Effective Remote Teams

Spontaneous presentation at SoCraCan Las Palmas 2018

1. Effective Remote Teams @PreusslerBerlin SoCraCan 2018
2. Our situation, Android team: • 2 in Berlin • 1 in Sczcecin, 2 Lublin, 1 Wroclaw • 1 dev in New York • 1 QA in Minsk • Scrum Master, PO, QA in New York • Later: more devs from Canada, LA, New York
3. Get to know each other!
4. Tools • Slack • Customize! • Jira + CI integration • Screenhero
5. Asychronous communication • Don’t expect answer • Labels in Github PR tiny, big, urgent approved, needs_rebase, dont_merge, question, recheck
6. Have a backup plan • If Slack video chat does not work, be ready to move to Hangout or Skype. • Be pragmatic and don’t spend too much time in trying to fix the tool.
7. Feel the pain • If larger team in one spot: every one needs to work from home once a week!
8. Tech standups • Daily between 10 and 45min
9. Face to Face meetings • Try to meet every x weeks • Give isolated team members a presence in the room! • Remote teams need this investment!
10. Remember the manifesto • Individuals and interactions over processes and tools: • Dont rely on specific tool • Be pragmatic • Working software over comprehensive documentation • Don't write specifications that you would not write for a local team.
11. Timezones • Split morning standups • Document decisions • Don’t delay what you would not delay without i.e. PRs • Might be hard to follow up on Slack • Split teams • Trust
12. Have fun http://blog.viacom.tech/2017/04/07/effective-remote-teams/