Guidelines to improve teamwork in software projects

Sammanfattning: In consulting firms one of the goals is to have the consultants on an assignment with an external client to bring in capital. In some consulting firms, when the consultants are not on an assignment with a client, they work on internal projects until a new assignment arrives. Since most of the team members do not work for more than a few days or weeks on the projects, it leads to a high team member turnover. In projects with such a turnover, problems such as hasty handovers, unclear roles and responsibilities and low-quality documentation may occur. The purpose of this thesis was to create guidelines to improve teamwork in teams with a high team member turnover. This thesis was based on a case study of a company specializing in information technology and management consulting. To begin to tackle this problem, a literature review was conducted and the data was collected by conducting interviews. The interviews were performed with team members that had been on a project for the longest and shortest period of time in order to identify problems from different perspectives. Based on the interviews and the literature study, guidelines were created to counteract the problems experienced in this type of volatile teams. The guidelines are categorized in four areas: processes, resources, people and long-term perspective. The areas cover the problems experienced and can be ultimately implemented in all teams with high team member turnover to improve teamwork in software projects.