Effective Knowledge Transfer Methods for Software Teams
Practical tips to implement smooth knowledge transfer within tech teams
Knowledge transfer across the software teams is a bedrock for any IT project. Every member of the software team knows the importance of knowledge transfer.
But it is a pressing issue put aside in case of a burning deadline.
A development team has software engineers with different knowledge levels. This includes different programming languages or domain expertise. And your team might hire new developers at different stages of your development project. Making it difficult for the new joiners to assimilate the essential data and knowledge to perform their job better. This is where the team leader has a crucial role to play.
Even with a smooth knowledge transfer process in place, it takes time and it definitely costs more for a senior team member. With limited resources and time, it becomes an urgent need for management to implement the most effective knowledge-sharing methods.
Spiced up with a few practical tips, this blog has got you covered with ready-to-implement knowledge transfer methods.
The Real Need
For an efficient knowledge transfer process among the software teams, we need to have many things clear to us. Let’s start with some of the questions which will help you drive the knowledge transfer among the software development teams more accurately.
One of which is to track the trail of where does the risk lies. What are the talent risks? This is so critical amongst the IT teams. Every software development team has got tech experts that are most concerned for the team. It sounds like this-
‘His name is Elen, we don’t know how or what he does.
But if he stops working, we all will feel lost in bringing innovations to the software development lifecycle.
He knows all about coding, testing, or about how to make his clients happy.’
So, you need to know who those people are and what risks lie with them. Secondly, you should have the capability to prioritize resources if you don’t have enough staff. So, strategically think in a practical way to prioritize the skill, knowledge, and capabilities of your software team.
Who is it that knows the right way exactly how you expect it to be? Who are the team members that are setting the gold standards in the software development lifecycle? Lots of people code, but is there anybody better at quality coding?
If you miss out on articulating who is doing it the right way as per your expectations, the apprentices will learn from the ones who are nicest or nearest to them. This problem makes the knowledge transfer among the software teams bigger and sometimes results in work output failures.
Articulate the right people who are going to learn and from whom. Create plans that have measurable goals of knowledge-sharing.
The gist of why knowledge transfer is important for your programming team
- Helps the team avoid repetitive work and resolve common issues.
- Strengthens knowledge base.
- Reduces risks and helps collaborate your team much more efficiently during a challenging issue.
- Empower the team for continuous improvements.
- High employee satisfaction as knowledge transfer helps them advance in their career through skill development.
- Increase client satisfaction with your software development and support services.
Top Knowledge Transfer Methods for Software Teams
Knowledge transfer is performed in many ways to strategically embrace access to know-how, create common goals across the team, and have higher commitments towards the software development lifecycle. Let’s discover the smart methods of knowledge transfer.
Documentation
Easy to access documentation of knowledge creates a strong base for team members and freshers to cope-up and initiate with the coding issues or any other tech challenges. It is one of the traditional yet effective ways of knowledge sharing. Get your teammates up to speed with the projects. For a long-term development project, documentation helps you record your project history.
The best part is, it is much of help even for your clients. In case of a sudden change in the development team during the middle of the project, documentation will be vital for your project handover checklist. It creates an effective and clean impression among your clients of the level of support you provide to get app development started with the new team.
Mutual Code Reviews
Providing your feedback for someone else’s project lets you experience your strong and weak points. Code review is the method that lets the developers see beyond bugs or potential issues in the project. They can discover new implementation ideas for later use. Most importantly, it’s through code reviews that programmers and testers share project-specific knowledge.
Mutual code reviews can be a strong source for new team members to get hands-on experience of the project they have to take up. It is always two-sided. Even the existing team members can get fresh ideas to implement from the new members.
Brown Bag Lunch
This method refers to a task where the software developers bring their lunch (in a brown bag) and enjoy lunchtime with the whole team together sharing knowledge across the team. It’s a transfer of knowledge and experience in real-time.
Well! This is one of the most relaxed methods of knowledge transfer for your software teams as it allows them to socialize, builds trust and embrace the learnings across the team. Team members tend to feel more comfortable in asking or answering questions put forward by any team members.
Pair Programming
It is one of the Agile methods of knowledge transfer wherein two programmers work in one workstation for a development issue. While one developer codes the other inspects and gets to know all the processes of what and why the coder is coding?
With one of the speediest feedback loops, pair programming is a form of mentoring and is a crucial part of the knowledge transfer process. This technique is not only used to share domain knowledge but also helps to seamlessly inspect and refactor the system’s code.
Coders or programmers can create a knowledge base through tasks like pointing out development problems, giving indirect hints, providing a clear explanation, and slowly and gradually adding information to the knowledge bank.
Hackathons
One of the best practices to learn from experienced programmers or teach freshers to be familiar with emerging technologies is the Game Days also known as Hackathons. Here, your team will have a limited time to ship a work-in-progress product development. This creates new energy among the team members to learn quickly and be productive as much as possible.
It’s a practical learning curve for developers where they apply their learning in real-time. It proves great when the project requires a solution to an unusual issue. Developers work in small groups to solve a particular development problem. The output presented by the groups adds to the knowledge bank. This type of knowledge transfer method makes the software teams more competitive and creative towards discovering many angles of one issue.
Strategic Approach to Knowledge Transfer- A Successful Project Delivery
Knowledge transfer is the key to gaining a competitive advantage and bringing innovation in product development. Investing your time and energy in improving and getting the knowledge transfer right for your software teams, constitutes the ‘mind’ of your company.
Besides simply developing software and delivering to your clients, effective knowledge transfer takes your team towards defining who you are as a company, how you work, and what value your client gets out of the product development lifecycle.
Definitely, the market and even your clients demand something extra than just ‘job well-done’. And a strong knowledge transfer ecosystem across your team, departments, and company involves building valuable client relationships and gives them project satisfaction beyond receiving a secured and scalable software product from your team.
Take actionable next moves towards knowledge transfer and make it a great asset for your company to be a trusted digital transformation services partner.
