How to get the best out of your distributed agile teams

Agile is a sequential method to program administration and software design that enables distributed teams to provide value to clients more quickly and with fewer difficulties. Agile work occurs in small, yet consumable, increments rather than putting all on a “big bang” launch. Continuous evaluation of objectives, plans, and outcomes provides businesses with a natural process for adjusting rapidly to change.

An Agile team is a group of workers, contractors, or freelancers who are in charge of carrying out an Agile project. Distributed agile teams are often co-located and completely devoted to the project within its schedule, with no other commitments. Every member of an Agile team is needed to generate the final product or service. The distributed team is often cross-functional, with responsibilities varying based on the demands of the project and the kind of distributed Agile methodology used.

Benefits of distributed agile development

Teams pick Agile so that they can adjust rapidly to market developments or consumer input without sidetracking a year’s length of planning. Planning and releasing in small, regular increments allows your team to receive feedback on each modification and incorporate it into plans for the future at a low cost.

But it’s not simply a numbers game; it’s about people first and foremost. Authentic human connections, as defined by the distributed Agile Manifesto, are more vital than strict processes. Predefined plans are less crucial than collaborating with clients and coworkers. Either way, there are undeniable benefits to implementing agile teams.

How do distributed teams work?

A team that operates in multiple time zones and has members who are geographically separated from one another is referred to as a “distributed team.” This might imply that team members are working alone, whether it be from their homes, cafés, or co-working facilities.

Distributed teams usually work in a remote and virtual environment.

Implementing Agile in a distributed environment

There are many challenges faced in distributed Agile development. Agile claims that development teams must collaborate daily throughout the Agile methodology, but in a distributed environment, this is not possible. On one hand, while face-to-face meetings are prioritized in Agile (for scrums, project schedules, and backlog management), members of a remote team might never meet.

So an Agile distributed team could sound oxymoronic, but it does work. The fundamental goal of adapting Agile for a distributed team is not to adhere to every concept laid out in the Agile Manifesto or to strive to apply them all but to try and translate its fundamentals vis-a-vis a distributed team. Distributed collaboration will inevitably impact the development flow, but this does not exclude Agile from functioning.

Here are 10 things you should keep in mind so as to make the most of your agile distributed teams.

Team size & structure for distributed agile development

Setting up the team to maximize results is crucial when implementing the Agile approach in a remote team. A successful distributed agile team has anywhere from 3 to 9 members. Even in a face-to-face regular conference, a person has a specific ceiling to how much they can recall at once, therefore a larger team may have an impact on communication quality.

Distributed workload

Of course, the advice to divide the task equally among the team members applies to both co-located and distributed teams. The uneven workload might, however, have the worst effects on remote teams.

Due to time zones or scheduling conflicts, the delay caused by an overburdened team member might cause it to take much longer for other teammates. As a result, an overload may jeopardize the team’s ability to stick to timelines. Those who have inadequate work may also lose motivation and become unwilling to put up their best efforts on the job.

Backlog management

The Agile approach recommends daily sync-ups, which are used, among many other things, to identify any problems that are impeding the work of other team members. This issue is more critical in remote Agile teams since a blocker might force developers to delay finishing their work until a teammate on the other side of the world begins working on the problem. As a result, a great deal of valuable time is lost.

Tools for agile distributed development

Make sure you give the right collaborative and communication tools when setting up a distributed Agile development team so that your teammates are able to easily contact one another and attend daily meetings.

• Using GitHub as your site for code creation and review makes sense given that your business generates software. 
• If you require a more complete collaboration solution with increased features, use Microsoft SharePoint or Google Drive to handle your project documentation. 
• One of the best tools for agile distributed teams is Jira. Users create roadmaps for projects, which gives you a visual method of tracking. You can manage each project with a drag-and-drop interface that lets you plan sprints and assign tasks to team members. 

By setting up an online connection like Slack or Skype, you may ensure communication among your virtual team. The same technology may be utilized for your everyday meetings as well.

Build culture

The organization gains a lot from inviting experts from other locations, including cost savings and the opportunity to use various software development methodologies. While managing a remote team, it’s important to be aware of regional cultural differences and adjust management and communication strategies accordingly. Globally distributed teams in Agile development bring a lot to the table.

Offline activities

Plan physical conferences and site visits even if your remote team has been able to use Agile successfully. Naturally, this calls for more planning and funding, as you must take into account the price of travel and accommodations, issues with visas, and the task distribution that will allow certain coworkers to go.

Measure productivity 

In the end, production is what counts. You can clearly see who is engaged on what assignment and what must be changed to render the process more effective by tracking the productivity of your distributed Agile team.

You need to utilize the following metrics to gauge how productive your remote Agile teams are:

• Velocity is a measurement of how many narrative points on average a distributed team produced during the previous sprint cycles. You may gauge how much work your Agile team can do in forthcoming sprints using a velocity report.
• Sprint Burndown gives you a real-time report on how many story points your team has finished in a particular sprint. The most effective technique to keep abreast of project status is to use sprint burndown.
• Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD). With CFD, you may monitor user story modifications and project progress across a range of statuses, including in progress, review, and finished. A jagged curve in CFD implies inefficient resources and bottlenecks, hence the curve should be smooth.

Ensure project status visibility

The lack of project progress visibility is one of the main problems faced by remote teams using Agile methods. Project status transparency is a component you cannot compromise on in the Agile era, as the project needs to change regularly.

You must ensure that your program status reports are posted and transparent even before the start of a new sprint cycle if you are the project manager or team owner of a distributed Agile team.

Nurture team agility

Since agility is a mindset that you instill in both you and your employees, it requires ongoing care. Every new product may bring with it a fresh set of issues that can never be resolved in the same way twice. Agile must be ingrained within teams for them to be able to respond to such a high frequency of changes.

Outsourcing

Without a seasoned Agile team, you cannot embark on an Agile transformation. The management of your resources is made simpler by outsourcing. You may concentrate more on enhancing what you’re creating when you have fewer personnel to handle. Additionally, a seasoned Agile remote team brings extra value to your team due to their considerable past expertise.

Significant talent shortages may be filled by outsourcing, which also controls expenses that could otherwise soar.

What is Scrum?

Agile project management methodologies like Scrum give teams a framework for incremental delivery while emphasizing effective planning, teamwork, and continual development. 

Most Scrum teams must be dedicated to creating and sustaining a successful Scrum environment in order to meet the need for quick, iterative development. The scrum distributed model has seen good success. This led to experts thinking the scrum distributed model is better than the waterfall model or the Kanban model.

Agile + Distributed = Effective.

If leveraged right, Agile methodologies can help speed up  high-quality software development in distributed teams. However, improper project management of remote workers can result in delivery delays, subpar performance, and worse ROI. In addition to helping project managers successfully  manage distributed Agile models, the best practices and tools listed above can help leaders of distributed Agile teams greatly enhance productivity.  

If you’re looking to better manage your remote teams, look no further than Talent500. With our vetted talent & AI-powered tools, we get to the core of your distributed teams and offer personalized solutions. Book a consultation now to learn just how you can get the best out of your remote workforce.