You’re leading a team in Engineering Management. How do you know if they’re effective?

Some ways to assess our team's progress: 1. Begin the year by setting up OKRs and regularly monitoring them. 2. Ensure that you communicate with both internal(eg. Portfolio Team, etc) and external stakeholders to better understand their needs and maintain a continuous feedback loop. 3. Implement a comprehensive process for each stage of the SDLC and designate SMEs within the team. This will not only facilitate a smooth workflow, but also aid in the growth of team members' skillsets. Effectiveness can be evaluated by factors such as delayed deliveries or spills over. 4. Minimising outages will be a significant indicator of the team's effectiveness.

It is not as hard as it sounds. Basically, set a target, get every team members buy in, define what success means, divide the ultimate goal into tasks and assign those tasks to individuals. Set due dates for each target. Sequence the tasks so that they lead you to the ultimate goal. Use a tool enabling you to analyse who is doing what, when etc. That is how you can see if your team is effective or not in high level.

You need to define your success criteria based on data. Measure the amount of work completed in a sprint or over a specific time period. An increasing or consistently high velocity indicates effective processes and team work.

There is nothing bad in a review. Approach it positively. I use maturity matrix assessment per technology. I verify engineering process maturity mapping to level, from initial to optimized. So you can see where is project at the moment. You can suggest what to improve to go to the next maturity level. And you show engineers a path how to make things better.

Evaluate the team's ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional partners. Do they communicate proactively, resolve conflicts constructively, and deliver on joint commitments? Assess the team's capacity to innovate and tackle complex challenges. Do they demonstrate creativity, experimentation, learning from failures, and continuous improvement? Observe how the team handles adversity and uncertainty. Do they remain resilient, adaptable, and focused in the face of obstacles or changing priorities? Compare the team's effectiveness to industry benchmarks and high-performing teams in other organizations. Identify best practices to adopt and antipatterns to avoid.

In my opinion, effective people are sincere. They are highly proactive and genuine, work wholeheartedly, and not only deliver on time but also make the leader look good. They are self-sufficient and require less direction and more empowerment. They can work amazingly well as team players and don't work for credit only but also give credit to others. They are fundamental catalysts in your team. They don't require any KPIs; they define new KPIs. These qualities cannot be found in all team members. However, whenever I encounter such members, I don't hesitate to break the rules for them as they help me set high standards. As a leader, you are only as good as your team. Don't just measure them, but take care of them.