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How To Make Distributed Agile Teams Efficient and Collaborative

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Fasiha Fatima
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29 views

How To Make Distributed Agile Teams Efficient and Collaborative

Uploaded by

Fasiha Fatima
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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How to make distributed Agile

teams efficient and


collaborative
Agile teams don't always exist under one roof, but they should still be
aligned in responsibilities and goals. Here's the best way to approach
global Agile team management.

International and flexible companies can end up with IT personnel distributed


across the globe. Co-located teams have enough communication barriers, but
organizations with globally distributed teams inevitably need to work through
these challenges with someone in another location.

Distributed Agile teams can help global enterprises reach their deployment
and cost-reduction goals. Distributed teams reduce the overhead costs for an
organization, and let it build a bigger pool of talented people than if the
organization eschewed remote job candidates. In essence, location
independence makes an organization much more agile and productive.

However, these global teams must address some inherent collaboration


challenges, such as differences in time zones, cultures and language barriers.
For a distributed Agile team to succeed, each worker must make some extra
effort. Project managers should strive to:

 arm the team with the right tools for communication and
collaboration;
 understand personnel strengths and weaknesses;

 encourage transparency;

 hold regular meetings;

 set clear expectations for stakeholders and team members;

 adhere to engineering best practices and standards;

 focus on achievable milestones; and

 build awareness of different cultures.

Let's look at some of the best practices that can help distributed Agile teams
address these specific challenges.

Cultural differences
Where team members might come from a mix of cultural backgrounds, it is
imperative that everyone respect each other's differences. Managers should coordinate
cultural awareness trainings on a regular basis. Also, remember the different holidays
workers celebrate, which might require some extra coordination for team coverage.

Pre-sprint planning
Without clear expectations, teams run into many issues during the project lifecycle.
Set expectations with stakeholders to measure the project success and establish clear
expectations for team members to keep them focused.

Plan sprints and identify interdependencies as early as possible. You don't need
massive Gantt charts, which illustrate Agile projects in a bar chart form, but you
should plan product backlogs well in advance -- long before the sprint start date.
Another good practice is to schedule frequent backlog grooming sessions often -- once
a week should be fine.
In a backlog grooming session, the product owner reviews backlogged items with the
team to prioritize and select a few sprints worth of user stories. This activity
makes sprint planning sessions more efficient and effective.

Distributed daily Scrum meetings


Daily Scrum meetings help the team focus, facilitating collaboration among its
members. Hold these meetings at a consistent time when the entire team is available.
Compromise as best as possible for workers across different time zones.

A daily Scrum meeting typically lasts 15 to 20 minutes. This gathering is where the
entire global team can discuss each individual's progress, plan for the day and identify
potential blockers.

How Scrum removes legacy management hurdles


Enterprises with Agile or Scrum ambitions should not hang on to bloated phases and siloed groups in the SDLC. In

this episode of the Test & Release podcast, Scrum expert Gunther Verheyen breaks down how Agile helps free IT

from a rigid industrial approach. Verheyen also explains what skills a proficient Scrum Master should possess and

why he finds Scrum to be a particularly valuable form of Agile.

Sprint reviews and retrospectives


Schedule sprint reviews to assess a project against the goals the team set during
planning. Sprint retrospectives provide distributed Agile teams a way to effectively
exchange information and ideas, assess progress in the iteration, and create plans to
improve work. When the team meets its goals, celebrate milestones to boost morale.

Managers typically hold remote retrospective sessions with the help of video
conferencing.

Minimize handoffs
Differences in time zones increase wait times. If a team member needs someone in
another country -- or continent -- to resolve a blocking issue, that holdup wastes a lot
of time; team members could even lose an entire day of work. Delays can disrupt the
project's delivery timeline, which is why the team should reduce unneeded handoffs,
even if you can't eliminate them entirely. Identify dependencies early and plan for
them accordingly to help reduce these disruptions. Build better communication
practices to ease knowledge sharing and minimize hand-offs.

It is also a good practice to co-locate the product owner with the development teams
to facilitate collaboration and communication. If the product owner cannot work at
that location, managers can empower and encourage local staff.

Hire motivated people


In a distributed Agile team, you should recruit team members who are motivated,
especially if they will work remotely. While it's difficult to assess self-motivation,
remote workers must work harder than a local team to communicate, stay focused and
be productive, so it's an important criterion to evaluate. Co-located team members
should also work to bridge the communication gap and engage their remote peers.

Distributed teams can also use online boards for brainstorming, collaboration and
centralized communication.

Use collaboration tools


Communication is one of the foundational aspects of distributed Agile team
management. SaaS tools can facilitate communication and collaboration to boost the
team's productivity.

Use tools for conferencing, screen sharing and sending messages among team
members. Plenty of options are available, so find the ones that suit your team size and
requirements. If necessary, schedule training so everyone knows how to get the most
out of those tools.
Know your people
Build rapport across the team. Put aside work on occasion and take time to get to
know everyone individually. This effort builds trust and boosts morale considerably.
Regular video conferences and occasional visits to remote offices also help build
rapport based on personal connections. And constantly encourage open
communication. It takes time to establish trust with a colleague who appears more
often as an email address than as a familiar face. However, it's a worthwhile
undertaking because Agile requires team transparency.

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