How do you activate yourself when working alone in a project?

Question

I work in an environment with a very small team (only for 3 developers), and each of us is assigned a different project without taking into account the tasks of support. I know that this is bad business practice and that we must work on one project at a time and then move on to the next (I already explained to the management how much it sucks).

So do not tell me that we must work together on one project at a time. The energy of the work, when the team was mostly paired programming, we did it when fewer projects were thrown at us, and it was great.

What I would like to know is how you activate your work while working independently in the project.
Do you follow any specific practice ?

EDIT

We already have a daily meeting throughout the enterprise, I implemented several “flexible” ceremonies by writing a master's thesis on Agile software development methods related to software quality. And this has improved the overall participation of employees.
What I am behind this

practice

so that someone can apply without questioning the subject’s passion for developers.

Answer 1

The situation in our company is similar. We are six developers and work mainly on different projects. In order to stay at a certain level of quality and maintain some motivation, we do:

• We have weekly meetings with developers. Each running project is briefly summarized in its actual condition and with the next milestone. Each developer in the near future tells what he did last week and will do next week and talk about problems (some others may have already solved this problem and received recommendations).
• Every week on Friday, one of us makes a short conversation. Often he presents in more detail the project he is working on, but we also talk about interesting technologies, new libraries / languages ​​/ tools, or try to solve a big problem together.
• We make milestones with releases. Each stage should be planned with tickets included (and which tickets should not be part of this milestone). At the end, prior to release, there must be approval from another developer to find possible problems before release.
• We have continuous integration with hudson and a game with continuous integration is activated.

Answer 2

Simple and simple, if you like what you are doing, the energy will be there to achieve what you need to do.

Despite the fact that at that time the team could work on various projects, having lunch together, chatting or having a morning meeting with fights about where you are and what makes you take actions can significantly increase productivity.

You will be amazed that, in your opinion, you do not have a clue about the correction / sorting, that your grammar friend may have read the article or heard a discussion.

All in all, the passion you have for what you do will basically dictate the end result.

You may find that as an encoder these days without fire, you may have some other hopeful task, you just need to complete it so that there is no time. When you get to the stage, when you feel that you are stuck for a long time, step back, take the beak (lunch / coffee) and work on something interesting. We do it on Fridays. Friday is our day for working in concepts (this guide may not be accepted), but we know that it will make life better or it seems enjoyable. The rest of the week grinds X -)

Simple assessments will be to set reasonable goals / timelines for the meat. It's also good that you need developers to boast of something really good this week, and a small prize should be given to the developer who wins this week. Say, have a drink. As a leadership, you can consider distributing the prize so that no developer feels that they are always the last. No team member wants to be a burden.

Answer 3

The book Passionate Programmer helps you apply any practice in a more global context (i.e. your career)

alt text http://pragdave.blogs.pragprog.com/.a/6a00d83451c41c69e201156f7c4710970c-800wi

This is a book about finding fulfillment in what you do. This is a book about the revival of fires that you felt when you first entered the profession. This is a book about creating a career, not a job search.

And this is good practice for your “without” days: to step back (from the current work of the day) and look at the big picture, seeing how daily work helps you move towards a larger goal.

Answer 4

It may seem silly, but a monthly salary (or a week, depending on the country) is a very good reason to be energized, but not just one. I think that a good salary companion thinks about the project getting completed, and feelings naturally associated with it.

Answer 5

Depending on the project, I am interested in working alone. I will use this situation as an opportunity to try to learn something new and do something else.

[EDIT] You can think of it more as a research project. If you find something that the rest of the team can learn from, a quick programming session will easily return everyone to the same page.