What Is An Agile Team?
An agile team consists of a small group of individuals. It is essential to keep the teams small to maximize productivity, flexibility, and quality. The team members are as important, if not more important, than the processes they follow. If they do not produce, the project will be at risk of failure. In traditional Agile practices, face-to-face interaction is preferred. However, with the modern-day setup of many businesses, it has become common practice to have remote teams.
While an agile team usually is part of the same company. Team members may be in different locations. When team members are remote, the team dynamic differs from those at the office every day. As a result, remote teams’ interactions may vary since they rely heavily on virtual communication methods.
If you are new to working with a remote agile team, here are three tips to help you.
Take the time to get to know your Agile team
Building personal connections with team members is essential. There should be positive team morale among members. Getting to know your team and building strong bonds with them will, in turn, build trust.
One way to accomplish this is by having regularly scheduled video conference calls. In which the team members can see and speak to each other. Putting a face to the person you are working with helps close the gap on the distance. Virtual face-to-face interaction with this person will let you see their expressions and body language. Which in turn can help drive the conversation better.
Set standards and expectations for the team
Before the start of a project, the team should have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. This can be as simple as a bulleted list of expectations and standards, such as tools used for communication. For example, the team is required to partake in virtual daily stand-ups. Or that the team is expected not to take more than 24 hours to respond to communication outreach.
Setting the standards and expectations beforehand gives the team a premise to work from.
Incorporate a culture that the team can be a part of
Remote teams often aren’t included or partake in various company traditions or processes that comprise the company culture. This is understandable since bringing them to a group outing, for example, is practically impossible. However, there will be some things they can be present for, even if it is virtually.
If the company has quarterly town hall meetings, the virtual team should be allowed to attend via video. If the company is doing a themed holiday event, there is nothing wrong with having a short video call. So you see the virtual team in their costumes. Or even encouraging them to send photos of their outfits that can be shared on the company’s social media.
The company could host retreats in different locations giving the remote team chances to meet the rest. Any processes or company guidelines to be followed should also be shared with the remote team.
We are social creatures and tend to be more positive when included. The remote team is a part of the company as the in-house staff.
In conclusion, the baseline to success with remote teams is keeping a steady flow of communication between team members and building the necessary connections. Hence, team members feel included and motivated to do their assigned work.
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Donna Raphael-Rene
Director of Business RelationsI have a drive and passion for development, project management, social media, and music with career backgrounds in those fields. In my personal time, I have many hobbies such as I enjoy watching international dramas, I enjoy reading good books or listening to audiobooks, I compose music and I'm a huge movie buff.
