23 November 2023 (updated: 4 December 2023)
Chapters
Building and leading engineering teams is not a piece of cake. Learn how to do it effectively.
Building great engineering teams is crucial in product and software development, as it directly impacts the quality of the product. From selecting the right framework and team structure to maintaining motivation and collaborative culture, each aspect plays a role in building successful and effective teams.
In this article, you’ll learn about building, managing, and leading teams that last. Whether you’re starting a new team from scratch, or looking to improve an existing one, you have to be aware that teams must be highly adaptable to meet the changing needs of the project, and different roles must work together to contribute to the final success of the project.
As always in software development, there is no one-fits-all solution. It is always crucial to remember to tailor your engineering team to your project’s needs and goals. Building effective engineering teams involves factors such as adapting to change, continuous improvement, expertise and skill diversity, and fostering collaboration.
Well-defined roles within the team are essential for the project’s effectiveness. The specific roles and responsibilities may vary across different companies and projects, depending on the complexity of the project, team size, and methodology. Understanding these roles helps build well-rounded and effective teams, as each of them contributes to the project's success. The roles in the team include:
Choosing the right team structure is crucial to team effectiveness. There are many different approaches to the team structure. The teams may be technology-aligned or product-aligned. Different types of team structures include:
A collaborative culture helps the teams thrive, boosting team morale and productivity. Regular communication helps reduce misunderstandings and conflicts and align team goals. Collaborative team culture includes:
Managing engineering teams is not easy. Effective leaders have to balance technical expertise with leadership and interpersonal skills to inspire and guide their teams. They play crucial roles in motivating teammates, setting a vision, adapting to technological changes, and fostering innovation within the organization. Managers have to set clear expectations and goals, offer feedback, recognize achievements, but also address challenges.
Some of the most common challenges in engineering teams are motivation, burnout, and managing workload while keeping an eye on the business goals of the project. With a good manager and leader, engineering teams thrive.
Great engineering leaders create an ecosystem of various skills, technologies, and abilities that work together for the project's success. One of the most important aspects of a team's success is fostering an environment that encourages continuous growth, collaboration, and innovation.
Innovative teams explore new ideas and solutions making the project more effective and overall, better. Professional growth is also crucial, as the development of the team members contributes to the quality of the project, that’s why engineering leaders are aware of how important it is. Combining those factors leads to successful, effective, and overall happy teams and overall organizational growth.
How to effectively manage engineering teams? It involves a blend of open communication, fostering collaborative team structure, and effective planning. We asked our Tech Team Leads for their tips. Some of the best practices are:
Arkadiusz Oleksy, Tech Team Lead at EL Passion: We host weekly frontend and backend meetings, where we discuss new updates, solve problems together, and share our knowledge so that everyone, regardless of seniority, can learn something new each week.
Piotr Zawada, Tech Team Lead at EL Passion: Work meetings are not everything, spend some time talking about other matters like hobbies, movies or interesting topic. It will build an unbeatable team spirit.
Michał Kolbusz, Tech Team Lead at EL Passion: Good task delegation makes your team members feel responsible for something important, keeps them motivated and broadens their skills.
Engineering teams must establish effective communication with other departments. It keeps everybody on the same page and fosters mutual understanding of goals and objectives. Remember to keep the language accessible to non-technical colleagues. Understanding the priorities of other departments helps engineering align their work with organizational goals. Apart from traditional and virtual meetings, foster asynchronous communication. Make sure to have a single source of truth, and that every team knows how to find it.
21 November 2024 • Mariusz Heyda