Are you struggling to manage your distributed team of workers? Are you searching for effective ways to ensure that your distributed team can collaborate to execute software development projects? Here at Cloud Employee, we work with companies looking to hire a distributed agile team in the Philippines.

In this article, we’ll address exactly what a distributed team is and why it works for many businesses. Next, we’ll provide you with seven detailed ways and methods you can incorporate when managing your distributed agile teams to make them work better.

What is a Distributed Team?

If you've never heard the term 'distributed team,' don't fret because the chances are that it's a team working style you're already familiar with. A distributed team essentially consists of a team of employees that work in different locations around the world. It usually involves several remote workers located in different countries or cities which work together on a single project. 

In this case, a centralized location isn't needed for operations. This style of teamwork has gained an increasing level of popularity amongst medium and small companies with less than 100 employees.

Reasons Why a Distributed Team Might Make Sense

It is not uncommon to find businesses that are a bit hesitant to employ a distributed team. However, this style of teamwork has proven to be effective and comes with several benefits. A few reasons why you might want to adopt a distributed team working style include:

• Attracting and retaining talent can be difficult for businesses: 

One of the biggest struggles they face when it comes to recruitment is attracting and retaining the right talent. This is because bigger, successful businesses always offer better perks to make the right people slip through your fingers. 

However, you can provide employees with a distinct advantage by adopting a distributed team working style. This means that location won't serve as a restriction, and with a highly efficient mobile workforce, working remotely will always look attractive.

• The focus of the workplace has shifted to its employees: 

In recent years, the focus in the workplace has shifted away from employers to employees. What employees need is regarded as necessary, and one of those needs include flexible work arrangements. 

What better way to give your employees flexible workdays than to hire distributed team members who no longer need to waste valuable hours commuting to work every day? Even more, thanks to technology, employees in different locations can effectively collaborate.

• Businesses need to be quick and flexible to survive: 

Modern-day businesses are quicker than ever and can react swiftly to any changes or opportunities in the market. This means that competition is tighter than ever in the business environment. So, if you want your company to survive and remain competitive, you also need to be quick and flexible. 

One way to achieve this is by putting a distributed team structure in place. With employees working worldwide, you can enjoy the perks of having team members on ground every hour of the day, completing projects, and responding to customers fasters. You can even tap into new markets in different locations.

7 Ways to Make a Distributed Agile Team Work

Now that you know what a distributed team is and why teamwork makes sense, it's time to address what a distributed agile team is. You also need to seek out ways to make a team of this nature work.

A distributed agile team is a distributed team that works using an agile approach. That means the team manages projects by breaking them into various stages while continuously collaborating and communicating with each other and the client at each stage. 

This ensures that everyone is fully informed before decisions are made. Also, the project will be completed in a way that best meets the client's needs. As complex as a distributed agile team seems, making it work is possible, so here are seven ways that you achieve that:

Build business-oriented teams across locations: 

If you want your distributed team to succeed, you need to be strategic. One way to do this is by establishing 'mini-teams' in each location. To look over these mini-teams, you also need to have someone with business and management skills in each location to act as a team Head. 

They will equally make sure everything is running smoothly with their team. This person should also be responsible for ensuring that communication and collaboration with other team heads is continuous. Based on that, every mini-team is on the same page at all times.

Take advantage of time zone differences: 

As mentioned, one of the benefits of having a distributed team is being able to have employees working for practically every hour of the day, thanks to differences in time zones. You can also take advantage of the time zone difference by minimizing any overlaps. 

This simply means that you have to fine-tune the working hours for each team. With that in place, as one team finishes for the day, another team picks up the work.

Establish a communication schedule:

Minimizing working hour overlaps can be beneficial to your business. That said, you need to make sure you do not downsize so much that mini-teams cannot communicate with each other at all. For your distributed team to work, communication is critical. That is why you need to establish a communication schedule that allows mini-teams to discuss work and progress.

Communication should be regular with a distributed agile team, and just communicating through emails isn't going to cut it. Adopt other tools like instant messaging and video conferencing for a more effective means of collaboration.

Communicate issues and manage backlogs: 

Even with team members working in a centralized location, there is the possibility that project-related issues will come up, so just imagine how much more likely this is with a distributed team. To avoid problems like this, you need to ensure that team members communicate present and even foreseeable future issues with each other. 

This will make it much easier for team members to discover problems that may slow down their progress. With that in mind, they can tackle them early on instead of waiting till it’s too late, which could waste valuable time.

Develop a 'one team' culture: 

The fact that each location runs its own 'mini-team' doesn't mean they are all independent. Each mini-team is a small cog in a huge machine, so the team culture has to reflect this. It is essential to develop a 'one team' culture to ensure that everyone uses the same technological infrastructure, has the same work characteristics, and operate with the same agile practices. 

You can achieve this by adopting cultural awareness training for each mini-team. With that in place, they can learn about and appreciate each other's cultural differences. Even better, they can do this while developing a uniform team culture that would work for the team at large.

Distribute work accordingly to minimize dependencies: 

The way you distribute work amongst your mini-teams is essential when it comes to ensuring that your distributed team works at large. An effective way to distribute your work is to ensure that there are no dependencies across mini-teams. 

If there are dependencies, not only can this slow down your project's progress, but it can also bring about conflict between mini-teams. It is best to avoid or at least minimize dependencies by strategically distributing work. As a result, each team will have its own independent task to work on at a given time.

Make use of agile tools for distributed teams: 

Technology has made it a lot easier to adopt an agile approach. There are several tools that your team can use to allow for a smoother collaboration. For example,  GitHub is great for code building and reviewing between team members. Google Drive will enable you to manage your project documentation. 

Slack features video conferencing and instant messaging that allows team members to remain in constant communication with each other. All these tools and more are practical when it comes to managing an agile distributed team.

Conclusion 

Managing a distributed agile team can come across as complicated, but it is actually much easier than it presents itself. Plus, it is very doable. It is always important to remember that your employees are individuals with their own needs and not just resources to help you complete your project. 

As funny as it may sound, many businesses tend to forget this, and it makes it hard to manage their distributed teams. Keep a 'people first' mentality while adopting some of the tips we've shared with you, and you'll find that your distributed agile team will work much better and more effectively.

We hope you found this article useful. Here at Cloud Employee, we assist companies looking to hire dedicated offshore developers across many technologies. Talk to us, learn more how Cloud Employee works, or see our Developer Pricing Guide.