Distributed Agile Teams

February 16, 2017

ACTIVITY: Graphic Arts Teams

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Distributed Team Challenge: Graphic Arts teams

Distributed Agile

• You are on a team of graphic artists creating images for the gaming industry• Your cutting edge tools: Ball point pen

• Cutting edge in 1888

• Your games: Connect the dots• Fun for children of all ages

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Goal: Create as many images as you can

Distributed Agile

Acceptance Criteria:• Each image must be presented in sequence: Apple, Elephant.

• Images out of sequence don’t count

• All of the lines must be drawn and the image colored in

• A team member can only draw 4 lines on an image and then the must pass it on to another team member

• All co-located team members must draw at least one line on every image

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Your teams

Distributed Agile

• Blue Team: Co-located

• Red Team: Distributed with a 3 hour overlapping work schedule

• White Team: Distributed with no overlapping work time

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Each round

Distributed Agile

• 6 minutes

• 4 day sprint• Each day is 90 seconds• Only work during your “Day”

• Locations will start off cycle

• Look for the sun to know if you should be working

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Debrief

Distributed Agile

• Which team structure had the advantage?

• What changes could the other teams make to improve?

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What percentage of Agile organizations have their teams distributed?

Distributed Agile

A. 22%

B. 42%

C. 62%

D. 82%

9Distributed Agile

As of 2016, more than 82% of Agile organizations had at least some distributed agile teams.

Source: 10th Annual VersionOne State of Agile Survey

Distributed teams in Agile today

Challenges and Benefits

What challenges have you seen with distributed teams using Agile?

12Distributed Agile

Some of the Challenges

Collaboration

Team Building

CommunicationDifferent Time Zones Cultural Differences

Coordination

Facilitating Ceremonies

Engagement

Language Differences

Are there any benefits to being distributed?

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What are Some of the Benefits?

Distributed Agile

The VersionOne survey mentioned earlier reports that 62% found that adopting Agile helps them to better manage distributed teams!

Distributed Teams help Agile by:

• Making it possible to get the right people on the team – no matter where they’re located

• Increasing the span of work hours that the team is working across

• Better enabling organizational insights from different organizational locations

• Providing a wider organizational, regional or global outlook for the team

Recommendations for Distributed Agile Teams

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Jason’s Suggestions for Distributed Teams

Distributed Agile

• Limit the time zone spread when setting up the team

• Optimize your technology toolkit

• Utilize the highest bandwidth communication methods

• Increase focus on deliberate team building

• Tailor your methodology

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Limit the time zone spread

Distributed Agile

• Overlapping work times equals increased communication potential

• Teams in 2 time zones can easily develop methods for overcoming the location and time distribution

• Teams in 3 or more time zones are handicapped

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Optimize your Technology Toolkit

Distributed Agile

• Use and maximize available collaborative online tools

• Enable video for your team members

• Consider a laptop webcam as a video conferencing tool – just gather round!

• Investigate and use online tools to support ceremonies

• Get your arsenal up, tested and running and train team members so you are ready at a moment’s notice! Once enabled, you can

use video for meetings or even just for chats!

Image from Susan’s Skype!

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Useful online tools and sites

Distributed Agile

• Estimation:• PointingPoker.org

• Planning and Meetings:• Google Docs• Google Drawings• Kanban Flow

• Story Workshops• Trello (informal)• JIRA

• Kanban Planning• Kanban Flow (informal)• Trello (informal)• JIRA

• Retros:• Trello• Google Drawings

Trello Retro

Google Drawings Retro

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Utilize the highest bandwidth communication methods

Distributed Agile

Use video-enabled communication as much as possible when you can’t be face-to-face.

Source: Gigaom Survey and LinkedIn.com

Kill Your Email!

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Increase focus on deliberate team building

Distributed Agile

• Develop a practical working agreement

• Do more – not less – team building

• Respect time differences

• Everyone is remote

• Pay extra attention to what’s happening on your team

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Develop a practical working agreement

Distributed Agile

Make sure your working agreements keep in mind:• Preferred online collaboration tools

• Preferred communication methods, keeping communication richness in mind

• Guidelines for working hours and communications outside working hours

• Agreement on the times and facilitation of ceremonies so all team members can participate

• Commitment to keeping the technology toolkit ready, in case co-located team members become temporarily distributed.

Keep your team’s unique needs in mind when crafting your working agreements

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Do more – not less – team building

Distributed Agile

• Get Face to Face whenever possible

• Investigate distributed team building exercises

• Take into account cultural and language differences

• Make sure distributed members are not excluded from any activity

• Find creative ways to include all team members in celebrations or other team building events for special occasions

Consider an On-Site / Off-Site Ice Cream Party!

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Respect time differences

Distributed Agile

• Honor time differences when scheduling meetings and ceremonies

• If some team members have to be inconvenienced sometimes, consider rotating the inconvenience

• If there is a golden window of shared time, keep it sacred

Would you want to make Sprint commitments in

this condition?

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Everyone is remote

Distributed Agile

• All meetings, facilitation techniques, and collaboration processes should emphasize ease of use for remote team members

• Consider having all of the team members work with the same remote tools

• i.e. Don’t do in person meetings

• As % of distributed team members increases the % of meetings done fully remote should increase

Get into the habit of Thinking Remote First

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Pay extra attention to what’s happening on your team

Distributed Agile

Even with video, it can be harder to pick up on a team’s ”vibe.” • Pay extra attention to possible symptoms like:

• Lateness or non-attendance to meetings and ceremonies

• Non-participation during meetings and discussions• Passivity, hesitance to disagree or unusual silence

• Check the pulse more frequently• Include questions in retros about how distribution

is working for all team members and how it is affecting performance and delivery

A Distributed Agile Team should be a happy team!

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Tailor your methodology

Distributed Agile

• Scrum was designed for co-located teams

• Adapt the Scrum meetings to meet the needs of your team• Honor the spirit and purpose but adapt the format

• Examples:• A team with limited time overlap may split planning across 2 days• Teams with multiple languages may adapt who demo’s the software

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Recap: Jason things distributed teams need to:

Distributed Agile

• Limit the time zone spread when setting up the team

• Optimize your technology toolkit

• Utilize the highest bandwidth communication methods

• Increase focus on deliberate team building

• Tailor your methodology

Thank You