Building Successful Cross-functional Development Teams

Wednesday 7th August 2013 , 6:30 pm.

Speaker: Helen Sharp, Professor of Software Engineering, The Open University.

Venue: Room 4.31, University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum, 10 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9AB.

Refreshments and networking from 6:00 pm.

This event is free of charge and open to all. No registration required - just turn up.

Synopsis

Building successful cross-functional development teams brings clear benefits. However full integration of different functions within the development team is not always practical. For example where a database specialist needs to support several development teams, where design coherence needs to be maintained across a suite of deliverables, where testers need an independent view of the release, and so on. Different approaches have been adopted, e.g. merging processes and adapting techniques, but it is a complex endeavour requiring a holistic view aimed at integrating professional cultures, and that is hard. Focusing on one area, that of User Experience (UX) design, this keynote will explore the different ways in which integration has been approached, and consider possible ways to address the challenge.

About the speaker

Helen Sharp is Professor of Software Engineering in the Computing Department of The Open University, where she leads the Empirical Studies of Software Development research group. Her main research interest focuses on the human and social aspects of software engineering, leveraging expertise in both Interaction Design and Software Engineering. In particular, she is interested in the practice of software engineering and therefore has established and maintained a wide range of industrial collaborations. Helen is actively involved in the development and organisation of several academic and industrial conferences in software engineering, HCI and agile development, including SPA, Agile; XP; OOPSLA (now called SPLASH); and HCI. Helen was Associate Editor in Chief for IEEE Software with responsibility for human and social aspects from 2008 to 2010 and is now co-editor of the Voice of Evidence column.