Write a critical reflection about how engaging in the group project develop skills, attitudes, and competencies associated with the teamwork approached required in professional social care.
From the start, working in a team was an essential part of information systems (IS) development; as early as 1971, Gerald Weinberg (1998) addressed programming as a team effort. Many tasks in the field of information and computer science can be characterized as conjunctive and divisible and therefore are best suited to being conducted in teams. For example, systems development is a team activity since information systems offer high complexity and time schedules do not allow individual work (Humphrey, 2000b, p. 3). Team competencies are a main factor for team performance in a work environment (Cannon-Bowers et al., 1995). As recent studies have confirmed, team task skills—including the ability to work effectively in a team—moderate the effect of application and development skills on the performance of IS projects (Chien-Lung, Jiang and Klein, 2008). Therefore, it is not sufficient for IS graduates to be technically competent. Social competence, in particular teamwork and communication, are also essential. Academic education in IS should prepare students to work effectively in teams and foster collaborative skills necessary in the workplace. The demand to include the promotion of team competencies in IS curricula is expressed by stakeholders with an interest in the design of IS curriculum—IS faculty and university departments, accrediting agents (e.g., ABET [Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology]), Business and IT professionals, and recruiters, as well as students (Downey, McMurtrey and Zeltmann, 2008