Remote Development Teams: Working Together Towards The Goal While Being Miles Apart
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21st Century technology freed many of us from the 9-to-5 commuting grind here on Planet Earth. Numerous industries have adopted the remote work model, not just software developers, albeit for different reasons. Besides the boon of not having the overhead of a brick-and-mortar office and increasing efficiency (employees stuck in traffic may as well be stranded on Mars in terms of productivity) even those team members who’d normally call-in sick at the slightest sniffle can usually muster the reserves to work online from home.
Still, some may ask: Why leave the Mothership and have remote work teams at all?
There exists a sort of Murphy’s Law in software development which dictates that the best talent required to fulfill your needs is hardly ever located in same solar system as you.
Of course, there are some challenges to working as a remote development team in an where the real estate is internet space. Obstacles like time zone differences and variances in schedules can often thwart co-located development teams.
So how do you make working remotely as a distributed team…well, work, exactly?
Software developers most certainly would have the inside edge in the matter since they create software technology to enable clients and their employees to work remotely.
Ground Control To Major Tom
Solid leadership skills are crucial when working beyond the Mothership. Leaders keep everyone organized, on track, and motivated towards pushing for their goal. Remote development teams need control-center folks to coordinate those not in physical proximity. Due to time-zoning or project demands, leaders may change frequently so collaborative, shared leadership is crucial for a team to achieve their goals.
Fly Me To The Moon
Face-to-face communication is always more productive but hardly possible when your talent is situated across the constellations. In order to compensate, it’s crucial to not only collaborate frequently but have the best communication technology tools at hand to effectively speak to each other and share knowledge.
Video conferencing provides the next best: digital face-to-face—plus you can usually drop and drag files to share with everyone. Utilizing email, screen sharing, mobile applications, and file sharing programs on the cloud make the time-space continuum between your team fade away. Not to mention there’s a virtual galaxy of actual coding supports available for those remotely working development teams.
If you are one of those elusive yet talented software developers situated practically off planet you’ve already optimized or customized remote work space technology for your clients anyway. And of course, you keep your client in the loop of remote team development plans.
Spatial Relationships
For those team members who are new to remote space-working outside the Mothership, it’s crucial to have some social time to bond. Excessive “water-coolering” with other employees has traditionally been frowned on in conventional work spaces. However, those are folks who already familiar with each other thus comfortable enough to freely share ideas and perhaps a little light office gossip.
Finally, it’s critical to have time set aside for remote teams members to know each other—a critical element towards actually being a team. In the absence of physical proximity, and a physical watering hole to retreat to together after hours, remote development teams need social time to interact so they aren’t awkwardly attempting to share innovative ideas with total strangers.
If you are seeking the top development teams to create the best custom software for your organization, locally or remote, contact the Intellection group. Or give a call at 678-283-4283 for all your software needs.