TechEd 2014: Building and managing a global engineering team made simple

He also stressed the need to build diversity into teams. "The lack of diversity is killing our industry," he said. "You need to check your organisation and see how hard it is to enter and how hard it is to be part of an organisation.

"Key to building diversity is that you have to have female engineers in place to attract more female engineers. You can get that initial set of female engineers by being open to hiring juniors. People look for experienced people to fill senior roles in organisations.

"Instead, look to hire juniors, move workloads that are currently being done by people who have been with the organisation for some time to these juniors, and then give the more experienced person within your team the senior role. Go outside the usual pool of people that everybody tries to tap into -- those that have been in the industry for five years."

Evans praised the NZ industry for not yet being as 'gimmicky' as companies in Silicon Valley -- that offer free breakfasts, lunches and other perks -- as the success or failure of any engineering team really comes down to trust, and that managers should motivate engineers to deliver at their best.

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