Building a tight knit, productive development team is not a science. It’s actually measure of dark voodoo and dumb luck. More charitably, it’s an “art.”

When I arrived at Ideal, the team was nothing of the sort. They worked separately, had no common vision, built crappy software, and were driven, like lemmings, toward an uncertain fate by the sales team. They were in a bullpen environment with a phone pager system — textbook problems with a development company.

I came in a few months ago, and I’m making some serious headway into making this an awesome place to work. Here are a few things I’ve done:

• Listened. I’ve talked to all the guys about how they feel, and what they want. I’ve gotten a sense from them of the issues they face and the reasons those issues exist. It seems like having someone to tell who is on their side is helpful. One major issue is the constant influx of ill-conceived new feature requests with impossibly short timelines. Another is the rush of support issues they face when the system fails in some more or less spectacular way. To that end, I’ve pushed for infrastructure.
• Infrastructure. I have pushed successfully for an infrastructure that will allow for real communication between the development and support departments. This ticketing system will reduce the load on the developers to answer support questions by consolidating technical product knowledge in one accessible place. It also provides a clear map into the future with tickets for each new feature request, that can be estimated in detail and prioritized along with the other tickets.
• Paging System. Whenever the receptionist gets a call, she announces it over a company-wide intercom system. This is death to concentration, and I’m getting rid of that god forsaken pager (with prejudice).
• Air Conditioning. Another environment quality of life factor, I am redoing the AC system in the whole building because we freeze while on the other side of the wall it’s 90 degrees outside. This basic investment will save having to go outside every few hours to warm up.
• I have just begun the plans to renovate our work area entirely in the next month or two. Developers will have private offices with windows, a sufficient electrical system, and a conference room just for developers to do code review and the like.

I’m hoping this strategy pans out: valuing and investing in our people is definitely a departure from current management philosophy. I am a developer at heart, and I have come to stick up for the tech staff here.

The changes I’m talking about are part of a shift that will make this a great place to work. I’m concerned that the guys won’t catch on though. Maybe they’ll be a lack luster development team with nice offices by the time I’m through.

I’m hoping quality mentoring in additional to those meaningful, physical and systematic changes will bring these guys out of their shells. Time will tell.