Getting ready to manage a remote development team?
While it is obvious that you are excited about this new undertaking, are you also aware that it comes with its own bundle of challenges. IT teams around the world are trying to make the best out of the entire situation. Some of them are even struggling to maintain productivity with workflows ensuring DevOps and Agile practices are well in tandem with each other. But the reality is that many organizations around the world have started to adopt remote working. To some of them, it is not new, but for others it is new. Many have questions in their mind about how to extract the best performance from the remote development team acquiring a set of advantages that will best work for their organization.
In this blog, we will be talking about what remote working will entail and what are the best practices we should employ for optimum performance.
Remote working management
When a company opts for remote working management, it implies two things – Its own team is working remotely or it has outsourced a development team that works across different boundaries. When you have your own team working remotely, it could be due to the COVID-19 situation or you have employed a new strategy to work and save up on costs. The second situation which is more likely is when you do not have the resource to work on a project and are refraining from taking new recruits. It is an understandable situation and works best for organizations. India counts as one of the top software development outsourcing destinations in the world for many reasons.
Remote development team management includes tracking the task’s progress, defining each task for every resource you hire, solving any issues, and answering queries wherever necessary. The concept is easier to understand than it is to manage. It will hence be a good idea to look at the best practices you can employ to ensure it is a smooth ride.
Establish the best environment to work in
If you want to establish a good synergy between your organization and the remote development team then it begins with the different conditions with which the employees operate. On both sides of the coin, there has to be a strong commitment to building an agile offshore operation that actually works. Initially, organizations have to be in a long haul. Remember you can create the right environment when people dedicate themselves to a beneficial offshore scaling of your business for a long time. When it comes to the remote development teams, the dedication will also include traveling when required or establishing a base at the company HQ.
If you decided to opt for a remote development team that would come to your premises to work on a critical project for some time, then they need a good and inspiring place to work from. The organization has to ensure that the remote development team feels like a part of the family. In Chapter247, we take into account all specific considerations regarding your organization’s needs and standards. We have trained our team likewise to fit into every situation and put their best feet forward.
Define Clear Tasks
The next thing to take care of is to ensure things run smoothly while the development team is working remotely. This can be done when tasks are defined clearly. The organization that decides to hire should ensure that the tasks you assign to your team are not ambiguous or open-ended. Make sure that the tasks are specific and the message is driven to the point. This will help the team work with proper goals which will reduce the chance of going off track. If the project requires collaborative efforts then it will be best to divide the tasks among the members and ensure every member of the team clearly knows the scope of work. It is equally important to create documentation and guides which every team member can refer to. This practice will be great from a long-term perspective as well.
Flexible working should be commissioned
If you want to ensure that remote working is fun is to create a comfortable flexible working environment. If they are given the comfort of flexibility it will result in better and efficient output. So it is better you don’t take it away from your team. Do not expect them to be on video calls always because time zones will be different. If you keep checking on them visibly, then it only means you are not cultivating an atmosphere of trust which can start things on the wrong foot. You might have people working for you from different time zones, you have to ensure their availability and flexibility before handing out a task.
Choose the best tools for communication
Choosing the right set of tools for the task is imperative for the successful handling of remote development teams. This includes tools for conducting meetings, webinars, scrums, and everyday tasks. For every task, organizations have to set aside in advance the tools that the team will be needing to see to it that no communication gap is left. You can also have a prolonged discussion with the staff augmentation solutions organization and its team about which tools will be the ones they would use.
Tasks can be listed so that the development team knows about it and enlist the tools best suited for the requirements. This will smoothen the processes and mutual understanding will be stronger than before.
Tracking tasks
It is also equally important to track team member’s tasks to know where the project is heading. Create proper processes to track tasks. It is not right to keep calling the team on calls and videos and take a case-by-case analysis of their work. If you have to ensure that the status of your project is known then there should be an automated process to work on. If you do not have that, it is not a good practice for managers, besides it can be a frustrating experience. Based on your requirements, you need to create a tracking process or use a tracking tool so that you have the real-time status of the tasks.
Get feedback
While remotely managing a team, managers are likely to face bottlenecks. To ensure these problems are solved, then seek regular feedback. Get into the habit of asking your team how the processes and guidelines that are implemented are affecting them. If there is a project-related snag then you can discuss it with the entire team in unison on a video communication tool. Brainstorming will allow for a quicker and better solution to the problem. If there is any such feedback that needs immediate attention then take it up on priority so that the entire project does not stop from delays.
Before you go!
At Chapter247, we firmly believe in Agility when it comes to building offshore, dedicated scrum teams and software. Our staff augmentation solutions allow for faster development of software, with heightened adaptability and customer collaboration. We help organizations to deliver products with the best time-to-market without compromising on quality. Clients who have used our staff augmentation solutions have benefited vastly adding to their customer satisfaction.
We hope the best practices are what you’ve been looking for. We recommend you to get in touch with our chief strategists so that we can guide you further.