As a software analysis company, the Dutch Software Improvement Group (SIG) specialises in assessing the quality of software. But whilst its software analysis technology can offer up a detailed quality assessment of a program’s source code, the effectiveness of the teams that produce such code is not so easily measurable.

And when work is outsourced, the picture is even more complex. In search of answers, SIG recently held an intriguing round-table in London to discuss the question, “What makes a successful software development team?”

The session featured SIG’s own Head of Research, Joost Visser and Business Development Manager Michiel Cuijpers alongside Kevan Hall, CEO of training consultancy Global Integration (experts in team work) and Andrew de la Haye of RIPE NCC, the European, Regional Internet Registry whose software has earned a five star quality classification.

Commitment

Whilst the table found a degree of common ground on issues such as team-size, the value of tight teamwork, short development iterations and employee empowerment, one issue seemed particularly contentious: whether outsourcing has a place in a successful software development team.

Andrew de la Haye was sceptical. “I used to sell a lot outsourcing, but I haven’t seen it really working (teamwise).”

Earlier in the discussion, he had noted how employees are periodically given two weeks out of their projects, to learn about anything that interests them, and to later report back their findings to the team. “Hopefully it’s innovative and hopefully people learn from it” said Mr de la Haye. For him, the primary benefit is increased employee happiness and thus, commitment.

Concerns about commitment are a common issue for businesses looking into outsourcing. However, software development at RIPE NCC and other organizations often follow a programme of Agile software development, wherein teams have to be highly adaptive and willing to reiterate recently completed work. Coupled with an intensive approach to employee loyalty, Mr de la Haye is especially wary of introducing outside help into his development process: “You hope that they are committed to the organisation they’re working for, but they’re certainly not committed to you.”

Management

Kevan Hall was keen to defend outsourced work, however. “Remote teams can work well. Working at distance isn’t really the problem: it’s bad management that’s at fault.” He elaborated on this by noting problems in “the balance of trust and control.” In his eyes, the lack of trust that some managers have for outsource teams makes them quick to impose needlessly restrictive controls.

“And so we go out to India and we have these incredibly heavy processes which we [...] make sure they follow without any sense of initiative or change, and then we start complaining that the Indians don’t have any initiative and don’t innovate”.

One of Global Integration’s specialist areas is Cross Cultural Training . They’re acutely aware of the issues that do exist when working across time-zones, distance and less tangible boundaries. According to Mr Hall, one of the simplest oversights on outsourced projects is the lack of a travel budget. He observed that it’s unsurprising that developers fail to establish a working relationship with their outsource teams when they “don’t even go and meet the people who are doing a service for them”.

Conclusion

Perhaps there’s no arguing with results: RIPE NCC’s 5-star software speaks for the value of bringing development into tight-knit, single building teams. However, Global Integration’s experiences with managing outsourcing teams seem to suggest that outsourcing can certainly have a role to play in software development. The conclusion is quite simply that there is more than one way to build a successful development team, but that the difference between these structures is quite significant.

Perhaps this is best illustrated by Mr Hall’s opinion on teamwork: “It may be shocking, but I actually spend quite a bit of my time trying to discourage teamwork”. He continues; “If we have the mentality that everything we do is as a team, then we can’t make a decision until the next meeting”. And whilst there are undoubtedly legitimate worries about the outsourcing, it could actually be argued that a finer balance of trust and control could lead to more innovative products in those companies that use it.