Your team is resisting new coding standards. How can you get them on board?
Introducing new standards can be tough. To ease the transition:
How do you encourage acceptance of new practices within your team?
Your team is resisting new coding standards. How can you get them on board?
Introducing new standards can be tough. To ease the transition:
How do you encourage acceptance of new practices within your team?
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Start by explaining the benefits of the new coding standards, focusing on improved code quality, maintainability, and reduced technical debt. Involve the team in discussions and provide training or resources to ease the transition. Highlight real-world examples where adherence to standards led to success. Encourage gradual adoption and collect feedback to address concerns.
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To get your team on board with new coding standards, emphasize the benefits such as improved code quality, easier collaboration, and maintainability. Involve the team early by explaining the rationale, seeking feedback, and incorporating their suggestions to foster ownership. Provide clear documentation, examples, and training to simplify adoption. Demonstrate how these standards can resolve existing pain points, and lead by example to encourage adherence. Celebrating small wins and acknowledging team efforts can further ease the transition.
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Nicholas Orr
Solutions Architect & DevOps Leader | Cloud Infrastructure & Developer Experience | AWS
(edited)"How can you get your team on board with new coding standards?" Let's be real - point out the times when lack of standards has slowed your team down. Ask them "could you see the benefits if we had a standard approach here?" Challenge them with "what would make these standards actually work for our part of the product?" When faced with ivory tower preferences, take what's useful and bin the rest. These ideas often come from real pain points. Take time to understand "why" and "where" these standards came from before letting the team throw it all out. Perfect standards don't exist day one. Get your team involved in shaping them instead of letting them just say no.
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I would sit down in a retrospective and simple ask them why. Let them lead the conversation and listen. - Find out what they don't like about that standard. - Find out what they want to do instead. - Discuss the aspects of the standard, and what that particular rule or rule set is setting out to achieve. - Wait for the discussion to break down into a Tabs vs Spaces argument. - Let them vent for a bit then reign them back in and on topic. - Sort out if its a sub set or super-set of rules that's the problem, or "to many rules". - Figure out whats a good compromise for the team while still achieving the business objectives or at least moving more in that direction. Get them all to agree, monitor code quality. adjust as needed. -Repeat.
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Allan Ferreira
Staff Software Engineer @ Sofa Digital | Python, Typescript | AWS Certified Architect
I'd start by clearly explaining the "why" behind the new coding standards, emphasizing how they benefit the team and the project. I'd then involve the team in the process, encouraging feedback and addressing concerns. Providing resources like style guides and training sessions would be crucial. Finally, I'd lead by example, consistently applying the new standards in my own code.
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