{"id":21422,"date":"2019-02-19T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-19T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global2020prd.wpengine.com\/insights\/practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams\/"},"modified":"2020-05-18T10:12:56","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T10:12:56","slug":"practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical tips for Agile in virtual teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the key tenets of agile methodology is that team members sit and work side-by-side, with frequent face-to-face communication.\u00a0 Can this technique be adapted to remote and digital working? The answer is yes, and here\u2019s how:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Project visualization<\/strong><\/p>\n

As one remote engineering firm explains<\/a>, online project management tools such as Trello can replace moving post-it notes along a conference board.<\/p>\n

Standups<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 15-minute daily \u2018standups\u2019 can become start or end of day online posts to a designated Slack channel where team members share what they did that day, what they plan to do tomorrow and any blockages \u2013 and can comment on each other\u2019s posts at a time that suits them.\u00a0 This also provides a searchable record and an induction tool for new joiners.<\/p>\n

Retros<\/strong><\/p>\n

End-of-sprint retrospectives (\u2018Retros\u2019) can still happen \u2013 but this time using video conferencing \u2013 with tools also available to facilitate private brainstorming to avoid groupthink.\u00a0 Demos of the minimal viable products or initiatives at the end of a sprint can be submitted as an animated GIF that other team members can access at their convenience.<\/p>\n

Recorded video conference \u2018deep dive\u2019 sessions with a small audience can help explain the context and constraints of the project \u2013 again this is something that anyone outside the team or new to the business can access at a later date.<\/p>\n

Involvement<\/strong><\/p>\n

Other tips include making sure that those working remotely aren\u2019t made to feel like they\u2019re merely the \u2018helpers\u2019 to the core co-located team.\u00a0 Setting up cross-location quality reviews means that all locations know enough about what each other are doing and can deal with any issue with the project, even if one location is offline due to time differences.<\/p>\n

Let it work<\/strong><\/p>\n

Finally, with both face-to-face and digital agile working, the danger is that this technique is implemented without people truly understanding how or in what circumstances it is designed to work \u2013 see previous blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For example, if leaders continue to launch lots of initiatives rather than prioritizing which to work on first, or schedule lots of additional review meetings outside of the daily stand-ups and start\/end sprint meetings, or become heavily involved in the detailed work of the agile teams, or set up agile teams for an issue that doesn\u2019t need lots of collaboration \u2013 then this will just become another cumbersome exercise in bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

However, used effectively, it can be an efficient and engaging way of organizing complex virtual and digital work.<\/p>\n

See an interactive graphic of our agile and digital leadership path<\/a> and module contents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the key tenets of agile methodology is that team members sit and work side-by-side, with frequent face-to-face communication.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":21423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","type-blog","training-agile-and-digital","training-virtual-teams"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPractical tips for Agile in virtual teams - Global Integration<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the key tenets of agile methodology is that team members sit and work side-by-side, with frequent face-to-face communication.\u00a0 Can this technique\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Practical tips for Agile in virtual teams\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the key tenets of agile methodology is that team members sit and work side-by-side, with frequent face-to-face communication.\u00a0 Can this technique\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/insights\/practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Global Integration\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-02-19T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-18T10:12:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.global-integration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/adult-alone-arms-1437541-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1556\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Debbie Marshall-Lee\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1fa12bfdb63cb06a915dc1478d791465\"},\"headline\":\"Practical tips for Agile in virtual teams\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-02-19T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-18T10:12:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":429,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/adult-alone-arms-1437541-scaled.webp\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.global-integration.com\\\/insights\\\/practical-tips-for-agile-in-virtual-teams\\\/\",\"name\":\"Practical tips for Agile in virtual teams - 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