"Agile Transformation with Remote Teams" - My keynote from #AgileTD

Main Statement:

Working with remote teams is a challenge in itself but when it comes to helping these teams embrace agile, it opens up a Pandora box of differences and fragmented communication. This talk is about my experience of helping remote teams with agile transformation and how we (as a team) learned to optimize our ways to take leverage of these difference and to ensure smooth collaboration and open communication.

Key Takeaways:

1. Remote teams have different dynamics than on-site teams and these dynamics can be leveraged to create a culture of trust and shared vision.
2. Coaching people virtually requires shared values and language, one to one informal discussions, leveraging technology for better communication and the ability to empathize.
3. Understanding pain points can become a challenge when you are not physically with the team, finding a work around to this road block can save time and clear out misconceptions.

Abstract:

Agile Transformation becomes trickier when working with remote teams, especially when the coach is also connected virtually.  These transformation projects present a new set of challenges and require an updated set of heuristics for understanding the team dynamics and creating a cultural shift. This talk includes details about my recent projects along with the set of heuristics I use to ensure that we are heading in the right direction. The challenges include unclear and fragmented communication, not having enough trust, unclear vision and a broken set of processes. We will discuss these challenges in detail and will talk about the strategies employed to ensure that team embraces the change with openness and fosters shared leadership. The talk will also discuss the importance of picking up the right tech stack and the inability of these tools to solve human problems. The transformation isn’t just about making the teams work in sprints or do daily standups, it is about embracing the agile principles and readjusting the sails whenever required to ensure that the value is bring delivered to the customers.

You can download my slides from here.

You can watch my keynote here.