Team Environments

What is the importance of working in a team environment in a software engineering project?  It's my opinion that teams are extremely important when doing software engineering.  I find, personally, that when I'm working on a project, I tend to get to certain points that are like plateaus.  I hit them, and I just kind of get stuck.  It's very difficult to get past these plateaus on my own.  It's not impossible, but the level of effort required to get past the "block" is generally prohibitive, especially since most projects I work on individually are personal.  I do have some assignments at my job though, currently, and I have hit the plateau on one, and am having a hard time with the other.  I'm working on these projects individually.

I find that when there is a team involved, other team members can quite easily push over a plateau, helping me get back on track.  A lot of times, they have ideas that I've never considered, or a piece of knowledge that I haven't yet gained.

I used to be big into body building, and it's similar there.  If you don't have a partner or at the very least a spotter, you will not be able to push yourself, and you won't be able to progress as rapidly as you would be able to if you had a partner.  Partners can push you and help you to get past plateaus.

I think it's cool that Google employees work in teams, and that they do peer reviews for raises and promotions.  I like that it encourages an atmosphere of support and teamwork.  I like peer reviews, and as we've been doing them in this class, I think they've been good.  I think they might be more effective if we received the results of our peer reviews whether we want to or not, though I know that makes more work for the teacher.

I think software engineering is a team sport.  I believe that it is much easier to complete a project, and much faster to complete a project as a team; even just a two person team can make a huge difference.