Team Dynamics for Developers

Making radical changes to the corporate culture is especially difficult for the simple reason that FDS-infected organizations usually do not support any type of initiatives, let alone ones that would attempt to completely transform the manner in which the organization conducts its internal processes. In most cases, successful organizational changes occur when new management instigates changes to improve company business. But remember, treatments work only if they fully involve everybody in the organization, not just the management team.

On March 27, 1977, two Boeing 747s, Pan Am Flight 1736 and KLM flight 4805, were preparing to take off on the only runway of Los Rodeos Airport in Tenerife, one of the Canary Islands. KLM Captain Jacob Veldhuyzen van Zanten was known as a first class pilot, and was even the preferred pilot for the airline’s publicity shots, such as KLM’s magazine ads. As the KLM aircraft lined up for take-off, the Pan Am flight was still taxiing on the same runway. Due to the fog, the KLM crew was unable to see the Pan Am 747 taxiing on the runway ahead of them. As they lined up for take-off, the KLM crew received clearance from the control tower to fly a certain route after take-off. Captain van Zanten apparently mistook this clearance as the permission for take-off. The KLM flight engineer expressed his concern about the Pan Am flight not being clear of the

runway. The engineer repeated his concern a few seconds later, but was overruled by

Captain van Zanten, and made no further challenges to this decision. Shortly after taking

off, KLM 4805 crashed into the Pan Am aircraft, killing 583 people and injuring 61. The

Tenerife disaster resulted in the highest number of fatalities of any single accident in

aviation history.

According to the subsequent investigation, communication problems and weather conditions were the primary causes of the accident, but another cause for the disaster was identified. Some experts suggested that the KLM captain, van Zanten, may have developed a kind of governance attitude that impaired the decision-making process in the cockpit. The flight engineer apparently hesitated to further challenge him, possibly

because van Zanten was not only senior in rank but also one of the most experienced pilots working for the airline. As a consequence of the Tenerife accident, the airline industry adopted changes in cockpit procedures. The hierarchical relationship among crew members were deemphasized, and more emphasis was placed on decision-making by mutual agreement. This is known as crew resource management (CRM), and is now standard training in all major airlines (McAllister, B. 1997. “Crew Resource Management: Awareness, Cockpit Efficiency and Safety”. Shrewsbury, England: Airlife). CRM training originated from a NASA workshop in 1979 that focused on improving air safety. The NASA research found that the primary cause of the majority of aviation accidents was human error, and that the main source of human error is the failure of decision-making in the cockpit. CRM training encompasses a wide range of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, including communications, situational awareness, problem-solving, decision-making, and teamwork. Unfortunately, the software project management industry still trails aviation, fire safety, and other industries in understanding the importance of decision-making by all team members. Moreover, many consider the project manager, who is in most cases an administrative manager, as the ultimate decision-maker. This is a direct path to FDS. As you remember, training can help to improve our decision-making skills. So training the project team to work together, to make decisions as a group, and to share rewards together, can help to battle FDS. If you have a health problem, you consult your doctor. If your organization has FDS, contact a project management consultant, rework your organization’s training, and try to relieve the FDS symptoms. But if you are not an executive and you work in an FDS-infected organization, you are in a very unfortunate circumstance. There is not very much you can do to treat it. Perhaps the most sensible course of action is to concentrate on improving the particular circumstances of your projects and, within your power, focus on making this the best possible environment for you and your team. This stategy can actually help to improve your local project environment, even if the rest of the organization is infected with FDS.

Excerpt from

Article - FDS by the Intaver Institute http://www.intaver.com