Team programming tools and experiences

Question

Hi, I worked for some project in team, but every time we did not had the right tools to "work as a team" or the right way of doing it, are there any suggestion and or tools (thinking of svn) that should be easily adopted by the team and make it more productive? What's the best in your experience? Does this things works well even for people that never worked together, or needs time to learn to use the tools (and how much is this time) ? Thanks

Answer 1

As you suggested SVN is a great tool for source/versioning control. The learning curve isn't too bad, it won't take long to get used to it.

Also, good communication is key, and one of the tools that I've found really useful for that, particularly if your team is remote, is Basecamp

You'll want to come up with some rules that the team members should adhere to, such as checking in their code every day, to get them out of the habit of trying to work in a bubble.

Answer 2

I'd recommend using a distributed version control system instead of SVN. Git does the trick for us: it's fast, easy to deploy and understand, has loads of useful features that you will appreciate once you've made yourself familiar with it, and is in general much more comfortable to work with than Subversion.

Answer 3

In no particular order

• Version Control (SVN, Git, whatever flavor suits you best)
• Unit Testing
• Coding standards
• Bug tracking system
• Agile process - Scrum, XP, Crystal or some conglomeration of your own
• Brief(!) daily status meetings (stand-ups)
• Well designed shared office space (to promote communication)
• IM Client (if not in shared office - I find I use this all the time to talk with our support folks)

Answer 4

VCS is a sure hit for starters. Adding to what have been already said, and focusing on communication:

• Plan things ahead. Make sure everyone know when and how they step in.
• Make sure dependencies between the work done by everyone are resolved in advance. So everyone knows how their work will integrate with the rest.
• Get everyone to know each other. Coffee breaks, gatherings, ...etc.

That list could probably grow with a lot more general common sense stuff. But you get the idea...

I believe it comes down to your ability in reading the team and identifying problems, then finding solutions. The solution might be a tool, a meeting, a rule-of-thumb or anything else.