AgilePracticeLibrary
Distributed Agile Teamwork
Notes from Jesse Fewell [Virtually Agile] (three videos)
1. Intro
- Distance is multi-faceted: geographic, organizational, cultural, temporal
- We all have different habits: corporate and personal
- Distributed team work requires change: organizational, team, personal
- Change requires clear, meaningful purpose
2. Interview w/ [Lisette Sutherland], author of Collaboration Superpowers
TEAM AGREEMENT (via Phil Monterro, Anywhere Office)
- how we will communicate (what channels/tools, and how we’ll use them)
- how we’ll know what each other are doing
- where to store information
also...
- core hours? core tools?
- review every 3 months (at least) or whenever we notice it’s outdated - needs to keep up with how we really work, which keeps changing
- include a list of items we don’t yet agree on - makes it less frustrating when we bump into these things in daily work
- create/support continuous feedback loops so frustrations don’t fester - got a problem, say it soon!
TIPS and TRICKS
- record meetings (lisette sutherland) for absent folks to view later
- standing meeting time for hangout/non-work (lisette) - watercooler time
- merit points - e.g. monthly everyone gets 100 points to dole to others, giving reason for allocation. creates practical/timely feedback, helps everyone learn what is valued by team. what can points be spent on?
- need to invest in quality internet access and decent tools (cameras/headsets)
3. TIMEZONES - spreadsheet to calculate core hours across teams
set-up
- make columns for each of active timezones, west to east
- calculate UTC offset for each column/zone
- create bookend columns with 24 hour schedule in westernmost and easternmost zones
- shade core hours in each timezone, when most folks are normally in the office or otherwise available
solving/syncing/scheduling core hours and daily meeting times
- are there natural overlaps?
- can some zones start a little earlier or stay later?
- can some start at home, work a couple hours and commute off-peak AND others commute earlier off-peak and dial-in from home
- where no overlap possible, even with some stretching, find overlaps with zones in two sub-groups and have one or two people flex to be the constant/crossover glue between the two subgroups. rotate the flex person among many people as possible
home