Software practitioners familiar with the rules of extreme programming know that moving people around, or the process of continually appointing team members to work on different parts of the solution or to serve in different team roles, can effectively shuttle knowledge between team members helping to ensure a common level of understanding in both the problem and solution domains.

Moving people around serves as a force that effectively destabilizes the team and continually engages them  towards establishing a new comfort zone.  In the process, team members cross-train towards improving their skills, are deterred from complacency, become more aware of project status, while becoming more responsive to project risk.  In this series, Moving People Around, I’ll discuss the challenges and opportunities that resulted from my own experience with a similar destabilizing force as I moved from a colocated team setting in New York City, to a teleworking setting in Buenos Aires, Argentina.   I’ll discuss how our team overcame the resulting challenges and amplified the opportunities towards ensuring the successful delivery of our software projects.

Surging Ahead

Prior to my moving, our team was composed of 4 members, 3 superb programmers and 1 tech lead/hands-on project manager (me).   Our efforts were focused on delivering a .NET analytics platform which was in beta release.

We regularly incorporated agile software development practices including frequent software deliverable, daily meetings, daily interaction between business people and developers, continuous integration, no overtime, refactoring, and face-to-face team conversations.

Following the move it was clear that we had also improved our practice of collective code ownership while becoming better at moving people around.  We lost the benefits that come with face-to-face team conversations but overall our system had matured into a  production release and we signed our first customer.

The immediate impact following my move was surprising.  In these first few months, we experienced a team surge that saw us sprinting through 4 development iterations, invigorating the project and more importantly, introducing breakthrough features that singled out the product in the marketplace.

I believe this surge was directly related to positive effects that resulted from my move to a teleworking environment and I wonder whether the same intensity could have been achieved had the move not occurred.   The catalyst behind this surge included:

• Eliminating commute time gave me more time to focus on developing the product.
• The team raised its performance level in order to prove effectiveness in a virtual team setting.
• Three hour timezone difference allowed us to benefit from “Follow the Sun” development.
• Daily group chat sessions eased the recalcitrance and shyness that sometimes occurred in face-to-face conversations, empowering all members to speak up.  The result was continuous feedback that improved our team-intimacy, awareness to project risk and productivity.

Counter Balancing

After this initial surge and as the year progressed, some of the challenges facing teleworkers and virtual teams began to set in, specifically team intimacy began to suffer as the lack of face-to-face meetings, coupled with the transition of part of the team to separate projects began to disconnect and disorient us all.

To counter these effects, we:

• Introduced a weekly meeting with business leads.
• Transitioned my original role as tech lead to a colocated member, allowing me to better focus on clearing obstacles that were preventing colocated members from maximizing their productivity and brilliance.
• Increased my visits to the office.
• Decreased project velocity to achieve a more sustainable pace.

Subtle adjustments also helped counter the effects of my moving to a remote work environment.   For example, I could sense a collective relief from business leads (as well as increased call volumes) once my Argentine ring tone was changed to sound like the standard USA ring tone.

Conclusion

Looking back, I do believe the initial team surge was directly related to the benefits agile promotes in moving people around.   The intensity of this surge was largely a result of our response to the changing circumstances.   As challenges arose, it was critical to address each quickly and decisively.  In my new role as a teleworker, I can confirm the importance of continually reaching out to all stakeholders, make them feel comfortable that you are accessible during their work hours.  The move to a teleworking environment also gave me time to focus exclusively on writing code while transitioning my role as tech lead to a colocated member.  In the process we improved our practice of collective code ownership.

While this move served as an extreme case of the challenges and opportunities that result when you move people around, more traditional examples more would show team members owning different portions of the system or  fulfilling different team roles at different times in the development lifecycle.   When effectively managed, the benefits will be distributed across individuals, their team and the stakeholders they serve.

This concludes the series Moving People Around.

The list of challenges facing teleworkers are rooted in three dimensions. First is the reality that he or she may have too little or too much of the discipline it takes to be effective in a remote setting. For example, the teleworker may not be effective in isolation from the team, or may work doubly hard to prove their effectiveness. The second dimension is the perception from collocated team members that the teleworker has a desirable and enviable position.  Here we see effectiveness and accomplishments of the teleworker being diminished by any lingering resentment from team members not in a position to telework themselves. The third dimension of challenges facing teleworking professionals is the reality that collaborating and ensuring unambiguous interpretation across geographic boundaries, cultures and timezones is just plain difficult.

With that in mind, the challenges facing the teleworker include:

• Work/Life Balance
• Trust
• Envy
• Team Intimacy
• Visibility
• Effectiveness

Work/Life Balance

Depending on the characteristics of the work and team, teleworkers may find it difficult to draw clear lines between their personal and professional lives. First, teleworkers may try to overproduce in order to prove their worth and effectiveness, or may simply need to work more in order to overcome any ineffectiveness resulting from their remoteness from the team. In cases where the teleworker is a member of a virtual team, where members may span timezone and countries, teleworkers may be tempted to work the timezone of the team members they want to impress the most. These tendencies lead to longer hours at the computer, and the blurring of the line that divides professional and personal life.

Trust

The level of trust in any relationship can determine its growth potential. The same goes for the relationship between a teleworker and his team. Depending on team dynamics, prolonged periods without face-to-face communication will have an adverse effect on trust. Teleworkers should schedule recurring face-to-face meetings between themselves and other team members, preferably in person meetings, however video conferencing can serve as a effective alternative.

The quality of a teleworker’s performance and deliverables will impact the level of trust between them and the rest of the team. Repeatedly missing deadlines, not following what was asked of them, or in general producing low-quality deliverables will erode the trust of others.

Envy

Virtual teams composed of a mix between colocated members and teleworkers will most likely experience envy or resentment directed towards teleworkers. This is a natural consequence resulting from the effort colocated members expend to be physically present with customers, project stakeholders, and fellow employees on a daily basis, and the general lack of such effort from teleworking professionals. These sentiments can begin to erode Trust unless teleworkers continuously prove their value to their team.

Team Intimacy

By team intimacy I mean the level of concern member feels to one-another’s professional needs.  Intimacy can be a critical element towards ensuring the success for any project as it helps build trust. A teleworker may struggle to find the required level of intimacy with his or her team and must therefore make a conscious and creative effort to consistently reach out through voice, video and chat technologies.

Visibility

The old adage “Out of sight, out of mind” can apply to teleworkers as well.  Even highly-effective teleworkers who would otherwise be the goto person in a colocated settings, can be forgotten once they find themselves in a teleworking arrangement. If the teleworker has a clear specialization, his or her visibility to other team members will probably remain high. If instead the teleworker has a less specialized skillset, visibility will suffer as managers and other team members rely on skills from colocated colleagues first. Timezone differences can further complicate the teleworker’s Work/Life Balance as he or she attempts to increase visibility by adjusting to the traditional working hours of colocated colleagues.

Effectiveness

The absence of commute time and common office distractions can cause a teleworker to be significantly more productive when compared to a colocated colleague. The challenge is having the required Trust, and Visibility from other team members to ensure a steady stream of work as well as the open communication channels to ensure continuous feedback for the task at hand while helping boost effectiveness.