Fostering Accountability
The work of software engineers involves making individual contributions toward shared team goals and objectives. In making contributions, they are each given responsibility for some portion of those shared goals. Even so, we may not always be able to count on everyone to display the same level of responsibility and commitment to their work. How can engineering managers encourage their engineers to take an active role in team objectives?
To manage a high-performance software engineering team, you will eventually need to think about accountability. In a workplace setting, accountability is the willingness to take responsibility for one’s actions and their outcomes. Accountable team members take ownership of their work, admit their mistakes, and are willing to hold each other accountable as peers. In performance terms, from Chapter 9, high accountability is a desirable team climate.
In writing and research on managing teams, accountability is often...
