearly tell freshers where they need to concentrate, like ask them to read a particular technology or practice.
   
3. Create a safe environment where freshers won't hold themselves from questioning experienced developers' decisions.
   
4. Create a culture where people seek feedback. 
   
5. Always make sure freshers what is expected out of them that way they can be ready.
   
6. Have One on ones regularly with freshers and experienced developers to get sense how things are going.
   
7. Talk with experienced developers to find how freshers are doing. Ask them what they suggest we can do to improve a productivity.

This is not a comprehensive list. Please share your experience. I would like to hear from both experienced developers and freshers.

Feedback

It is important for a PM to encourage his team members to give and receive feedback. Feedback are important for team to be cohesive and successful. 

When it comes to feedback, people always use sandwich technique. How many times have you heard people tell you something in lines of,

"you are great. you are doing an amazing job. you are mean. it was great working with you". They sandwich a bad thing between two good things about you. This is not feedback. There is nothing positive is going to come out from these kind of conversations. In fact , the types of conversations will have negative effect.

Feedback should be given for two reasons,

1) Improving Effectiveness and

2) Strengthening confidence.

There is nothing like good or bad feedback, only feedback.

When giving feedback,

1) Be specific.

2) Focus on behavior rather than the person

3) Be descriptor rather than judgmental

4) Ask permission

5) Give feedback in private

When receiving feedback

1) Ask for instances if the person tells you something generic

2) Ask for suggestions

3) Treat feedback as a gift :)

Encourage your team members to give and receive feedback.

It will be nice if you all can share your experiences in giving and receiving feedback.