3 ms·

I get the frustration, but how do you actually keep a team aligned on the same goal when they're all working in different locations? I can think of two tools: -

I get the frustration, but how do you actually keep a team aligned on the same goal when they're all working in different locations? I can think of two tools: - Task managers, like Trello or Asana or Jira or whatever. They use text to describe tasks, but over time people start to mean different things with their words and then they're no longer aligned. - Yes, we could all get better at writing, but the problem is that we often don't know which parts of our writing are unclear and which ones are actually A-OK. - Meetings, where we use speech and gestures and interactivity to spot miscommunications and correct them. They take time and are emotionally difficult, but on average the team leaves more aligned than it came in. Any other tools for alignment? Or ways to avoid drift with async formats?

planet-and-halo 5y ago
It's unpopular with some people, but pair programming can work very well for this, even remote. I'm a hands-on manager, and through spontaneous conversations during pairing sessions, my team has learned about things like Agile development (in the real "you discover, learn, iterate the product" sense, not the pseudo-junk that gets peddled many places). On my ideal team, we would have 3 hours per week of meetings and 37 hours of coding. I've done this and seen it work, with stakeholders at the director levels thrilled by our success. We essentially organize around a set of shared values, and team members explain back to me our practices and why we do them clearly with examples, so I know they really get it and actually buy in without me having to force it. This has resulted in great team morale, because everyone feels like they have a stake and a say in our processes. The most consistent feedback I hear is "when I leave to deal with personal life issues or just to take a break, I never worry that I'll be missed. The team keeps going without a hiccup because our processes are so good."

planet-and-halo 5y ago

It's unpopular with some people, but pair programming can work very well for this, even remote. I'm a hands-on manager, and through spontaneous conversations during pairing sessions, my team has learned about things like Agile development (in the real "you discover, learn, iterate the product" sense, not the pseudo-junk that gets peddled many places). On my ideal team, we would have 3 hours per week of meetings and 37 hours of coding. I've done this and seen it work, with stakeholders at the director levels thrilled by our success. We essentially organize around a set of shared values, and team members explain back to me our practices and why we do them clearly with examples, so I know they really get it and actually buy in without me having to force it. This has resulted in great team morale, because everyone feels like they have a stake and a say in our processes. The most consistent feedback I hear is "when I leave to deal with personal life issues or just to take a break, I never worry that I'll be missed. The team keeps going without a hiccup because our processes are so good."