Workshop auf dem 10. PM Symposium der FH des BFI Wien (05.06.2019)

1. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Agile Flavoured Collaboration Hacks
for Distributed Teams
borisgloger consulting GmbH
@cschmiedinger
Christoph Schmiedinger
10. PM Symposium der FH des BFI Wien
05.06.2019

2. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Objective of the session
2
§ What are the key drivers that allow distributed teams to thrive?
§ What are common good practices that make collaboration within such
teams smoother?
§ Which tools can be used to reduce the barrier of distance?
Input
Collective
Intelligence

3. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Agile is about working together!
3
§ Task-Force“-mode
§ Strong focus
§ Close interaction & collaboration
§ Intensive synchronization
§ Haptic artefacts & visualization
§ Fast delivery of results
©luckybusiness @123rf.com

4. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
But what if the team is distributed?
4
©decorwithme @123rf.com

5. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
What is distributed?
5
What about a team that is spread over whole Europe?
What about a team that is spread over two buildings in the same city?
What about a team that is spread over two floors in the same building?

6. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
2 major enablers
6
People &
Processes
Tools &
Infrastructure

7. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G7
PEOPLE & PROCESSES
©luckybusiness @123rf.com

8. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Self-confidence of project managers
8
§ Claim autonomy for decisions
§ … it is necessary to be successful
anyway
§ Define constraints with sponsors that
have to be met/considered
§ … which doesn’t mean never challenging
them again
©porteador @123rf.com

9. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Strong and ambitious visions
9
Quelle: Space X (https://youtu.be/GhaD8XLoOl4)

10. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Invitation
10
- Purpose
- Constraints
- Expectations
- What’s in?

11. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Important Lesson
11
travel costs << costs for ineffective team work
... but the fewest acknowledge that

12. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Personnel costs are extremly high
12
Team costs per amount of time
Costs 10x 90€/h 900€/h
If the team is at least 3h* more effective in meeting face-to-face, the costs of travelling
are amortized. Irrespective of other positive side effects of increased personal bonding
that pays off in future collaboration.
* If travel time is salaried, then the amortization time goes of course up.
Half of a 10-person team is travelling
between two European cities including
one overnight stay
Flights 5x400€ 2000€
Hotel 5x150€ 750€
2750€

13. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Collective kick-off phase
13
§ “Bootcamp“-mode
§ Intensive examination of the
project/initiative
§ Ideally off-site with no major
interruptions
§ Good balance between work and
socializing
Example: specification phase for client
©foottoo & mikolaj64 @123rf.com

14. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Clear Roles & Responsibilities
14
§ Clear definition up-front
§ Common understanding
§ Role and expectation workshops
§ Create a team charter
§ Values, procedures and working model

15. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Trust is Key!
15

16. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Communication is essential
16
§ Open questions (try to avoid
yes/no questions)
§ Include quiet people (that don’t talk
if not asked)
§ Overlapping working hours (to sync
with each other, e.g. with a daily)
© rawpixel @123rf.com

17. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Heartbeat
17
Credits for this idea to Tobias Leisgang (companypirate.de)

18. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Regular phases of get together
18
§ Once per agile iteration (typically two weeks)
§ In case of two locations: colleagues travel once
every four weeks
§ Plan one overnight stay to allow regular
socializing
©aquir & gpointstudio @123rf.com

19. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Co-located work in critical phases
19
Private flight for more than 30
employees every week between
Germany and Spain
©aquir & bluefox @123rf.com

20. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Iterative processes can help
20
§ Regular review & planning session
help synchronizing within the team
§ Definition of iteration goals help to
unify the team
... no matter if you do Scrum or not

21. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Remote-”Pairing”
21
§ Common achievement of a task
§ Intensive collaboration
§ Knowledge transfer
§ Regular rotation
§ Spread knowledge
§ Bond with each other
©gstockstudio @123rf.com

22. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Ambassadors
22
§ Ambassadors as first contact
person at the other location
§ Rotation principle
©kagenmi @123rf.com

23. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Team mood
23
Daily Happiness Metric
©greyjj @123rf.com

24. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Breakout Session #1
24
>> Do you have other good practices in mind that deal with people
and processes used for distributed and remote teams?

25. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G25
TOOLS & INFRASTRUCTURE
©kubais @123rf.com

26. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Infrastructure is key!
26
§ Professional videoconferencing & screen
sharing
§ Lightweight chat tools
§ Tools for visualization of the progress
§ Possibility to work from everywhere with
internet access
©dotshock @123rf.com

27. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Media richness
27

28. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Modern chat tools
28
§ Slack, Atlassian Hipchat, Microsoft Teams, Mattermost, …
§ Organization in channels (principle of voluntariness)
§ Elimination of “internal only“-mails
§ Open APIs for further integration possibilities
Example: borisgloger consulting’s use of Microsoft Teams

29. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Electronic TaskBoards
29
©trello.com

30. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
All in one – Microsoft Office 365
30
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Planner
Microsoft Whiteboard
@ microsoft.com

31. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Smart Boards
31
©abluecup, neyro2008 & stterryk @123rf.com

32. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
ETEO-Board
32
§ Saxonia Systems
§ In-house developed
solution
§ ETEO = “One Team One
Office“
©aquir @123rf.com
©Saxonia Systems

33. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Remote collaboration
33
§ Online corkboards/
whiteboards
§ pinup.com
§ note.ly
§ miro.com
Example: borisgloger
remote retrospectives

34. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Daily Stand-Ups
34
From video conferencing to asynchronous information flow?
©skvoor @123rf.com

35. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Continuous video conferencing
35
©skvoor @123rf.com
§ Rather extreme solution but
some companies actually
really use it!

36. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Learn from others!
36
§ Open Source Software Community
§ Highly distributed community
§ Individuals that contribute not regularly &
often outside office hours
Example for software development

37. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Even more tools, tools and tools
37
§ https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/tools/
§ https://www.thecouchmanager.com/the-ultimate-list-of-virtual-
team-technology-tools/

38. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Breakout Session #2
38
>> Do you know other useful infrastructure/tools
that help to boost team productivity?

39. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Documentation Group 1
39

40. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Documentation Group 2
40

41. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Documentation Group 3
41

42. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G
Documentation Group 4
42

43. S E L B S T S I C H E R Z U M E R F O L G43