During my developer career, I have experienced multiple types of teams, and procedures that have made them effective and some procedures that made them ineffective as a collective group. Some were really effective, others were siloed off, and others were just horrible management and chaotic merge releases that could use some building tools and other processes and procedures. Every team is going to be different, but I don’t think core system procedures of communication and standards in teams should be different. Building the right procedure can make people effective, but the people in those procedures might need more or less steps to get to the happy path of that procedure, depending on the complexities of the business and reliability to clients and customers.

There are two things that enforce policies on a team. The team members and the requirements to deliver the product effectively.

Team Members

Because each team member is different, using methods that help them overcome their weaknesses to fit the procedure is probably not best. Procedures should be conformed by the input from the team and cultivate a culture that works with the team members, while instilling the principles of the procedures and the goals that the procedures is built upon.

What I mean by this, is that a team what’s to define the objectives and characteristics that they want to live up to. Their expectations are defined, and their approach of reaching that expectation, might not embody what they want to be defined as. This is axillary to the work and effort that they put into their job. If members on a team do not know anything better they will keep the status quo in those areas. Every member of team is different, so each player in the team will have a different skill set.

Saying this, it is important that the team has a manner of effective communication. They must be able to communicate their struggles. In Agile development this means that the team needs to address their wants and needs to achieve those goals. If your team wants to be all-start developers, then they need to define step-by-step what that looks like, and then accomplish those goals. This effort must come within, and not enforced on the team.