Many agile coaches think it’s a prerequisite to co-locate the team in order to be successful. However, what if you have remote team members or are considering adding them to your team but afraid it will only slow you down. As more people choose to work remotely it will be important to learn how to be a part of or lead successful remote agile teams. We will discuss three mindset changes that are critical to helping your team, regardless of location, implement agile and lean principals to help your team be a successful agile team. Learning Outcomes: Learn about the four remote team types and some of the traps and how to overcome them with your team. Learn how to use the agile mindset of encouraging and managing for change to encourage the team to experiment with everything so they can decide when to change. Learn how to encourage your team to emphasize communication and collaboration and come up with ways the team can do that effectively with remote teams. Learn how to use agile principles and adapt them to your team.

1. @paulmgower
BUILD A SUCCESSFUL
REMOTE AGILE TEAM
in three easy steps!

2. @paulmgower

3. @paulmgower
I discovered From Chaos to Successful
Distributed AgileTeams: Collaborate to
Deliver. I realized that Rothman and Kilby
had written down much of what I have
been teaching and promoting in my
practice. I have integrated their ideas
into this presentation.

4. @paulmgower
How to build
successful remote
agile teams?

5. @paulmgower
MINDSET

6. @paulmgower

7. @paulmgower

8. @paulmgower
“Once your mindset
changes,
everything on the
outside will change
along with it.”
Steve Maraboli

9. @paulmgower
How to build
successful remote
agile teams?

10. @paulmgower
AGILE & LEAN
PRINCIPLES

11. @paulmgower
AGILE SOFT. DEV. PRINCIPLES
1. Deliver early and often to satisfy the customer.
2. Welcome changing requirements.
3. Deliver working software frequently.
4. Business people and developers must work
together
5. Trust motivated people to do their jobs.
6. Face-to-face conversation is the most efficient
and effective method of conveying info.
7. Working software is the primary measure
of progress.
8. Maintain a sustainable pace.
9. Continuous attention to technical
excellence and good design enhances agility.
10.Simplicity—the art of maximizing the
amount of work not done—is essential.
11.The best architectures, requirements, and
designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12.Reflect and adjust at regular intervals.

12. @paulmgower
LEAN SOFT. DEV. PRINCIPLES
1. Eliminate waste
2. Amplify learning
3. Decide as late as possible
4. Deliver as fast as possible
5. Empower the team
6. Build integrity in
7. See the whole

13. @paulmgower
Start with what you do now
Agree to pursue incremental, evolutionary change
Respect the current process, roles, responsibilities & titles
Encourage acts of leadership at all levels
KANBAN PRINCIPLES

14. @paulmgower
KANBAN CORE PROPERTIES
1. Visualize the workflow
2. Limit WIP
3. Manage flow
4. Make Process Policies
Explicit
5. Improve Collaboratively
(using models & the
scientific method)

15. @paulmgower
How to build
successful remote
agile teams?

16. @paulmgower
REMOTE TEAMS

17. @paulmgower
“The optimal distance for
communication frequency is
less than eight meters.”

18. @paulmgower
RemoteTeamTypes
1. Satellite
2. Cluster
3. Nebula

19. @paulmgower
One or few remote
from team
Satellite

20. @paulmgower
Team in a few
locations
Cluster

21. @paulmgower
Whole team
dispersed
Nebula

22. @paulmgower
3 MINDSETS
• Experimentation
• Communication & Collaboration
• Principle-based agile approaches
TRAPS

23. @paulmgower
EXPERIMENTATION

24. @paulmgower

25. @paulmgower

26. @paulmgower

27. @paulmgower

28. @paulmgower
“Running too many experiments at
once can lead to ‘change fatigue’.
Instead, run experiments with a clear
hypothesis and a short duration.”

29. @paulmgower
Insufficient
Experimentation Mindset
TRAP

30. @paulmgower
EMPOWERTEAM
• Ask:“What are our hypotheses, what options do we
have to test them, and how will we measure the
results?”
• Set a time box and regularly gather data.
• Map theValue Stream toVisualize CycleTime

31. @paulmgower
Leaders should
experiment
SOLUTION

32. @paulmgower
COMMUNICATION
& COLLABORATION

33. @paulmgower

34. @paulmgower

35. @paulmgower

36. @paulmgower
Team Not Created for
Collaboration
TRAP

37. @paulmgower

38. @paulmgower
Build Respect with
Working Agreements
SOLUTION

39. @paulmgower
PRINCIPLE-BASED AGILE
APPROACHES

40. @paulmgower
REMOTETEAM PRINCIPLES
1. Establish acceptable hours of
overlap.
2. Create transparency at all levels.
3. Create a culture of continuous
improvement with experiments.
4. Practice pervasive
communication at all levels.

41. @paulmgower
REMOTETEAM PRINCIPLES
1. Establish acceptable hours of
overlap.
2. Create transparency at all levels.
3. Create a culture of continuous
improvement with experiments.
4. Practice pervasive
communication at all levels.
5. Assume good intention.
6. Create a project rhythm.
7. Create a culture of
resilience.
8. Default to collaborative
work.

42. @paulmgower
Forcing a Specific
Agile Approach
TRAP

43. @paulmgower
OWNERSHIP
• Allow the team the space to work with the Agile &
Lean Principles we discussed.
• Allow the team to fail and learn from it.
• Help the team focus on customer value delivery.

44. @paulmgower
Keep cadences
as short as
possible
SOLUTION

45. @paulmgower
MORETRAPS

46. @paulmgower
Save Money with Lower
Salaries
TRAP

47. @paulmgower
LOWER SALARIES
• Allow team space to innovate and learn.
• Allow them space to collaborate.
• Have at least 4 hours of overlap

48. @paulmgower
Acceptable
Hours of Overlap
SOLUTION

49. @paulmgower
Management with
Traditional Mindset
TRAP

50. @paulmgower
MANAGER’S MINDSET
• “To create a successful distributed agile culture,
managers need to change their mindset also.”
• “Successful agile managers work up and down the
hierarchy, helping their colleagues and their managers
change the measurements and desired outcomes.”

51. @paulmgower

52. @paulmgower
Cultivate Growth
Mindset
SOLUTION

53. @paulmgower
MINDSETS
• Foster Experimentation
• Encourage Collaboration
• Guide with Principles not Practices

54. @paulmgower
AVOIDTRAPS
• Insufficient Experimentation Mindset
• Team Not Created for Collaboration
• Forcing a Specific Agile Approach
• Save Money with Lower Salaries
• Management withTraditional Mindset

55. @paulmgower
EXTRATIPS

56. @paulmgower
FACE-TO-FACETIME
• Helps fix systemic problems that can cause
increases in cycle time.
• Builds respect within the team learning strengths
and weaknesses.
• Meet for a minimum of one week per quarter

57. @paulmgower
“You might think the travel expenses
are ‘too high.’ However, the team
saves time and money through faster
clarification of the vision, mission,
goals, and working agreements.”

58. @paulmgower
BACKCHANNEL
• Dedicated chat channel to support synchronous or
asynchronous conversations.
• Always available—it adds context and allows people
to collaborate.
• The whole team uses it and only the team uses it.

59. @paulmgower
ALWAYS USEVIDEO

60. @paulmgower
“The problem human beings face is
not that we aim too high and fail,
but that we aim too low and
succeed.”
Michelangelo

61. @paulmgower
Thanks to Rothman and Kilby for
From Chaos to Successful
Distributed AgileTeams:
Collaborate to Deliver.

62. @paulmgower
TAKE-AWAYS
@paulmgower

63. @paulmgower
RESOURCES
• From Chaos to Successful Distributed AgileTeams - https://leanpub.com/geographicallydistributedagileteams
• Lean Software Development:An AgileToolkit - https://www.amazon.com/Lean-Software-Development-Agile-Toolkit/dp/0321150783
• What is Kanban? - http://www.everydaykanban.com/what-is-kanban/
• Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change forYourTechnology Business - https://www.amazon.com/Kanban-Successful-Evolutionary-
Technology-Business/dp/0984521402/
• The Scientific Method - How ChemistsThink - https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Introductory_Chemistry/
Map%3A_Introductory_Chemistry_(Tro)/01%3A_The_Chemical_World/1.4%3A_The_Scientific_Method_-_How_Chemists_Think
• The Education System: Now ClimbThatTree - https://marquetteeducator.wordpress.com/2012/07/12/climbthattree/
• Value Stream Mapping for Knowledge Work and Services - https://blog.lucidmeetings.com/blog/facilitating-value-stream-mapping-for-
knowledge-work-and-service-organizations
• Tools for remote teams - https://www.collaborationsuperpowers.com/tools/