Tim Lister gave a great seminar for the Boston ACM Professional
Development Seminar last spring. He spent quite a bit of time
discussing team formation, pointing out that while noone knew a
sure-fire way to grow a great team (grow as opposed to build,
emphasizing that you can set up proper conditions,
but not guarantee the outcome), there were several well-known
ways to make sure team formation didn't happen.
His "Teamicide" list from my notes was:
1) phoney schedules -- arbitrary &/or externally overdetermined &/or
"doesn't mean anything/doesn't matter anyway" approach to schedule.
2) physical separation -- this point raised some discussion. Lister
contended that "distributed teams" sound good but don't work
in practice.
3) part-time participation
4) personnel management -- as I recall, what he meant was membership
in the team imposed from outside the team
5) bureaucracy
6) defensive management
7) shoddy product quality
John, I am curious how well these points map to the "detractors" you
mention in the last message.
For those of you in the Boston area who may be interested, Tim Lister is
going to address the December meeting of the Boston SPIN (Software Process
Improvement Network). December 19, 6:30 - 8:30 pm, in Newton. No topic
has been announced. If you'd like more information, e-mail me directly --
rachel@ontos.com.
-- Rachel Silber rachel@ontos.com