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Discussion on: Tips on improving teamwork

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tobias_salzmann profile image
Tobias Salzmann

Definitely keep up pair programming. From my experience, it's very effective.
That said, there are some gotchas:

  • It can be exhausting
  • How much they feel comfortable with pairing highly depends on the person and the situation. Leave room for personal time, learning and quieter moments
  • Some tasks are not suited well for pairing, e.g. explorative research
  • Frequent pair rotation is crucial to spread knowledge

Pairing around 60% to 80% of the time works pretty well, from what I can tell.

For you personally, it will be much less, but make sure that you don't separate completely from coding for a prolonged time. You could focus on pairing with juniors.

Besides that, some general ideas:

Have (regular) 1on1s with every single person in your team. Talk about their expectations, wishes and most importantly, listen. This will allow team members that are less vocal to get a voice

Get someone to organize a team event. Maybe an escape room, some other activity or just a plain dinner.

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devcamilla profile image
Camilla Santiago

Thanks for the advice. I am always wary of spoon feeding solutions to others that sometimes I think I end up being unhelpful at all. Former team lead once said to me that if she's going to answer me better if she'll do task instead. In which I agreed, than spending both of our efforts in it. I always go back to this thought whenever. I wonder if its a good thought to bag.