What should be the differences between the team leader and team member in a internal development team? [closed]

Question

What kind of characters can promote the person more likely to be a leader in the team ?

Also, what do you think the responsibilities a leader should have?

Answer 1

It depends on what exactly you mean by "team leader" ;-p

I've seen places where there is a distinct split between the technical lead (who might have more accountability for technical decisions, design issues, the "go to guy" for coding snarls; etc), and the development lead, who is primarily a facilitator, with two main jobs:

• resolve any non-coding blockages that arise
• act as the main liaison to the client/customer/user-champion/whatever

i.e. anything to preserve those few precious golden hours of coding. They might also do some coding on the side, but that isn't their primary job.

Main skills of a technical lead:

• experience of the subject, product, APIs, language, etc
• understand impact of changes to the above
• ability to make technical decisions
• general code problem solving
• accountability
• good at explaining technical subjects
• a "perm"

Main skills of a development lead:

• communication
• people management
• knowledge of the client/etc
• time accounting
• ability to steer the development focus

Answer 2

Main qualities team members are looking for in programming team leader:

1. Technologically savvy.
2. Understanding of business domain.
3. Available and approachable.
4. Fair.
5. Gets along with people (good manners).

Main qualities management looks for in a programming team leader:

1. Commands respect of the team.
2. Business savvy.
3. Gets along with people (good manners).
4. Loyal to the company and company management.
5. Trustworthy.
6. Gets things done.
7. Gets others getting things done.
8. Technologically savvy.
9. Understands software development process.

Main qualities programming team members look for in other programming team members:

1. Not a jerk (has some manners).
2. Pulls own weight (reduces entropy, instead of contributing to it).
3. Not work shy.

Main qualities management looks for in programming team members:

1. Able to turn cash into working software which is worth more than the amount spent.

Answer 3

Any leader should have following qualities:

• He should be technically sound
• He should be able to delegate work
• He should be able to show the way when people get stuck
• He should not very hesitent in trying something new
• He should be a good listener, respect other people's opinions and a good conflict resolver
• He should be respected by all the team members