How to Innovate and Scale-up Remote Work With Agile

Given the nature of the agile framework, it was always assumed that agile teams could only thrive when team members were located in the same physical office space. But the abrupt shift to remote work due to the pandemic has proven that the agile methodology also works just as effectively for remote and distributed teams as well.

With a focus on documentation, breaking down big project goals into smaller tasks, daily quick check-ins with the team, detailed retrospective meetings, and the ability to make changes to the project requirements in the real-time, agile framework can help remote team members collaborate and communicate seamlessly to achieve common organizational goals. 

It can be challenging to adopt agile practices initially for remote teams. Instead of trying to fit your team processes into the agile agenda, try to customize the agile framework to fit your team and project requirements.

What Is an Agile Methodology in a Remote Environment?

Agile methodology is about breaking down big projects into shorter iterations called sprints that can usually last anywhere between a week to a month. 

Every agile team has a scrum master who is responsible for conducting standups, which are meetings where team members give quick status updates about the tasks they are handling. In most cases, the team leader or manager is the scrum master, but it can be a team member too if they are already adept in agile practices. 

Whenever a sprint gets finished, the team members have a longer and more in-depth meeting called the retrospective to review the entire sprint, identify any bottlenecks, and discuss opportunities for improvement. 

While the agile methodology is useful for numerous types of teams, it is very effective for remote teams since it allows team members to quickly identify what’s just not working and make changes in real-time. 

Breaking down big project goals into shorter sprints also helps remote team members stay motivated and allows them to focus on one small task at a time. Moreover, the routine standups and retrospective can ensure everyone on the team is on the same page even when they are not working from the same office.

The Challenges of Adopting the Agile Framework for Remote Teams

1. Struggling With Remote Collaboration

Coordinating with remote team members that don’t work in close proximity can be incredibly challenging, especially if they are located in different time zones. While you can use asynchronous communication for most conversations, standups and retrospectives require video or audio calls with the whole team. (Even the agile manifesto talks about the power of face-to-face communication) 

For remote teams, it's important to identify the main communication challenges, find out what is restricting organic collaboration within the team, and establish remote collaboration guidelines accordingly.

2. Building Trust

When all the team members work from the same office, it's easy to build a rapport and improve team morale. But remote team members, especially the ones who have never had a chance to meet face to face, often struggle to bond with their colleagues, which can directly affect their performance. 

The secret to building a healthy rapport and bond among remote team members lies in remote leadership. Managers need to find ways for the team to come together in an informal setting to get to know each other in a better way.

3. Managing Dependencies 

The agile methodology assumes that teams have everything they need to deliver work in consecutive sprints, but it's not always possible. 

The team members may still be waiting to receive all the requirements or for a certain activity to be completed before they can kick start the work. It’s up to the managers to handle these dependencies in a way that no work is stalled and all the team members can work seamlessly with minimal disruptions.

Tips To Effectively Implement Agile for Remote Teams

1. Maximize the Golden Hours

For a remote time, golden hours are when all the team members can be available online for discussions. The idea is to make the most out of these golden hours and schedule all the important meetings and discussions during this time. 

Take the time zone differences and working hours of all the team members into consideration to identify the golden hours for your team. It's also a good practice to share the schedule and availability of all team members with everyone so that it's easier for the team to schedule meetings with minimal back and forth.

2. Quick Standups To Kickstart the Day

Standups are an important component of the agile framework as they help team members stay connected, get quick updates, identify any setbacks, and resolve any issues or queries in real-time. Remote teams can schedule 10-15 minute standups through video calls to kickstart the day.

Daily standups are also a great way for team members to establish a sense of connection, which is important for all teams but especially important for remote teams that don’t have any face to face interaction every day.

3. Document Everything

Most agile teams document important information, but with remote agile teams just documenting important information is not enough. You need to document anything and everything related to your project so that all the remote team members can stay in the loop. Moreover, proper documentation also decreases onboarding time for new team members and helps them get up to speed.

4. Choose the Right Set of Collaboration Tools

To manage an agile remote team, you need tools that can help streamline communication while supporting the agile framework. The tool you choose should help manage agile remote teams in the most effective way possible — from creating a kanban board to keep track of sprints to managing project deadlines, assigning tasks, communicating with the team about any change in requirements, and tracking key metrics.

Instead of introducing a whole suite of collaboration tools that can make it difficult for team members to track all the work data, files, and conversations, you can use a digital workplace for your agile team to track everything in one place. 

With a digital workplace, you can manage all the projects, sprints, processes, deadlines, and retrospectives through one single platform. You can create dedicated communication channels for different sprints, chat with team members in real-time, and manage all the project related conversations. 

5. Eliminate Unnecessary Meetings

The agile framework requires teams to have constant discussions and meetings -- from everyday standups to routine retrospectives. Apart from the scheduled meetings, team members may also need to have impromptu meetings to resolve any bottlenecks and problems.  

But it can get difficult to get things done productivity and efficiently when your everyday schedule is packed with meetings. While team discussions are important, remote team members also need some meeting-free time to focus on their core work responsibilities.

Here are a few ways you can free up the time of your team members and eliminate unnecessary meetings:

• Keep a time limit for your daily standups and they shouldn’t be longer than 10-15 minutes 

• Make sure every meeting has a clear agenda which is shared beforehand with everyone so that your discussions don’t go awry

• Discussions that don’t require real-time response should be shifted to asynchronous communication instead 

• Project updates should be available to everyone to see in real-time so that you don’t spend too much in meetings just getting updates from all the team members

Recalibrate Remote Agile Processes for Your Team

It can be tempting to replicate the agile processes that worked in an office setting for your remote team as well. But what worked in an office with team members closely seated to each other, may not work in a remote work environment. The idea is to understand the changing requirements of your remote team and make adjustments to the agile processes accordingly. It is about adapting to changing situations instead of trying to stick to a guide.