Supervision involves controlling the work done by another person.
Supervision is the action and effect of supervising , a verb that involves inspecting work done by another person.
Whoever supervises is in a situation of hierarchical superiority , since he or she has the capacity or power to determine whether the supervised action is correct or not. Therefore, supervision is the act of monitoring certain activities in such a way that they are carried out in satisfactory way.
How supervision is developed
Supervision is used above all in companies , where the position of supervisor usually exists. In this sense, supervision is a technical and specialized activity whose purpose is the rational use of productive factors. The supervisor is responsible for controlling that workers, raw materials, machinery and all company resources are coordinated to contribute to the company's success.
The supervisory work is usually framed within an organizational scheme , where each level responds to a higher level. Just as the workers in an area must be accountable to the supervisor, the supervisor must present their reports to a general manager, for example.
The supervisor must not only be someone experienced in the area he supervises, but must also have sufficient authority to direct the rest of the people. Therefore, among the main characteristics of a supervisor are knowledge of the job (regarding materials, technology , procedures, etc.) and of their responsibilities (including company policies and regulations), and the ability to instruct (staff training) and direct (lead staff).
Whoever carries out supervision has hierarchical superiority.
The job of the supervisor in the software industry
Within a software development company , for example, a commonly adopted model for organizing staff consists of grouping them into "islands", or dividing them into groups of a few people who sit together, with their desks joined together. One of the members of each island is necessarily the supervisor, and their work exceeds the mere control of their programmers.
In principle, it is important to note that it is on their shoulders that the weight of delivery dates falls, generally called deadlines , using a term of English origin. When a project is born, the supervisors of each group meet to analyze the work to be done and decide what is the most efficient way to approach it, they divide them into as many parts as possible and then assign them to each team, based on their knowledge of the project. the capabilities and experience of different programmers. It is worth mentioning that it is likely that the islands will be modified over time, trying to bring together people with complementary skills and in turn spreading those who can improve the performance of their colleagues.
Supervision of a team
Once the work is divided, each supervisor has the difficult task of deciding which portion to assign to each person , again making use of his or her knowledge of the characteristics of his team. But this decision is not as simple as it seems; It is not enough to give each person what they do best, since the main objective is not to complete their part of the project, but to successfully reach the delivery date . And here begins the critical period of a supervisor's work.
Unlike a personal project, which allows us to take all the time necessary to complete it 100%, companies fight to stay current in the market , and to do so they must make sacrifices of various types. As far as software is concerned, one of them is to complete them as quickly as possible, even if this requires leaving gaps in their structure. A "patch" is generally called a portion of code that offers a temporary or closed solution to a problem, in the same way that a piece of paper can momentarily stop the rocking of an unlevel table; and it is the supervisors who decide if and when to patch a program in order to deliver it on time.