Agile Project Management with Virtual Teams

Agile Project Management with Virtual Teams

 

1. INTRODUCTION

The author of this paper, an IT Professional with enormous IT Project Management experience, possesses a profile with oodles of experience in agile and waterfall methodologies. Besides, the author has participated and accommodated many virtual and physical conferences, workshops and discussion panels, and learned many concerns raised of managing Agile Projects with distributed teams. Thus, the author chose to research more into this topic to identify the key elements and techniques to overcome agile project management practices with distributed teams. The author himself has implemented Agile Project Management framework in his organization in which the team members are distributed across four countries and two continents.

 Agile methodologies like Scrum, Kanban encourages collocated teams i.e. the entire team being located at one location. The Scrum guide articulates ‘The essence of building Scrum is for a small team, collocated together and working together in an iterative and incremental way’ (2009, Scrum Guide). Kanban is built over Just-In-Time methodology that uses Kanban boards to swiftly move tasks from one state to other. We also have hybrid methods of Scrum and Kanban, DSDM, Extreme Programming, Lean built over Agile principles. All these Agile practices appear effective if the entire team is located at one location. In modern times, the world is gone flat. In the book ‘The Flat World’ The author Thomas Friedman indicates the word ‘FLAT’ with an imaginary impression that, technology and internet has changed the world so abundantly that in modern times people work remotely not only from a single geographic location but also across continents with different time zones, cultures and even languages. Thomas Friedman explains flattening as (The world is flat, 2005) the combination of a personal computer with fiber optic micro cable, using the internet with the help of a working software. Working remote and in a global environment is not so uncommon anymore and has gained acceptance as a general working norm in last couple of decades. With insourcing, outsourcing and companies operating in a global environment do business globally. With the management headquartered at a single location however do operate with other regions with the use of technology. This means business run globally and hence projects within the organizations also path globally.

 Agile methods are more popular in the software industry however have gain so much admiration that other industries also want to pursue its benefits in their businesses. Operating in a global environment make these frameworks more challenging to operate efficiently.


 2. REALITIES OF AN AGILE TEAM

Teams that practice Agile Project Management methodologies work superlative collocated at one location. The reason being the effort for coordination is minimal. All Agile frameworks developed as per the principles of Agile Manifesto (2001, Ward Cunningham) are built around the principle that Agile methodology can accept changes anytime compared to that of a waterfall method, and hence collaboration between collocated teams eases out the agile processes. Besides coordination; interaction, development, planning, review, retrospective sessions etc. also immensely reduce time and effort. Working remote or distributed is considered being competitive and is considered a fit operating model. Some companies also provide it as a choice to its employees. Businesses want to leverage talent round the clock, use the best talent which may not be locally available, cheap labor by outsourcing to low cost countries, higher productivity and numerous strategic reasons. Results demonstrate these are logical reasons and do make sense.

 

3. PREMISE THEORY

To efficaciously implement a strategy with distributed teams, companies need to be tactical and use a calculated approach. It’s quite possible there is a chance of failure if not applied suitably.

 3.1      Since these team members are Agile practitioners it is important the application of a distributed team approach is instigated in line with the Agile Manifesto (2001, Ward Cunningham) and the principles around while the Agile Manifesto was documented.

 3.2      Some keys facets to embrace are communication, collaboration, excellence, early and frequent deployment, and partaking a planned approach. These are some elements we practice every day in Agile practicing teams.

  

4. EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF DISTRIBUTED TEAMS

As per Wikipedia (June 2020) and in context with Agile Manifesto (2001, Ward Cunningham), Agile framework is assembled where demands and solutions evolve with course of time. It is a continually improving and adaptive approach. With growing needs of working remote, it is intolerable to voice that agile methods will not work by distributed teams. Although few trials will arise, with the help of tools and techniques moving to a remote working environment is possible. The author of this paper undertook a major project with his organization and has implemented an agile management methodology with team members located in 4 countries. This methodology was established in a multi-step approach. It is important to carry a controlled change from a waterfall method to an agile method rather than a drafting swing. Below are vital essentials to be contemplate for effectively management of distributed team members.

 4.1      ALLOW TRANSPARENCY

As company or a lead establish a transparent environment. Provide a sense of trust in the team members with the decisions they make an organize sessions with them to align these decisions with company goals and vision. Do not keep responsibilities a secret. Be clear over job functions. Make sure the outcomes are public across the team. Gather feedback. Establish open communication channels.

 4.2      ESTABLISH A CULTURE OF CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT

Drive improvements within the team. Recognize potential improvement opportunities and obtain ideas from the team. Listen to suggestions and rationally take appropriate steps. Agile principle drives continuous improvement and thus team members are open for improvement opportunities. Generate calculated experiments to implement improvement initiatives.

 4.3      COMMUNICATION

Communication is perhaps the most important artefact in any team. As per Conway’s Law “organization that designs a system will produce a design whose structure is a copy of the organization's communication structure” (Melvin Conway, 1967) What he is trying to illustrate here is, how you structure your communication will determine the output. Leaders often consider it a waste of valuable time however any organization that work in collaboration with multiple individuals spend most of the time communicating with each other. Practice deep communication at all levels. According to PMI (PMBOK, 6th Edition, Project Management Institute) a project manager alone spends 90% of his time on communication. A strong emphasis on communication is the key. Communication need not happen only via emails, phone calls or meetings, however in enterprises major communication happen with the help or ERP tools which help you be agile all the time.

4.4      CONSTRUCTION OF A RHYTHM

There are three things which are absolute necessary in agile methodology: Transparency, inspection, and adaptation. Scrum also calls it the three pillars of Scrum (Scrum Guide, 2005). It is important we create a tempo which operates around these pillars of Scrum. Having said that this drives in creating a self-collaborating team which is a prime eminence of Agile.

 4.5      GENERATE A CULTURE OF COURAGE & FLEXIBILITY

This also goes with the concept of fail fast. Failure is not bad; it is okay to fail. However, here the key argument is to fail fast. Establish an environment where the team is courageous to take steps to try out something new. The idea is to reduce the delay. Detect the failure fast and further twist your initiatives.

 4.6      ESTABLISH A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT AND WORK LIFE BALANCE

Often distributed team end up stretching their normal working hours which lead t over working than regular hours or working at odd time. Establish rules and ensure no team member is defaulting these principles making the fellow counterpart abuse this principle. Plan appropriate and set expectations accordingly.

 4.7      VISUALIZE EVERYTHING

A very important footstep. Planning of tasks is easier leverage tools that provide you a visual interpretation of tasks to be completed. Establish a solution that allows the team members to view workflows, depict who is working on what, align together be able to pick the right task of right priority and at a right time. This solution will help you capture the right problem areas and effectively retrospect them to improve your processes.

 

5. CONCLUSION

The conclusion that could be drawn from the study is that with organizations operating in worldwide, having distributed team is flattering. With supplementary energies and few amendments agile works well with distributed teams. Perhaps it is possible organizations can demonstrate to be more successful than a collocated methodology. Agile Project Management is a change in mindset.

 Agile emphasis on some key values which need not require to be collated. All players essentially need to adapt and learn how to share tasks amid workplaces, connect effectively, and cultivate a reliable code across geographies. Also tailoring Agile to suit your needs by excluding processes out that do not logically make sense and fine-tuning those that need to be revised to fit your requirements. Your team may need to play different roles and help each other to promote the framework. They need to school each other responsibilities required when working with isolated team members and accentuate the reputation of being open and accessible. Everyone on the team needs to be dedicated to making Agile work in such an environment. Create a culture to address effort as “we” rather than an “I”, “you”, “us” or “them” culture.


6     Appendix:

6.1    CORONAVIRUS (COVID19) EFFECT

The author did not originally plan to add this event in his paper however later assumed it is wise to voice out an emergency of this kind that lead to a major transformation in the world compelling everyone to work remotely or in a distributed fashion. This itself is huge topic to research on however it also important to call out that a global pandemic disease like COVID19 also encouraged teams to operate remotely. As per the Gallup survey (2020, Megan Brenan) this year the figure below shows a trend how American workers increasingly started doing their job from home.

Employers became agile in response to the epidemic. Employers offered flexible time options to employees. The percentage grew with time as indicated in the figure below

   Gallup Survey - April 03, 2020

This matter itself is a vast topic to research on and as a limitation of this paper, one can use the opportunity to research in this area and voice out facts on how it impacted the team members who abruptly had to operate in distributed team. 


Zai Sarkar

Skills First Workforce and Skills Training Platform

3 年

Nice brief on PM with Virtual Teams! Am looking to connect with like-minded people for launching a service in NA. Will try to connect through Linkedin. Looking forward to a chat on mutual interests!

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