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Top1. Introduction
A team is a collection of individuals who are inter-dependent in their tasks, who share responsibility for outcomes, who see themselves and who are see by others as an intact social entity embedded in one or more larger social systems (for example, a business unit or company), and who manage their relationships across organizational boundaries (Cohen & Bailey, 1997). The basis of every software development organization is a team, be it a management team, a development team, a trouble-shooting team or a testing team. Software/IT organizations are under more pressure than ever before to become more productive and more cost effective. The use of teams has been shown by Barnum (2000) to increase speed, productivity, problem-solving ability and organizational learning. Levi (2001) stated that a team is more than just a collection of people.
The foundations of the team and team dynamics are laid down during team-building. To remain competitive, organizations must focus on forming and maintaining high-performing, successful teams. Beaver and Schiavone (2006) found that teams undergo the same four stages of evolution as follows:
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Forming - Where members get to know each other.
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Storming - Conflict and disagreement about rules and procedures.
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Norming - Establishment of rules and social relationships.
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Performing - Work, completion of task.
According to Rusher (1997) a team should not be viewed as the end product of a team-building activity. Instead she found that a team should be viewed as a dynamic entity, always changing in response to its circumstances and environment. She found that the team-building activity should be viewed merely as kicking off a process that should be continued when the team returns to its real-life work environment, otherwise the team would regress to its original state.