Having worked predominantly in small companies and teams I've collected a few wisdoms along the way.
General
Address your biggest constraint, it's the only one that matters. Repeat
Solve only problems you actually have
Mandate quality appropriate to the software at hand
Communication
Take time to understand stakeholders' expectations and availability
Establish a regular cadence for stakeholder reviews and other events
Frequently demonstrate new functionality, even if incomplete. Limit the potential for misunderstanding
Question things you don't understand, however small
Avoid email for in-depth discussions. If you must try using stories, tables and mockups to communicate requirements then talk it through over the phone
Adopt industry standard terminology for your domain
Process
Reduce process overhead. How often do you use the audit trail you might think you need?
Prioritise work with a simple familiar system such as a queue. Consider limiting this to a small number of next features. Get enough detail to roughly size the features then analyse them in detail as Just-In-Time as is tolerable
Adjust your process to suit you
Planning
Don't start until you understand what "finished" means
Plan, but don't expect to have thought of everything
Timebox unpredictable tasks and have a fallback plan
Work on as-few-a concurrent projects as possible
Understand your development capacity and be honest about what you can achieve
What advice would you have for someone in a small company or team?
"Development Ideas For Small Companies & Teams"
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