This presentation shares experiences from a collaborative approach to creating innovative solutions through technology, including insights on management of a technology project life cycle; using tracking tools for change management; managing communications for a virtual team; and other means to
foster collaboration.
5. Summary of our learning's that can help in getting the best of a virtual team Introduction Objectives of this presentation
6. Traditional methodologies, new technologies Perpetual dilemma of make vs. buy Significant struggles to integrate bespoke applications with off-the-shelf platforms BuzzBack
10. 7 10+ years of experimentation/collaboration with developers More success than failures, but failures are very costly Most failures are the result of poor communication, rarely the result of poor skill set.
31. Extended Team Model Team composition Core team BuzzBack & Datamatics On-request Resources Flash Resources QA Team .Net Resources
32. Extended Team Model Responsibilities Traditional Model Extended Model Datamatics BuzzBack Datamatics BuzzBack Requirements Requirements Functional Design Functional Design Architecture Architecture Technical Design Technical Design Development Development Integration Integration Testing Testing Staging Deployment Staging Deployment Reviews Reviews Updations Updations Production Deployment Production Deployment Maintenance Maintenance
35. Change Management The Process Identification Changes are identified and entered in online tools Changes are identified and entered in online tools
36. Change Management The Process Identification Feasibilty and Estimation The extended team discusses feasibility and estimates the time and impact
37. Change Management The Process Identification Feasibilty and Estimation Joint Decision & Execution Decision taken by the team and changes implemented
41. The working model will depend on end objectives of the development A flexible agile approach is more suited for market research The extended team model ensures joint responsibility of success/failure and it has worked well for us Change management is a joint responsibility with well defined success criteria for both sides To Summarize
People are not rational. We are all increasingly aware through piling of evidence. But we still ask rationally based surveys. BuzzBack doesn’t think that’s the best approach.
We have offices in NYC and London, but have remote workers wired in from all over. So, an overseas team is not an infrastructure issue. Concerns are about time zones, cultures,
Communication problems are related to bad documentation, bad systems for tracking, and developers not feeling empowered to speak up.
Ted Williams is arguably the greatest batter ever but only got hits 4 times out of 10. We need a much higher success rate.
We’ve played with a lot of the PM methodologies, and they all have pros and cons but only experience will teach you which works for you.
It’s all about communication. Phone, email, video conferencing, shared desktops, PM websites for project tracking, issue tracking, task tracking, as well as good documentation in word, ppt, visio, etc.Communication even drives process.
We simply approach our work in fundamentally different ways. Our minds work differently. It’s crucial to find middle-ground. The better you can communicate what you want in the first place, the fewer revisions are necessary. It takes a while to get a rhythm and a process. Experiment, and be ready to fail…a lot.
To be honest, there’s a bit of magic in finding the right team to work with.
Vendors, ourselves included, love to say that “we don’t want to just be your vendor, we want to be your partner.” Which is often true. But in application development it MUST go beyond being a partner to being a team.
Humanize your team
We’re all committed to adapting and evolving.
In the end we have a chimera approach, a custom project management methodology that both sides buy in to and adhere to.