Distributed teams that

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Distributed teams that
POP

• Tips and Tricks to build energy, enthusiasm and
  collaboration.

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Offsite
Japan
Offshore
India
China
Argentina
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Is the pendulum swinging away from offshoring?
No!
In its latest study, Forrester predicts that by
the end of next year, U.S. firms will offshore
more than 800,000 service jobs, 40 percent more
than the firm estimated previously. Forrester's
overall estimate remains the same The firm
predicts that about 3.3 million jobs will go
overseas by 2015.
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Telecommuting

• A recent study commissioned by collaboration
  software company Wrike reveals that 83 percent
  of respondents reported working from home for at
  least part of their workday in 2012 66 percent
  believed that their office could be completely
  virtual within the next five years.
• American workers who spend most of their time
  working from home rose from 3.6 of the workforce
  in 2005 to 4.3 in 2010.
• The bureau also noted that home-based work in
  computer, engineering and science is rising
  particularly fast, growing almost 70 between
  2000 and 2010.
• (Source US Census Bureau)

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Trends

• Rural Sourcing
• Crowdsourcing - free agency, in-the-wild testing
  (Turk, uTest)

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Case
New Mobile app must be released in 12 weeks.
Team consists of 1 PM, on shore but full time
work from home. 5 QA Analysts based out of
corporate headquarters, but most work two days
per week from home 5 Offshore Developers 5
Offshore QA Analysts To enable better
collaboration, QA analysts work more closely with
development during functional testing, leaving
the onshore Analysts to do regression.
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Challenges?
Advantages?
Risks?t
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Your situation
Offsite Contract Offshore Remote office
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Consider the role you play on your local team.
What do you offer? What are your limitations?
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Your
Challenges
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Planning
Consider your team's processes and environment.
Identify roadblocks early.
What are the limitations?
What are the essentials?

• Process (Agile or Waterfall? CMM?)Technical
  what equipment/licenses do you need? Day to day
  events. Build process and frequencyMaintenance
  periods
• Build process and frequencyMaintenance periods

Examples
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Plan Train Measure Correct Repeat
How do we do it?
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Planning
What will this new team or individual be doing?
How independently can they work, or is there
overlap with onsite teams?
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Manage
Forming the team

• Who is responsible for hiring?
• Know what youre looking for and communicate that
• Dont look for what you already have
• Get involved in the interview process

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Manage
Training

• Consider how to replicate onsite training
  availability.Knowledge base (such as a Wiki)
  create it and direct the team to it.
• Consider how to replicate onsite training
  availability.Knowledge base (such as a Wiki)
  create it and direct the team to it.

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Manage
Training

• Too many organizations Plug and Play. How to
  do it vs. How to get it done.How do we give
  offsite teams the metadata about how we work
  that they need?
• Too many organizations Plug and Play. How to
  do it vs. How to get it done.How do we give
  offsite teams the metadata about how we work
  that they need?

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Volunteers, please.
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Project spec
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Training means
Product and Process Knowledge People
Knowledge Cultural knowledge (yes, geographic,
but)
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Tuckmans model
Forming
Storming
Performing
Norming
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Manage
Effective Meetings
Logistics Technology What are you using and
is it effective? Who is responsible for
conducting? How are the meetings
organized? Verify understanding.
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Effective questions
What is your assessment of the project?
When will you be done?
How many defects have you found?
What risks do we need to be aware of?
What time will you be in the office tomorrow to
report on status again?
What other information or assistance do you need?
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(No Transcript)
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Manage
Effective Interaction

• Idioms
• Age
• Background
• Geography
• Channels

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It's so easy to be misunderstood! Does your
communication pass the test?
To Be or Not To Be Korean -  Lives dies! Dutch
To be be or! Japanese Because of a certain
or because it is not! Chinese The survival
destroys! Greek   In order to it is or in
order to it is not! Hungarian Be, or not
be! Turkish had straight exist or even if not
had straight exist!
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Manage
Measure

• How is success defined?
• Cost savings?
• Productivity?
• 24/7 development cycleHow is it measuredIs it
  tracked?
• How is it measuredIs it tracked?
• How is it measuredIs it tracked?
• How is it measured?
• Is it tracked?

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How is your performance evaluated?
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Manage
Feedback
Who is responsible for feedback? How are
expectations communicated? One-on-ones with
offsite team members. How is performance
rewarded/corrected? What is the career path?What
motivates each individual?
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Report success
...and failure

• Status what should people be aware of, not just
  what is being asked for. Time to completion
  doesn't tell the whole story.
• Efficiencies and Inefficiencies
• Trends, trends, trends...

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Mobile initiatives
QA progress
Defects Found in Requirements (onshore) Defects
Found in Functional Testing (offshore) Defects
Found in Regression Testing (onshore) Defects
reported in Production Total Defects Found
Ship date 03.01.2013
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Defects found by area
Defects Found in Requirements (onshore) Defects
Found in Functional Testing (offshore) Defects
Found in Regression Testing (onshore) Defects
reported in Production
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What doesnt work
Wind up and go Assuming the offsite folks can do
what your onsite folks can do Trusting people
outside of your organization to know what you are
looking for Expecting instant ramp-up Not
providing feedback
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What doesnt work

• Assuming the onsite folks wont be affected
• Asking the wrong question
• Assuming motivation
• Ignore success
• Ignore failure

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What works

• Clearly defined responsibilities
• Clearly defined ideal candidates
• Clearly defined measures of success
• Establish agreed-upon procedures and tweak if
  necessary
• Understand that training is ongoing (just like
  your onsite folks)
• Anticipate and deal with technical limitations

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What works

• Change the source
• Evaluate task size - Start with small goals and
  work up
• Consideration of environment
• Establishing points of contact
• Establishing consistent procedures
• Inclusion
• Learn from failure, celebrate success

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Any of this sound familiar?
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Questions?