Be Successful Working in a Team as a Developer

November 3, 2019

I've been working as a developer for a couple of agencies with different teams and I've learned a lot of important skills: technical and non-technical. Here are 4 tips that I think developers need in order to be a successful team player.

Do Not Under Quote a Project or a Feature

When your manager asks you to help estimate a project or a feature, always give them a good number as close as possible to the correct one. Always provide what you feel is the TRUE estimation cost. By under quoting, you put yourself and the company in jeopardy. You risk yourself going over budget and the company now needs to figure out how to compensate for the over budget work.

If you provide a quote that your team feels is too high, provide them with an in depth context as to why you gave them that number. Usually at this point, your team will realize the true scale of the project you are quoting on. For the times that I've done this, my team always accepts my estimate and use that number to present to the client.

Raise Red Flags Early and Often

On any project you are working on, you may hit budget earlier than expected or face a feature that is out of scope. These 2 scenarios usually de-rail projects. When you hit either of these scenarios, DO NOT ignore these flags but instead, let your team know ASAP! This allows your team to re-allocate budget, communicate to the client that a feature is out of scope, or possibly ask for more budget. It is important that you stop working on that project until you solved your hurdles.

Always do your best to give your team a chance to keep on track or get a project back on track. When I raise a flag in my team, it always results in a brainstorming session to try and shave off enhancements on features that haven't been built. Sometimes, there's nothing we can do. But since I've raised that flag, my team is aware of what is about to happen and they are not left in the dark. The many times that I've raised red flags, I've been able to save the company I work for many dollars.

Participate in Team Activities

If your team decides to do a fun or professional activities, do your best not to skip out. Build chemistry with your team. When you skip out on activities, you start to build up a negative reputation for yourself. The higher chemistry that you have with your team, the more they'll have your back when a project starts to go wrong or when you push a broken feature. It can be as simple as having lunch with them.

Be Open to Giving and Receiving Positive or Negative Feedback

Feedback is one of the most powerful way to helping your teammates improve as well helping yourself. If there is a friction within your team or if you need a member of your team to work on a specific skill, feedback is a good way to go about it. Make sure to always ask for permission before providing feedback, especially if it's negative. I've seen many situations where feedback was given at the wrong time and all of them turned into a hellish situation.

However, if you are giving feedback, make sure you are okay with receiving it. As much as possible, do not take any feedback as a personal attack. When I get feedback, I always think that my teammates are trying to help me improve my skills. Viewing it this way, I was able to take any feedback as a non-personal attack.

Take Away

Being technical is not the only part of becoming a successful developer. By following the 4 tips above, they should help you out with your career as a developer. If you have any questions or need advise on any of the tips above, feel free to drop me an email and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.