The COVID-19 pandemic is seriously testing our true agility.
Many of us working in Agile teams probably ended 2019 feeling great about our progress toward greater Agile maturity. We have a deep understanding of Agile principles and adapted them to maximize our team’s output. Then, depending on where you live in the world, in early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic turned our worlds upside down.
We all know that co-location is a key point in the Agile Manifesto. Co-located work is also a widely accepted best practice for creative endeavors like digital product development and creating great software applications.
For some Agile teams, agility is directly tied to working in one physical location. In cases of Agile teams used to enjoying the benefits of co-located work, adapting to the physical isolation of remote work is especially challenging.
How to Make Distributed Agile Work
During this period of great change, pay close attention to team happiness, collaboration, productivity, and, of course, client satisfaction. Pay close attention to changes in your Team’s attitude and agility which may impact your overall performance.
Whether you are transitioning from working as a co-located team or you are experienced working remotely, you can improve your performance and productivity by adopting the following best practices for distributed Agile teams.
Teamwork and Collaboration
When defining how best to help your Agile team adapt to working remotely, start by focusing on how you will communicate and collaborate.
A critical first step is to ensure you have the right tools and practices for those tools in place. For example, it can be helpful to discuss and agree on when and why to use various tools like email, instant messaging, and video conferencing. Consistency across your team should provide more efficient and effective communication.
Even the most introverted of us have a need for social interaction. As a result, it’s really important to make sure we work together as real people, not just names in instant messaging. Encourage (require) your team to turn on their video during team meetings. Encourage them to communicate via video conferencing which creates a more personal connection and provides more nuanced feedback in our communication.
Where possible and appropriate, leave time for the team to lighten the mood away and make some personal connections by talking about non-work related topics like fitness, pets, music, books, travel (when we can again), etc. The COVID-19 lockdown is stressful for everyone for different reasons; look for ways to connect as individuals rather than just work colleagues.
Even while working remotely, having the right tools and communication should naturally lead to a greater sense of one team and reinforce your team culture. With that foundation in place, you can focus on creating and reinforcing a shared vision. The shared vision is the big picture view of the problems you want to solve, solutions you want to build, and value you want to deliver.
Let the team decide what to include in the shared vision. Encourage the team to include points about collaboration and teamwork in addition to the solution you are building and the problems you are solving. Creating a shared vision in cross-functional and cross-cultural remote teams is a critical foundation for planning and executing your work.
With a strong foundation around communication, collaboration, and vision, the team can focus on how best to execute their day to day work. A good place to start is a discussion about accountability. Working remotely enables the benefits of flexibility and independence, but it’s important to agree upon and reinforce shared expectations about accountability. For some people, working remotely makes it difficult for them to manage their time and stay focused. Ensure that everyone is clear on expectations related to working hours, availability, etc. while giving them time to disconnect from work.
For technical teams and team members, it is especially important to have clearly defined project vision, Agile ceremonies, project timelines, and regular feedback sessions. Developers need to have clear expectations of the requirements and access to business analysts and product owners for frequent collaboration. Focus on ensuring your technical team members are clear about deadlines and dependencies for their work; this is especially important and challenging in a remote work environment.
Throughout this process, leaders should monitor how individual team members are adapting to the new ways of working and provide regular coaching. Also, leaders should be prepared to reconfigure team members and roles as needed to maximize team and individual performance.
#application development #collaboration #software developent #agile best practices #distributed agile teams #low-code #agile methodology in software development #development teams
