How to Reinvigorate a Software Team

#1 reason why people leave their jobs is because of their managers. A good IC will stay with a good manager, a good IC will leave instantly with a bad manager, and easily find another job (because they're a good IC, duh). So if all your good people leave, and all the not as good are left, then your team is gonna be in a "rut", and nothing you can do will stop that until you fix what was the real problem, replacing the manager that forced good people to leave. I've been on teams where all the good people leave, and the people who either hate change or don't have as many oppurtunities stay, but just do the bare minimum.

It's your job as a manager to inspire your team.

Cultivate their professional growth, give them opportunities to learn and grow and expand their skillset. Allow them to work across realms, for example let a backend develop fix something on the mobile codebase. Novelty works as a quick fix and as a pick me up.

I manage a team of 8 engineers and recently we've started doing friday potlucks where each person after lunch picks a ticket from the backlog. Tiny things that need to get done and we just never do kind of stuff. The idea is they get a breather from a large, mentally taxing ticket and head off into the weekend with a win under their belt and their load off their mind. It's not like going home on friday with your huge ticket weighing you down.

Try it out, everybody on my team loves it.

The first step to increasing retention is figuring out why people are leaving. Start doing regular 1 on 1s and exit interviews, listen to what people are saying, and fix the problems.

I'd say it depends on the "rut" which is vague.

Are you doing agile software development?

Give everyone on the team a chance to provide input and make suggestions. Everyone has input. It may be good, bad or just a moot point but giving people the chance to give input is a great start.

Is it all work and no play? Team building events outside work are always good for the team. Shows appreciation and gets everyone out of the work work work mentality...

Is the pay and benefits worth it for what people are doing?

What’s happening with the project? Or the manager?

Project possible in terms of timeline? Scope? Is there a plan?

How is the team morale? Why is it like that?

Normally, it happens when the work they put in doesn't match with the results they expected.