Align people on features instead of front and back end work. Whoever devised the terms ‘front-end’ and ‘back-end’, as well as ‘full-stack developer’ has a… Read More »Front-end and back-end sub-teams are a bad idea
Together is the way in team collaboration. I was having a virtual coffee yesterday when the other person said something which resonated with me. He… Read More »Teach students to unlearn independent work to be better collaborators
Diversity in our tasks aids the work of the team I’ve recently been hearing students tell their team members that they want to do something… Read More »Swap roles to provide diversity in perspectives on the work
Teach students how to level up their team collaboration to achieve more A few months ago Cliff Hazel posted a question on LinkedIn that speculated… Read More »Teamwork should be multiplicative not additive
Pause and think of how you might improve the work you do as a team. Growing up in the midwest of the US I remember… Read More »Student software engineering teams need to learn to use retrospectives
Meet with a regular rhythm to synch your work together. I regularly guide student teams in software engineering at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. The… Read More »Software engineering student teams should meet with a suitable cadence for their work
Working in the open should be a default position in a team Twice a year I guide our MSc software engineering group project teams, who… Read More »Teach students to work in the open to improve collaboration
You grow when you teach others. You also grow when you ask for help when you’re stuck. We need to teach students to accept both… Read More »Teach student teams to be humble
Do what you teach and pause to reflect so that you can improve It’s time to walk the talk, and do as I tell others… Read More »Reflection on 2023
Shift left to learn more quickly about your work What follows is a story that repeats itself every academic year in our year-long software engineering… Read More »Teach student teams to shorten their feedback loops