Teamwork means more work

We all know that “Teamwork means more work’. Teamwork is the key factor for software engineers especially for the QA engineers. As most of us all into the agile process, there is a demand for ‘Teamwork’. Teamwork enables the teammates to work together to achieve fruitful results under hard circumstances.

Theoretically, we can define teamwork as ‘A group of individuals with different personality traits, who can contribute to diverse point of views and better approach to the problems at hand. The team members know the strengths and weaknesses and they understand how to work with each other”. It will be always good if the theory is exactly implemented and followed by every team member including the team head. When it comes to the real world, obviously the deviations will take place. And it does not mean that every team is deviated. There are many teams who are already proven with their great teamwork. Still few teams fail because of these deviations. Unless these deviations are identified and corrected, there will be an apparent struggle for entire team and ultimately the key factor that will be effected is ‘Productivity’.

I would like to discuss what should be there and what should not be there while we are working as a team.

What effects Teamwork:

Key player: Well this is good to have the key players in the team, but having a single key player often effects the team. Few great things may be done with good quality with such kind of players. But entire work cannot be done by a single person. Obviously every team player should show his/her caliber to achieve that stardom, at the same time knowledge must be shared across to bring out the key players. Team should always have the ‘Key players’ not a single or few key players.

Transparency: As we are working in a team, each and every task should always be transparent to the whole team. Miscommunicating or not communicating the things may disturb the positive health of the team. As soon as this lack of transparency is observed that must immediately intimated to the team to avoid it from next time on wards.

Dependency on team members: All the tasks and the responsibilities should be equally distributed among the team. So in case of any team member’s sudden absence, the productivity will not be effected.

What motivates Teamwork:

Recognition: As it’s a human tendency  that a simple praise can fetch many things, praising is obvious to improve the productivity.  In order to make the team members perform at their best ‘Recognitions’ are must and they must be announced loudly to the maximum number of audience. It builds the ownership responsibility from inside. The team-head is responsible enough for identifying the deserved persons.

Equal distribution of the work: At any cost the work should be distributed across the team. Sometimes the tasks must be assigned based on the team members interest. If the interested person is not fully familiar with the task, at least he/she must be partially involved into that task which brings the enthusiasm in the team member. The team-head must be more responsible in this area and also the team member should let the team know about his/her area of interest. Otherwise if the same kind of tasks are assigned to the same person it leads to Monotony.

Respect: Again it’s a human tendency that ‘Respect’ gives more encouragement to any kind of person. As a team player everyone should value others ideas. It is not always good to consider a single/few person’s thoughts. Rejection of ideas should be very graceful with proper explanation.

Friendliness:  As it’s a team with different personalities, every person’s capability is different. As a team, the inabilities can be overcome. That is the beauty of the teamwork. Every team member must be equally friendly to the other in order to not show any discrepancies. It results in building the best professionalism.

Criticism: Again I am stressing on human tendency. As we are not robots there are more chances to make mistakes. And it does not mean that we have to bear with that mistakes. There will always be a proper way to point out on one’s own mistakes. The criticism at open places are not always encouraged. It cause the people to burst out at some point. So the ‘Recognition’ must be public and the ‘Criticism’ must be private.

Conclusion: As a team our final goal is to improve ourselves and contribute for the growth of our company. By identifying and by correcting our own deviations, we can give our best in achieving the results.