Agile Teams in a Remote, Global Economy

Eighty-eight percent of companies have made progress in developing a more agile strategy, 63 percent of departments have someone on their team who works remotely a significant portion of the time, and six times as many hiring managers believe that agile teams will become the norm (Upwork Global, 2018). With companies seeing remote work as more commonplace and an increase in agile team methodology, project management software (PMS) tools can help resolve many issues that remote, agile teams face by filling the following needs:

• Creating a frequent flow of communication, with central workspace, and quickly identifying and resolving issues
• Finding and bringing in top talent
• Leading to an understanding and acceptance of different cultures

Agile project management methodology (e.g. scrum) was built on the assumption of teams being in the same room (close proximity), regularly discussing the stance of the product, and delivering often to the customer and changing according to feedback (Miller, 2010). Working in a global environment has sought different solutions to working from the same location, and PMS has been the answer. Remote teams have found that they identify and work through bugs and projects faster than being together in person. In large part, this is due to the easy sharing capabilities and constant and frequent flow of information in open and private team channels. Individuals are able to assign, work, and deliver quickly with immediate, asynchronous communication, thus enabling each step of the product lifecycle to increase speed and efficiency (Calefato & Ebert, 2019).

Agile is led by the desire to deliver top quality products at the lowest possible costs. As companies cut on costs, their focus often turns to outsourcing for skilled workers. This opens talent pools dramatically, as well as the locations of the employees. With PMS, anyone on the team can be virtually anywhere in the world, as long as they have a connection to the internet. Assignments, checkups, team huddles, and ridiculous gifs can all be managed and carried out through PMS. Companies are able to hire foreign employees at lower rates and employees are satisfied because these rates are better than anything they can find where they live.

Lastly, the process of outsourcing allows for different perspectives and experiences to meld together. Experience shows an increase in mutual respect and understanding for the culture of other teammates. Not only are teams able to tap into great wisdom and understanding from different backgrounds, but teams grow together as they learn to respect one another through their working experiences.

Want an in-depth analysis on team efficiency? Easy- Pivotal Tracker. Need to “meet in person” but teammates are scattered across the globe? Try a Zoom call through Slack. Looking for organized stories and visualizations? JIRA or Monday.com will pull in Clutch. Whatever the specific need, a PMS will have it, and the good thing is that usually the team will find one to fill a need. With these solutions brought through PMS, agile teams are able to optimize their resources to perform at peak performance regardless of work location in this remote, global economy.

References:

Calefato, F., & Ebert, C. (2019). Agile Collaboration for Distributed Teams [Software Technology] . Institute of Eletrical and Electronics Engineers, 72-78.

Miller, A. (2010, March 2010). Distributed Agile Development at Microsoft Patterns and Practices. Retrieved from Microsoft Patterns and Practices: https://www.pnpguidance.net/Post/DistributedAgile

Upwork Global. (2018). Future of Workforce Report. Mountain View: Upwork. Retrieved from https://www.upwork.com/press/2018/02/28/future-workforce-report-2018/