李彤《软件工程》教学课件ch25.pptVIP

Group organisation Small software engineering groups are usually organised informally without a rigid structure. For large projects, there may be a hierarchical structure where different groups are responsible for different sub-projects. Informal groups The group acts as a whole and comes to a consensus on decisions affecting the system. The group leader serves as the external interface of the group but does not allocate specific work items. Rather, work is discussed by the group as a whole and tasks are allocated according to ability and experience. This approach is successful for groups where all members are experienced and competent. Extreme programming groups Extreme programming groups are variants of an informal, democratic organisation. In extreme programming groups, some ‘management’ decisions are devolved to group members. Programmers work in pairs and take a collective responsibility for code that is developed. Chief programmer teams Consist of a kernel of specialists helped by others added to the project as required. The motivation behind their development is the wide difference in ability in different programmers. Chief programmer teams provide a supporting environment for very able programmers to be responsible for most of the system development. Problems This chief programmer approach, in different forms, has been successful in some settings. However, it suffers from a number of problems Talented designers and programmers are hard to find. Without exceptional people in these roles, the approach will fail; Other group members may resent the chief programmer taking the credit for success so may deliberately undermine his/her role; There is a high project risk as the project will fail if both the chief and deputy programmer are unavailable. The organisational structures and grades in a company may be unable to accommodate this type of group. The physical workplace provision has an important effect on individual productivity and satisfaction Comfort; Pri