This is not an uncommon situation in the 21st century computer software development: the founder is in New York. The web development gurus are in Denver. The database expert is in LA. The design team is in Phoenix. QA is in San Francisco. And the system admins are all the way over in Mumbai! Modern information technology is making the world "smaller" from a working perspective but not necessarily making managing a team easier. Int his day and age a software team is likely to really exist mostly in cyberspace - with its team members having to figure out how to give each other the proper access, interfacing, and sharing needed to get the job done. Here are several keys to a successful geographically-diverse team:
- **Rethink Nine to Five**"Early to bed, early to rise" was for the age before electricity and, more importantly, before the web. A team may be spread across an entire continent. One team member may be just coming into work while another one is getting off the lunch break and itching to go home. Moreover, it could be the middle of the night in another part of the world where someone valuable to the team is active. It is important to hash out these timing issues early. Identify who all key players are, where they are located, what their routine is like, and try to identify a good, productive work-life-balance. Do not try to shoehorn everyone into the same schedule.
- At Least a Half-Hour of Touching Base per DayWhen team members don't share the same space, it is very likely that they aren't thinking as much about each other's work as they would if they were. This is why there should be a daily standup. Set clear goals. Give everyone a chance to speak and bring up any issues. Use this time to build the kind of bond with the team that you would if you had to say hi in the hallway to each other or chat in the break room.
- **Do Not Underestimate the Importance of Videoconferencing**Though videoconferencing may not be within every startup's budget, and may not be feasible for most situations, the truth is that a team thrives when there is richness in communication. If you are in a situation in which two team members don't even know what each other look like, and only know each other through text and voice, a good video conference from time to time, or at least for important knowledge sharing sessions, will help bring team cohesiveness and help communicate ideas more effectively. There is a reason why whiteboards dominate in the conference rooms of many big companies, and even the distributed team should try to create the same dynamic as closely as possible.
- **Chat Is Your Friend**A distributed software team must learn how to communicate through chat. This shoudn't be too much of a problem since in this day and age chat windows and real-time text-based communication are well-known to pretty much everyone. Of course, IRC (Internet Relay Chat) has been with us since 1988 and any tech team worth it's salt should have no problem using it collaborate with a minimum of effort and hassle. IRC has the advantages of low-bandwidth, low-resource usage, and offering the ability for all users to follow developments in a group conversation with little effort. [ mosh + irssi == awesome IRC ]
