It is a very common problem in project management - how to make team members more responsible and avoid micro management? We start with creating plans, drawing Gantt charts, announcing milestones, define DoD, motivating everybody and promising big bonuses on success.

Then everybody begins working and we start hearing excuses:

• “The task is not yet ready. I was doing something else”
• “May I take a day off? Tomorrow is my birthday?”
• “May I skip the unit test because I don’t know how to fix it?”
• “I don’t know how to do it, can someone help me?”

With the excuses, team member transfer back the responsibility to the project manager. Traditional way of transferring responsibility back to team members is to become an aggressive manager. “You don’t know how to fix the unit test? Not my problem, it should be fixed by tomorrow,” etc. Another traditional management method is micro-management. This results when the project manager checks task statuses every few hours and tells people what to do and how to handle problems. Needless to say, this management style ruins the team and causes good people to leave even faster. However, in order to keep the project on track and meet all milestones, responsibility must be on the shoulders of the team members. They should be responsible for their own tasks and report back to the project manager when they are finished with their jobs.

So, as a developer, here are few things that I can share to get thing done:

• Don’t even start a task unless you’re sure you can finish it.
• Ask any and all questions of the task author in advance (before beginning work).
• Don’t assume anything — ask if you’re not sure.
• Stay after the author to close tasks aggressive, no matter who is he/she.
• Don’t expect any help from anyone — you’re on your own. Yes, trust me.

It is important to remember that, as a developer, it is your responsibility to ensure that tasks are closed and you receive payment.