Dev Team Leadership: Does it Matter?

Eric Hale • January 24, 2019

Does every team need a leader? While this question may seem easy to answer for those of you in tech who have experienced a group where there is no apparent point person, the truth is that these roles can often be overlooked and devalued. Here are my top four reasons you should consider intentionally appointing a lead for your development team:

Goals and expectations are managed.

Without a leader to help set goals and manage the day to day velocity, a development team tends to lose focus and flounder on priorities. A good technical leader understands the business direction and helps to maintain the focus of the development team in the correct direction. The leader also checks regularly on the progress of the team within an iteration (or sprint) to make sure the goals will be completed. If the goals are slipping, the leader will utilize the whole team to pitch in and get back on track.

An appropriate pace can be set.

Similarly to the throttling up to correct slipping within an iteration, the leader can keep track of progress of the team and pull in tasks as needed to keep the team at a set pace. It is important for a team not to be without work and then be slammed with work. Keeping a constant flow of work into the team moves the project along smoothly while keeping the developers used to a manageable pace.

Political noise gets shielded.

Businesses discuss different priorities regularly. What you need a technical leader to help with is keeping the noise of these discussions away from the development team until the priorities are agreed on to be changed and the technical needs have been figured out to meet the new direction. The technical leader can help identify the tasks which may still be needed in the new and the previous priorities and move that forward through the development team while the new needs are identified. More often than not if development teams learn of changing priorities without clear direction, the team will stall due to confusion.

Standards and accountability are enforced.

A technical leader will make sure that standards are defined and followed. Without standards, developers will adopt their own style and habits which may not be the same as others on the team. This can lead to questionable practices and code which isn’t seen as made by the team but rather made by an individual. Along the same line, accountability is formed when a team estimates and agrees to what is in an iteration.


Without a leader setting standards, managing the throttle, helping to move roadblocks to make goals achievable, development teams will lose focus on the fact that they, as a team, agreed to a measure of work within that timeframe. A leader on a development team is an essential ingredient to helping ensure success.



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