More than half of software development projects fail. There are multiple reasons for that: capacity, time management, hiring, prioritizing, and even more. But for the developers, the most challenging task is knowledge sharing. However, it is a great practice since it promotes innovation and productivity.
So, what is a knowledge sharing in the software development world? Knowledge sharing is the process that allows capture critical for the project knowledge from a team member who shares their knowledge or skills through the project or organization.
The primary issue of this process as most of the developers do not know how to do that. That is why we decided to share some well-known and checked ways for knowledge sharing.
Proven knowledge sharing methods for efficient team training
1. Documenting
Technical documentation is a primary glitch in most projects. Nevertheless, some smart teams are still trying to be on track with it. Tech documentation includes all written documents during the project. It is aimed to describe product functionality, unifies all kinds of project information, and allows shareholders and developers to communicate.
We craft and follow different kinds of documents like product requirement document, UX documentation, diagrams, software architecture docs, QA documents, product roadmaps, and much more. It’s a good idea to store and share these documents using various documentation tools, like GitHub, google drive, dropbox, SharePoint, or any other.
A lot of companies are striving of excessive or no documentation. So, the primary goal of any project should be keeping the essential information in one place. You need to keep in mind that documentation is an ongoing process, and your team should update it to make sure it is up-to-date and has not lost its value.
A good practice is to start documenting at the beginning of the project so that you won’t be lost in tons of missing details, and your data will be organized.
2. Mentoring
Documenting is a passive activity, and mentoring is a more active one. It implies to have a skillful instructor who will share the knowledge with others, mentees. Mentoring is a robust technique important for training junior developers who are just starting projects.
Also, mentors will help team members with onboarding to a project, code reviews, as well as hidden knowledge in the project source code.
3. Pair programming
Pair programming is useful for mentoring and team members onboarding. It is aimed not only to share knowledge but also to eliminate errors and glitches in the code. This practice is useful when you are doing critical code changes.
If you would like to get all team involved in the change, you might try mob programming when the whole team codes on one computer together. Mob programming is useful not only for knowledge sharing but for boosting creativity and search for a better solution.
4. Knowledge sharing sessions
These sessions are right to do once during a sprint. During this activity, your team meets to share what they learned and discuss these solutions, tricks, etc. You can record a session so your team members can get back to it, or you can share it with the new team members. Usually, such knowledge sharing sessions are stored together with project documentation until they are outdated.
Another similar activity is tech talks. They might be unrelated to the project itself but can boost the skills of your team members. These talks should be organized outside your core development hours and office.
5. Code reviews
Code reviews allow developers to improve their coding skills and learn a codebase. Additionally, it allows improving the quality of code and reduces development cost because you will get fewer bugs.
The code review process is not simple. The tone of review shouldn’t be harsh since it might influence your team morale. Here are some tips for the code review process at Queue-it.
6. Tests writing
Tests are a way of knowledge sharing. Tests store a lot of knowledge about the software we make. These details are easy to read and understand. Tests are the basis of behavior-driven development.
As you see, there are a lot of knowledge sharing methods your team can use. Of course, during the pandemic, not all of them will work. But if you turn on your creativity, you might find ways, using TeamViewer, Zoom, Skype, and other collaboration tools.
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