Top ways to improve communication on your remote engineering team

Communication is crucial to software development because it directly influences the quality of the software produced by an engineering team. It is essential for engineering leaders to support effective team communication, especially when team members are geographically dispersed.

Remote engineering teams provide developers with a flexible work environment and give organizations access to a bigger pool of engineering expertise. When every member of a team is at a different geographical location and time zone, communication can be exceptionally difficult.

This post will dissect the aspects that make communication challenging for remote teams and offer fresh ways to foster good collaboration.

Why is communication effectiveness so important?

Communication in engineering teams that are geographically separated requires more intentional effort than communication in engineering teams that share the same physical site. Several issues, including time zone variations, absence of physical infrastructure, greater likelihood of unclear communication, less availability to team members, and increased reliance on technology, make communication difficult for remote teams. Before we go into our answers, here are a few difficulties that nearly all teams confront on a regular basis.

Time zone differences

There is a high probability that not everyone on your remote engineering team is in the same time zone and that certain team members' working hours will have little to no overlap with those of other team members. For example, if team members in the United States and Australia work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., it is challenging to organize meetings at a time that is convenient for both teams.

Inadequate physical infrastructure

Members of distributed teams often have varying degrees of access to dedicated communication areas and audiovisual equipment. This limited availability of physical communication infrastructure may drive your team to rely more on asynchronous text-based communication solutions, which may be adequate when you need to send quick messages and conduct brief chats. However, these strategies tend to be less effective when discussing complex or delicate subjects.

Ambiguous communication

As previously noted, effective real-time face-to-face communication is more difficult in remote teams. Therefore, it is normal for communication to be open to numerous interpretations, mainly if your team relies heavily on text-based communication.

It is common for team members to second-guess themselves and fear that their message may have been misunderstood in remote teams due to the lack of instant response. It is also simple to be excessively direct, blunt, or ambiguous when you cannot observe the recipient's reaction. These factors require that your engineering teams work harder to communicate effectively.

Access restrictions to team members

Since members of a remote team are in separate physical places, you cannot stroll up to someone for an impromptu conversation in the same way you could if everyone worked in the same office. In addition, there are fewer casual encounters between team members because they are not physically present. This necessitates a more strategic approach to when and how you communicate with team members. Reduced access to team members is especially problematic when individuals require answers immediately.

Enhanced reliance on technology

Compared to colocated teams, where individuals might communicate in person, remote engineering teams rely more on technology for their communication requirements. Numerous channels that allow remote teams of developers to communicate heavily rely on high-quality internet connections and communication devices, such as laptops, cell phones, microphones, and cameras. Geographical variations in the availability, quality, and accessibility of these critical technologies substantially impact the capacity of your team members to interact effectively.

So, what are the most effective methods for enhancing remote team communication?

As you can see, distant teams have distinct communication issues. You can manage the consequences of these communication obstacles by employing the proper tools and methods. You can adopt the following tools, tactics, and best practices to enhance the communication of your remote team:

Utilize asynchronous interaction

When working with a remote engineering team, you must carefully weigh the advantages and disadvantages of synchronous versus asynchronous communication. Asynchronous communication is frequently superior to synchronous communication for remote teams because it is inherently more flexible.

Asynchronous communication allows each recipient to prepare a response and/or respond to a message at their convenience. As an alternative to scheduling a video chat with the entire team to address a problem, you may send an email and a paper explaining what needs to be discussed. This enables each team member to review the information at their own pace without feeling rushed.

Asynchronous communication also allows your team to prepare for any upcoming real-time collaboration. You can enable asynchronous communication by offering internal channels where team members can participate in discussions without scheduling a specific time.

Async communication does not diminish the value of synchronous communication in real-time. In actuality, asynchronous and synchronous communication can complement one another if used with care. Your ultimate objective should be to assist your team in understanding that synchronous communication is not always required, desired, or even achievable.

When synchronous communication is required, you might urge your team to use online videoconferencing systems such as Jitsi, Zoom, or Google Meet. Although this may not be as effective as face-to-face communication, the added visual contact can help a team connect and communicate more effectively.

Determine an exhaustive list of communication instruments.

In addition to the necessity for a particular platform for videoconferencing, there are additional platforms that might boost your asynchronous work. Slack, Asana, Trello, Confluence, Jira, Basecamp, Google Docs, and Notion are a few examples of remote engineering teams' communication and collaboration platforms.

Consider the following characteristics while selecting the appropriate tools for your needs:

• User interfaces are intuitive and do not require sophisticated technical knowledge to operate.
• Time zone information is handled appropriately for meeting scheduling and calendar functions.
• The establishment of distinct channels for special teams or projects.
• File-sharing features for files, screenshots, and any binary formats routinely utilized by your team as part of their job.
• Integrations with other applications to enable the posting of messages and the sharing of activity updates between applications.
• Capabilities for real-time collaboration that permit concurrent work on the same document.
• The software is compatible with both mobile devices and PCs.

Engage in virtual team-building exercises.

Your team members will have the opportunity to get to know one another through virtual team-building exercises that encourage communication and collaboration across distant teams and provide an opportunity to get to know one. These relationships expand over time and may have favourable consequences on teamwork and productivity. Team-building exercises are particularly beneficial for remote engineering teams since they help bring people together despite their physical separation.

Consider the following suggestions for team-building exercises:

• Choose an activity that will allow you and your teammates to interact in a fun and interesting manner. If you want something simple and entertaining, you can utilize virtual games and activities such as Skribbl and GeoGuessr.
• Ensure that everyone knows the rules and mechanics of the team-building exercise so that no one feels excluded or confused.
• Ensure that your team-building events do not significantly conflict with the projects and deadlines of your team members.

Celebrate achievements

Look for occasions to celebrate accomplishments, regardless of how insignificant they may seem. It is crucial to recognize both team and individual accomplishments. Recognition helps everyone feel like they're a part of something greater than themselves, and these celebrations enhance visibility for team members who may not be aware of what their teammates are accomplishing.

One option to recognize individual and team accomplishments is to establish a team-wide or company-wide communication channel via which any member of the team can express their admiration for something else on the team. Or, you might send a weekly email highlighting the contributions of particular team members. This allows you to cultivate a culture of acknowledgment and gratitude among your company and makes the team feel appreciated.

Concentrate on clear, concise communication

It is essential to prioritize clear communication since it reduces the possibility that others will misunderstand your words. Among the things you may do to improve communication clarity are the following:

• Before sending a message, you should always consider the context of the conversation and how others may take it.
• Be deliberate with your word selection. For instance, instead of stating, "Remember to run the tests the next time," you may add, "Please remember to run the tests from now on." The former emphasizes the negative behavior of "forgetting," which could cause the recipient to feel reprimanded. The latter emphasizes the positive activity of "remembering," which may assist the recipient in maintaining attention on the desired behavior.
• Avoid idioms when interacting with non-native English speakers and people from drastically diverse geographical locations. Many regional idioms are poorly understood in certain regions of the world.

Define communication norms

Establishing communication norms, particularly for tone and pace, facilitates team-wide agreement on acceptable communication methods. For instance, you could develop a rule that encourages your team to only send emails during a certain time range, or you may urge team members to send a comprehensive agenda through email prior to organizing a meeting.

Consider recording these standards and best practices in a location that is accessible to all team members.

Employ visual aids when communicating in writing.

Often, writing is the most effective means of communicating simply and concisely with your team. Incorporating well-designed visual aids into written communication is an essential approach to improving its clarity.

Well-designed visual aids can compress complex concepts and information into a simple image or diagram that everyone in your team, regardless of location, can comprehend quickly and simply. You can communicate complex information without asking your team to read several pages of text by using visual aids as a shortcut. A well-designed architecture diagram, for instance, can convey the same amount of information that would otherwise take several paragraphs of prose.

Plan periodic checks.

Check-ins are an efficient method for keeping everyone on the same page and preventing unpleasant shocks when something goes wrong. In addition, they allow you to give status updates, pose questions, and provide feedback.

If your remote engineering team is small and not dispersed across different time zones, weekly check-ins can be sufficient. It may be important to schedule check-ins with smaller groups more frequently than once per week if you have a large staff and are working with multiple time zones.

Honor team diversity

Understanding the cultural backgrounds of your team members might help you understand when words or phrases may not transfer well across cultures. Additionally, not everyone on your team will speak the same language with the same level of proficiency.

It is also essential to realize that team members do not always need to interact in the same manner and using the same means. Some team members may prefer email while others choose video calls. Consider asking your team members about their preferred communication channels and the times of day when they are most engaged. Then, you may utilize these preferences to create meeting and check-in schedules.

Final thoughts

Continuously enhancing communication within your remote engineering team can result in higher-quality software, fewer rework, and improving employer-employee relationships. Each team has distinct requirements, and it requires deliberate and concentrated effort to determine what works best for your team.