The role of the software manager is changing from being foremost a teacher and technical problem solver to becoming a coach, goal-setter and advisor of where to find answers on technical issues. The software developer is putting his or her trust into crowd-sourced online help.

I was interviewed on this topic by IT Briefcase. From a Favro point of view this illustrates clearly how the role of collaboration in teams is becoming more and more important. The knowledge, skills and strategy of software development, which can be the entire foundation for the success of a company or organisation, can’t be isolated in one person’s head. We must use a wider base of knowledge to find solutions on tricky issues. Developers are intuitively understanding this when they use community-sourced online review platforms to increase collaboration and expedite testing processes which makes it easier to proactively catch product issues. A manager, how great and skilled he or she is, can never compete with the know-how of a dedicated tech community.

As the manager is no longer a technical authority he or she must put more time and effort into making collaboration an easy and fun experience and at the same time align software development with the overall mission and goal of the company. Developers need to understand why their team effort is important and what they should focus on.

Favro is a collaboration and team alignment app that gives managers and team members overview and organisational flow in a constantly changing world. Check out Favro for yourself by signing up for a free trial.