In today’s fast-paced software industry, it’s no longer uncommon for a team to consist of remote workers from across the world, or for a project to be assigned to a remote team often many thousands of miles away.
However, getting the remote elements of a project to combine effectively can often be truly challenging. Potential landmines lie in many areas, including:
- a lack of trust (how can you trust someone to help build your cutting-edge software you’ve probably never even met?)
- communication issues due to different time zones, languages, & cultural differences
- a need to redefine your whole range of processes
- the need to ensure your remote team doesn’t feel isolated
Based on our years of experience, coupled with a roster-full of happy customers (many of whom were working with us remotely), here are the THREE main factors you really need to put in place if you want your remote development project to truly succeed:
- Make sure you have a talented Product Manager in place, someone who can connect people with each other to ensure communication is ongoing, and also keep things shipshape. It’s no secret that remote development processes are a lot harder to keep in line, so having the right PM to lead the project is crucial.
- Use trusted industry methodologies like agile and scrum. These methodologies ensure things don’t fall between the cracks; it also forces you to create processes in order to keep things in check. These processes can include face to face planning meetings, for example, or weekly updates.
- Have TWO focal points in place – both technical and Having a technical focus with without the management might cause chaos, and vice versa. So ensure you have the right management team in place, a team that can provide the right guidance whatever the remote distance involved.
If you have any additional questions regarding remote development, don’t hesitate to get in touch!
