Navigating conflicts. How to resolve disagreements in software development
When you think of challenges that companies face in software development projects, the first thought that probably pops into your mind is technical issues: choosing the right tech stack, determining the best time to begin software testing, ensuring scalability, etc.
While these technical aspects are undoubtedly critical, plenty of challenges often fall into the realm of soft skills—giving and receiving feedback, listening, handling conflicts within a team, etc. That’s because custom software development is a complex and collaborative process typically involving diverse teams working together towards a common goal.
Given the multifaceted nature of software projects, conflicts are almost inevitable. Whether they stem from differing opinions on technical approaches, resource allocation, or project timelines, handling these disagreements constructively is crucial for maintaining positive working relationships and ensuring your software project’s success.
In this blog post, we will explore the most common conflicts in software development and offer some tips and tricks for solving them. These pieces of advice are mostly aimed at companies who are working with internal software development teams or those who have an outside partner helping them with this.
Technical disagreements
These usually occur when team members have different opinions on issues such as coding standards, software architecture, or the correct tech stack for a project. To mitigate them as best as possible here are some actions you should take.
Early discussions and documentation: Discuss and agree on technical guidelines at the project’s outset and then document these guidelines to ensure clarity and consistency throughout your project.
Be open to change: Just because you established them at the beginning of the project doesn’t mean they are set in stone. There are plenty of reasons for changing them along the way, whether it’s market conditions or budgetary ones. So be prepared to revise these guidelines if necessary. Regularly hold code review sessions and design discussions where the people who are working on your software can present and defend their viewpoints.
Encourage open dialogue: Foster a culture of open dialogue and respect for differing opinions by ensuring team members feel comfortable sharing their ideas. This type of inclusive approach can lead to the best solutions for your project.
Resource allocation
No company has unlimited money, time, and energy to spend on a software development project. This is why resource allocation often becomes a sticking point. The best way to handle this is to prioritize tasks based on project goals and deadlines.
You should also choose a project management tool to help youvisualize resource allocation and adjust as needed. This also allows you to more easily share this with key stakeholders within the software project so that they have an overview of what is being developed and what resources are spent on each stage of the software development process.
And last but not last, because we talked about stakeholders, make sure you involve them in the planning process or at least keep them informed. This not only ensures transparency but gives you collective agreement thus reducing the risk of conflict over resource allocation.
Timeline and deadlines
Another common type of disagreement in software development is related to schedules, deadlines, and deliverables. Here’s some great ways to mitigate them.
Implement Agile methodologies: Use methodologies like Scrum or Kanban to break the project into manageable sprints with clear, achievable goals. That way both the software development team and the client have a better understanding of how much different types of tasks might take so that when a more complex functionality is required it will be easier to understand why it won’t be implemented in just one two-week sprint for example.
Regularly review timelines: Have regular meetings with your software development team to talk about the progress as well as any unforeseen challenges. This reduces the frequency and intensity of these types of disagreements and helps prevent any situations where the client is taken by surprise by a more significant delay.
Roles and responsibilities
Ambiguity or overlap in team members’ roles and responsibilities can lead to misunderstandings and inefficiencies.
That is why roles and responsibilities within the software development team need to be defined as clearly as possible. If it’s your first software development project you could go with a more established framework such as a RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix to clarify who is responsible for what.
Interpersonal conflicts
And last but not least when it comes to disagreements in software development projects you have those related to personality clashes, communication issues, or cultural differences within the team. The bigger and more geographically spread the project is, the higher the chances that these types of situations will happen. Which is normal. But it’s important to solve them as soon as possible.
One of the best ways to approach this is to encourage your team members to listen actively to each other’s concerns and viewpoints and ask them to explain the logic behind it. This way other team members can have a better understanding of what those opinions are based on.
How can QTeam help
Another great way to avoid disagreements in software development is to not have them at all. You can do this by outsourcing your custom software project to a company with expertise in the industry. We have more than 8 years of experience developing software for large international organizations as well as SMEs and we can do the same for you. Get in touch with us and let’s put your idea into software.