As a developer you’ll almost always work in a team environment.

What makes you a great dev team member? I already covered some of the main skills that make you a great dev team member in the last module, in particular empathy, being open to new technologies, you are not your code and be open to change your mind.

In this post I want to discuss a few more characteristics of a good team member.

A good team member is willing to ask for help to other team members, and is also willing to give help to anyone.

A good team member does not criticize other people code in a way that makes them feel bad. This also includes code written in the past and old projects you have to maintain. You don’t know the constrains that the developers had to adhere to, so you can’t judge the code that was written. You are not your code, but people will still get attached to their work instinctively.

A good team member has the ability to take a leadership role within the team, or let others be the leader and follow their guidance.

A good team member does not work in isolation, but rather you should collaborate with others as much as possible, and ask for opinions and review.

A good team member trusts other members in the team to do the right thing, and will in turn do whatever they can to establish and maintain that trust to yourself. It’s ok to fail, as long as failure is a way to learn how to succeed.

A good team member is an excellent communicator, both in off-line environments and in online tools like email or issue trackers.

A good team member is able to set boundaries and estimate how much time a particular task is going to take, so others can adjust their schedules to yours.

A good team member is able to delegate tasks to other team members.

A good team member compliments other team members when they do great work.