Agile is a methodology founded on collaboration. This can be seen throughout its core principles: Sprint planning, daily stand ups, reviews and retrospectives. Each of these activities encourage collaboration, feedback and ceremonies in which key stakeholders are present and actively communicating throughout to deliver the outputs that feed the next iteration.
However, simply because a team or an individual isn’t in the same office as another doesn’t necessarily mean that this collaboration is immediately removed, right?
4 Steps to Adapt Agile to Remote Work
- Conduct a feasibility audit.
- Invest in the right tools.
- Establish a remote work discipline.
- Develop remote work skills.
This is a question leaders are wrestling with. After somewhat being forced to rapidly adopt and then experiment with remote work, more companies are demanding a return to the office under the pretense that it’s necessary for productivity and collaboration.
But Agile and remote work don’t have to be mutually exclusive, nor is Agile immediately suited to distributed teams. Instead, those relying on Agile need to update and adapt the methodology to the new working dynamic.
Challenges Applying Agile in a Remote Workforce
Over the past few years, we’ve worked with clients across multiple industries, helping them tackle the issues associated with remote working efficiency. These organizations are typically committed to adopting Agile or have teams that are already utilizing Agile.
In almost all cases, it is not a question of whether Agile works for remote teams. In fact, Agile provides the underlying principles and processes by which they are able to operate remote teams more effectively. Instead, it is a question of how they can use, adapt and execute Agile more effectively.
There are however a few common challenges to bear in mind:
- The reduction in spontaneous communication that occurs in co-located teams.
- A lack of recognition that remote working can require different approaches to communication and meeting etiquette and that this may require upskilling.
- Identification of how Agile could be improved to suit various scenarios. A steadfast reliance on the core of Agile to deliver a perfect remote environment doesn’t work. Leaders and teams need to be flexible and tailor their frameworks to suit their needs.
How to Adapt Agile for Remote Work
There are clear issues that arise through remote working within an Agile environment. While tools like JIRA, Zoom, Slack and more make digital collaboration seamless, they can’t completely paper over Agile’s issues in a remote environment.
However, Agile provides a core methodology upon which organizations and teams can effectively manage and deliver projects. In fact, there are elements of Agile that can contribute to better management of remote teams, a couple of examples of which are:
- The use of sprint backlogs to manage work during a spring. Combined with tools such as Asana, these types of Agile processes can be very effective in fostering better project management within remote teams
- Adaptability is a core element of Agile. Agile’s strength lies in its ability to not only adapt to changing circumstances, such as the increasing demand for remote work but also to potentially enhance productivity and quality in a remote setting. By staying agile, teams can effectively meet evolving needs and maintain high standards of delivery.
With regards to the feasibility of remote working in this type of environment, here are some steps to facilitate a more effective, Agile workforce.
1. Conduct a Feasibility Audit
The first step is to do an audit and determine if the remote teams are set up to work in conjunction within the Agile framework. There may be fundamental elements creating friction. For example, time zones may prevent key stakeholders in different time zones from all attending ceremonies at the same time. Additionally, does everyone have access to internet speeds that provide clear and fast communication on video calls?
The solution is to introduce a certain amount of flexibility to address those pain points. When Agile is successfully implemented, teams will be self-organizing and take personal responsibility for their own (and the team’s) deliverables. Allowing them flexibility as long as they’re able to attend key meetings and deliver as planned can enhance team morale, employee satisfaction and lead to better results.
This does mean that clear parameters need to be set. Communicate which meetings are key and the attendees to maintain accountability. You may also need to set guidelines on optional meetings, ensuring that these have enough key stakeholders to remain productive.
2. Invest in the Right Tools
The benefit of co-located teams is not just in the nuances of face to face meetings and organic interactions, but also in the additional tools available to them. It sounds simple, but the ability to use a whiteboard or sticky notes allows for quick adjustments and collaboration.
For remote teams to work effectively, they require adequate tooling that looks to replace these elements that are available to co-located teams. Presentation software, collaboration tools and break out meetings are all musts. The technologies that have enabled remote working must be fully utilized for remote working to be effective.
Tool bloat is a growing issue for businesses, regardless of whether they operate remote or co-located teams. The effectiveness of tooling is subjective to each organization, though a key mistake we see businesses making is a lack of regular review of said tooling. Worse still, we see remote teams search more actively for a panacea through tooling, resulting in the adoption of tools without proper evaluation and integration. The desire to solve issues can often result in lack of consideration for real world ease of use, integration capabilities and alignment with the team’s workflow.
For companies who’ve already invested in remote working tools it’s crucial to evaluate them in regard to the unique, relevant criteria. Even the best tools can expire in suitability, modernity and effectiveness over time. Regular retrospectives provide the opportunity for review in which ongoing feedback can be gathered from the team, and periodic tool audits done to help identify and eliminate redundancies.
Furthermore, the utility that tools provide should not be warped or mistaken. Collaboration tools such as JIRA enable clear documentation and communication on specific tasks. However, that doesn’t mean that they solve the collaboration problem. In this example, they don’t replace organic interactions or in-person user testing.
This is where Agile shines for remote teams. When organic in-person interactions don’t exist, the structured check-ins Agile provides are even more crucial. Team members don’t have to actively reach out to connect, get support or ask for help as the regular meetings provide the consistent space and opportunity, regardless of where these are held (in-person, via Microsoft Teams, Google Meets or even over the phone/text)
3. Establish a Remote Work Discipline
Co-located working offers the opportunity for spontaneous collaboration. This is something that can be harder to initiate when working remotely. Teams sometimes fallback to asynchronous forms of communication such as texting or emailing over video calls, which can take much more effort to set up and organize. The result is that the team gradually fragments over time and information flow slows.
Scrum events offer an effective method to organize and structure collaboration, but remote teams have to work harder to retain that face-to-face element that makes those meetings effective. They should prioritize visual approaches and focused interactions wherever possible to maintain an effective scrum event.
For example, we typically focus on five critical Scrum events to maintain collaboration:
- Sprint planning
- Daily scrum
- Refinement
- Review
- Retrospective
Set a clear timebox for each event so that they don’t become a drain on resources and be prepared to adapt the cadence accordingly. However, the discipline of these events enables more organic collaboration within the meetings themselves.
4. Develop Remote Work Skills
Teams need to also deliberately develop remote communication skills when working in a distributed environment. Skills like how to not speak over each other, track key points, track actions, arrive prepared, as well as how to use distributed collaboration tools are critical to working effectively and efficiently. Too much friction in remote meetings turns people off from engaging and discourages collaboration.
Organizations frequently overlook the importance of deliberately upskilling their teams in such approaches, leaving teams to struggle and work their way through learning good techniques. Some ways to develop your team’s remote skills include:
- Ensuring that all team members are fully versed on the functionality of critical tools. Incorrect usage of platforms can result in buried information and a breakdown in communication between team members.
- Be clear on which tools should be used for different types of communication. For example, instant messaging for quick communication, email for external messages or a PM tool for increased visibility on items.
- It may sound foundational, but upskilling (or refreshing) on Agile methodologies can deepen a team’s understanding and commitment, to fundamental principles that will enable efficient remote working.
Agile is all about adaptability. Be willing to make changes based on what is or isn’t working. An iterative approach keeps teams efficient, aligned and able to deliver.
Agile itself provides the framework necessary to address the unique challenges remote work poses. Critically though, they must be addressed. There needs to be widespread acknowledgement and acceptance of potential roadblocks and constant effort to overcome them.
