Loading...

Ensuring all your teams work together as a single unit

Elanchelvan Elango

VP of Engineering at Zeta Global

Loading...

Problem

In any enterprise software application, there are multiple teams involved in the development, release, and support. In my company, I was leading an engineering team who was performing really well, but engineers felt burned out.

There was a vicious circle between:

  • Engineers who were making most of the decisions about designing software, without collaborating with other teams because they thought they preferred doing things for themselves than taking the time to explain how to do things to others.
  • Other teams (Product Management, User Experience, Support, QA, Documentation, etc) felt left out, as they were not being included in the decision-making process.
  • When a new feature request needs to be developed, the engineering team typically built it with minimum requirements and tossed it over to the QA team to test. The QA team would then begrudgingly test and send it to the Release team. The documentation would be done at the last minute as a bonus, most of the time the content would be provided by the engineering team. There would be little to no instructions for the Support team once it goes live.

"Engineers who were making most of the decisions about designing software, without collaborating with other teams because they thought they preferred doing things for themselves than taking the time to explain how to do things to others."

"Other teams (Product Management, User Experience, Support, QA, Documentation, etc) felt left out, as they were not being included in the decision-making process."

Actions taken

I decided to meet with all of the leads of the teams involved (Product Management, User Experience, QA, Documentation, Release and Support, QA). I asked them how I could help them to collaborate more efficiently and underlined that I knew they had a lot to contribute. I also let them know that I really wanted feedback in terms of how the engineering team could improve. People really opened up when they were asked for their feedback but highlighted how they hadn't previously been able to participate very much in product development.

Based on feedback from the team leads, I decided that design sessions should be kept to a very strict agenda, and that they should involve all of the relevant teams, including people in support and documentation roles. When we launched a product that the teams had worked together to develop, the product was fantastically received, and our documentation was impeccable. In addition, I also organized some team lunches to restore trust between the teams. Slowly, people started appreciating each other more, as the work they were producing was of much better quality.

Lessons learned

Ensure you always involve all of the different teams in your organization. Each team in an organization is there for a reason, and each will have something to contribute. If teams work together efficiently, the products and software the company will perform better, and the product will be made to a better standard.


Be notified about next articles from Elanchelvan Elango

Elanchelvan Elango

VP of Engineering at Zeta Global


CommunicationOrganizational StrategyDecision MakingCulture DevelopmentEngineering ManagementPerformance ReviewsFeedback TechniquesCareer GrowthCareer ProgressionSkill Development

Connect and Learn with the Best Eng Leaders

We will send you a weekly newsletter with new mentors, circles, peer groups, content, webinars,bounties and free events.


Product

HomeCircles1-on-1 MentorshipBountiesBecome a mentor

© 2024 Plato. All rights reserved

LoginSign up