In the previous post about distributed scrum teams we have been talking about challenges, let’s focus on the solutions. There is no overall solution; it is a never-ending journey to try doing things better step-by-step in an agile way.
Let’s start with the easy things; hardware and software. Don’t be a cheapstake; spending money on these is a way cheaper than sacrificing employee’s precious time on letting them struggling with infrastructure or risking that some pieces of information might get lost.
The hardware
Buy the best mic you can: it is very hard to pick the best one; we have started with using ClearOne CHAT 160 with active noise cancelation build-in, it works quite well in a 10m2 room with 6-8 participants, then we changed to Yeti blue mics which provide much better sounds quality and picks up sound from 5-6 meters. Unfortunately, noise cancelation is not supported so it needs to be placed 1-2 meters far from the speaker to avoid the echo.
To get the best sounds quality handheld microphone should be used. Almost any of them is suitable with a higher price tag then 150 dollars. The biggest problem pops up when people try to talk over each other or different person is trying to react then the one who is holding the mic; passing over the mic could cause massive delays which can be very annoying.
To reduce the delay headsets could be used; good quality, no delays but it can make you feel isolated. There is no perfect solution, try to analyze each of them and pick the one which fits you the best.
Buy big displays; preferably two of them. One can be used for screen sharing (showing backlog. stories etc) and another for showing the entire remote team to let them feel more attached.
Buy a webcam and stream video in order to let the teams see each other.
Invest in broadband if the connection is slow:-)
The software
Get a proper application for remote calls ie: Skype or Slack. When it comes to choosing the software don’t forget about screen sharing, drawing, archiving, file transferring functionality.
Build up or use set of tools which support collaborative document editing, document sharing, file sharing ie: Office 365, Google Docs, LucidChart.
You can use Atlassian JIRA in order to manage product backlog, sprint backlog, track sprint progress etc.
Use interactive whiteboard apps for remote meetings (retrospectives) ie: RealtimeBoard.
Use calendaring and task management tools ie: Google Calendar, Outlook.
Use distributed version control, source code management system. Collaborate on code with inline comments and pull requests ie: BitBucket, GitHub.
The people
Once you’re done with the easy part: software and hardware, you have to teach; how the remote teams can communicate effectively. Trust me this is the hardest 🙂