Some of us have been forced by the pandemic to work in a new reality. Even though forced work from home != remote work, I would like to reinforce some practices that are in place in workplaces with distributed teams.

Acknowledgments: This page would not be possible without the collaboration and discussions with Nuno Santos, Silvia Bessa and Ana Rebelo

Setup

Chat

Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord

Slack/Microsoft Teams are currently the go-to apps for teams communications. Discord is a great tool for voice. I usually leave it open at certain times of the day for impromptu communications.

Video Conference

Google Meets, Zoom

Source Control

Git, duh!

Tooling

Pair Programming

More tools listed in [Pair Programming Tools]

Meetings, brainstorm sessions and other ceremonies

Also, in [other tools]

  • WhiteBoard
  • IdeaBoardz
  • Miro

Patterns

  • Over-communicate - Communicate with your team mates like you do in the office and do it more often
  • Give the benefit of a doubt. In e-mails and chats there’s lot that is lost in messages (e.g., expressions, cultural differences). Assume the best intentions of your peers.
  • Fear of missing out: An increasing concern in remote teams - establish working agreements like flexible working hours [see gitlab guide]; if a decision needs to be made, set up a working plan, deadlines and meeting/brainstorm sessions - if necessary - to write it down. Give your team and colleagues time to digest the information.
  • Practice active listening and speak slowly and calmly, give some short spaces with no talk and some silence in between each intervention (e.g., eventual lag in video call) [see tips for remote working]
  • Team ceremonies (Daily stand-up, item refinements and retrospective meetings) - continue to do it or be more involved. Dailies are team’s heartbeat [see tips for remote working].
    • Connect your camera, we are all humans (If they don’t have a headset or webcam turned on, it’s a bit of a smell [see social])
    • Get a headset
    • 💡 be funny, sociable.
  • Keep your Focus and plan better (not more) - Try Pomodoro technique to have periods of work and small breaks [see tips for remote working]
    • Define priorities and adjust accordingly
    • Small, minor tasks, leave to the end of the week - usually on a Friday afternoon
  • Socialise: Have social gatherings like you have in the office - Create opportunities for a cup of tea/coffee, biscuit [see social]
    • Keep your reading/book clubs
    • Keep your team brainstorming sessions

References

Pair Programming
Tips Remote work

[Blog] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20-simple-tips-scrum-teams-only-help-working-remote-daniel-carrilho/

Social

[PPT] https://2019.leanagile.scot/programme/space-between-tale-remote-teams-and-distributed-working - props to my colleague @Erika Nitsch

Tools

[Blog] https://www.scrumexpert.com/tools/free-retrospective-tools-for-distributed-scrum-teams/

Guide

[Blog] https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/all-remote/guide/