How to build a team for a distributed company

1. 16th – 19th February 2017
Davos, Switzerlanddrupalmountaincamp.ch
DISTRIBUTED TEAM MANAGEMENT:
PITFALL, CHALLENGES AND
ADVANTAGES
EUGENIO MINARDI

2. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
Social event Sponsor
Individual Sponsor Fabian Dennler
Website Hosting provided byContribution Sponsor

3. WHO I AM

4. CTO at
eugenio@ibuildings.it
@kmox83
EUGENIO MINARDI

5. SOME CONTEXT
• Ibuildings is a dutch company which started in 1999
• based on open source products, mainly PHP

6. MY BEGINNINGS
• What was I doing in 1999?
• At that time my working environment used to be Windows
98, programming with ASP or Visual Basic
• The team I used to work in was composed by 2 or 3 people

7. MY BEGINNINGS
• Every person of the team was working independently on his
own project
• There were few interactions, some part of the programs
could come across, but each person was leading his own
work
• The coding was organised in libraries (and include files),
there was no versioning

8. FEW YEARS LATER
• In 2002/2003 I started working with open source software
• I had my first experience of work outsourcing
• Still at the collocated office we were few people but working
independently

9. FIRST PRODUCT AND TEAM
• From 2003 till 2006 I did freelancing, I have been project
lead but mostly take caro of one man projects
• In 2006 I started my first experience in a more structured
project
• Here I could learn the project phases, the roles and relations
with the stakeholders
• More actors involved, more complexity to manage

10. • In 2008 I started with a more structured work joining an
organisation
• People working in teams
• Tools for management and for versioning
• Tools for communication
• Collocated

11. IBUILDINGS
2013

12. IBUILDINGS
• When I joined in 2013, Ibuildings was just starting on the
Italian market
• Independent from the Dutch branch, but with their backing
and support
• It started with few people, each one hundreds kilometres
apart from the other
• Here started the challenge of managing a distributed
workforce

13. DEFINITIONS
DISTRIBUTED TEAM/WORKFORCE

14. DISTRIBUTED WORKFORCE DEFINITION
A distributed workforce is a workforce that reaches beyond
the restrictions of a traditional office environment. A
distributed workforce is dispersed geographically over a wide
area – domestically or internationally. By installing key
technologies, distributed companies enable employees
located anywhere to access all of the company’s resources and
software such as applications, data and e-mail without working
within the confines of a physical company-operated facility.
Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_workforce]

15. DISTRIBUTED WORKFORCE
• People (constitute the team)
• Technology (enables the work and communication)
• Different locations are involved
• Operating on the same set of things

16. CHALLENGES
Here come the

17. BUILD THE RIGHT TEAM
• PEOPLE is the main asset, the most important thing
• Traditional methods of hiring do not work
• We have first to measure the compatibility with our culture

18. BUILD THE RIGHT TEAM
…when it comes to distributed team
PERSONALITY AND MOTIVATION MATTERS
MORE THAN MERE TALENT

19. BUILD THE RIGHT TEAM
The following are characteristics that a person
should have to fit in a distributed team

20. RIGHT PEOPLE MEANS
Talented people
it is still a crucial aspect, people must have the
talent for what they are hired

21. RIGHT PEOPLE MEANS
Not arrogant nor opinionated
in a community you don’t want to put yourself in
front of the others and obscure them

22. RIGHT PEOPLE MEANS
Social with sense of humor

23. RIGHT PEOPLE MEANS
Autonomous
Problem solving skills, information discovery/
retrieval

24. RIGHT PEOPLE MEANS
Collaborative and Helpful
the right people for your distributed team want to
help the other team member and want to share
their own knowledge

25. RIGHT PEOPLE MEANS
Curious and self-starting
I want to know what I am doing, I want a deeper
understanding of the things.
Good remote workers also set goals for
themselves and for their team members
If they are not curious nor self-starting it is most
likely that the will depend on someone else

26. RIGHT PEOPLE MEANS
Communicative
A person should have good communication skill,
especially written
The major part of the communication will be in
written form, the lack of communicativeness may
lead to serious problems. If I cannot express
myself I cannot communicate my needs

27. RIGHT PEOPLE MEANS
Energetic and motivated
A person should bring good energy, should be
positive as much as possible

28. RIGHT PEOPLE MEANS
Confidence
A person should be able to get in confidence with the
other member of the team
It is good to maintain the communication also for non-
work related topic
For this we set up a telegram channel were anyone
can share a moment of his day or can start a frivolous
chat

29. RIGHT PEOPLE MEANS
• Talented
• Not arrogant nor opinionated
• Social with sense of humor
• Autonomous
• Collaborative and Helpful
• Curious and self-starting
• Communicative
• Results/Objective-driven
• Energetic
• Possible Confidence

30. Do you believe that with the right training,
support and time anyone would be suitable for
a distributed team?
QA

31. RIGHT PEOPLE, RIGHT JOB
Albert Einstein wrote,
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its
ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life
believing that it is stupid"

32. RIGHT PEOPLE, RIGHT JOB
Albert Einstein wrote,
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its
ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life
believing that it is stupid”
This is is also true for the soft skills

33. RIGHT PEOPLE, RIGHT JOB
Managing a distributed team won’t work for every
type of business, nor for every type of person.
If you can say:
“The way I work isn’t much different than how I
would work if I was at home”
Probably your job is right for distributed work

34. RIGHT PEOPLE, RIGHT JOB
When hiring a new people we follow the
proposition:
“it doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell
them what to do; we hire smart people so they can
tell us what to do”

35. TEAMS
Feeding and nurturing the

36. GIVE SUPPORT
• Remote workers in some cases may need to be guided
• There is a chance that they would feel lost or lonely
• People need somebody to look at for inspiration
• Everyone needs a mentor. Everyone can mentor
• The flow must be going from people to people, so who is
mentored also needs to be mentor of somebody else,
everybody have something to teach, some peculiar
knowledge or other talents

37. MAINTAIN THE COMMUNICATION
The biggest danger for a distributed team (as the
matter of facts also for a collocated team) is
silence, lack of communication.

38. DEFINE THINGS AND STICK TO DEFINITION
• People needs to have the things clear, in order
to avoid confusion
• This means processes and procedure, definition,
responsibilities
• This helps to have an orientation

39. BE OPEN - Internally
• Open company for open people
• Share with the team all the facts, be open and transparent, no hidden
information no trick or mind games
• If a team is going to have autonomy, it needs to have all the relevant
information
• Without all the relevant information the team members cannot make
good decision
• Is the company in health? Are clients satisfied? What is the opinion
about me? Is the business pipeline full?
• Share the results

40. BE OPEN - Externally
• Open company for open people
• The external perception of the organisation and of the
team is very important
• Do not try to cover problems or issues
• Talk about problems in public
• Share the outcomes and the possible solutions
• Openness create Trust

41. CULTURE OF TRUST
• The teams and the team work are based on
trust
• Especially for the distributed teams were there is
a limited face to face communication and the
convey of the emotions is more difficult
• If you don’t trust it means you will waste time
checking the work of someone else

42. CREATE BONDING OPPORTUNITIES
• In the distributed team there is a limited face to face
communication and the convey of the emotions is more
difficult
• More than 65 percent of social meaning occurs through
the nonverbal channel
• Let the people participate in events
• Organise company retreats
• Organise social events

43. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
• It is important to be able to measure the results
in order to be able to discuss and plan the
improvements
• It is important to discuss the personal goals of
the team members
• It is important to understand how everyone sees
each others

44. KEEP THE RHYTHM
• Like the drum on the boat, it is necessary to
keep a rhythm for better results
• A good rhythm and fixed ceremonies support a
good organisation of the work
• Some step and procedures helps also the more
messy people to have a structure

45. ASK DON’T TELL
• When you want the team to be autonomous you
have to lead them, not to command them
• Give the full information so that the team can
take the right decision
• If you ask people will take responsibility

46. TRY TO LIMIT DISTRIBUTION
• Try to let the teams experience the lowest
distribution level possible
• A good way is to organise team by location
proximity (at least with good logistics)
• So the people can have a more frequent in-
person meeting

47. ATTENTION TO DISTRIBUTED STAKEHOLDERS
• Also the stakeholders may be distributed and
they may be in different parts of the world
• The Product Owner needs to be enabled to
contact them, involve them and keep them in
the loop of communication

48. PITFALLS
Here come the

49. PITFALLS
• Of course there can be issues (and there are)
• Some of them can be due to people, due to the
organisation or, finally, due to clients

50. I WON’T SEE THEM
• “I won’t see them” - “If they’re not in the office,
they’re not working”
• This is quite common, especially in large
enterprise environment were managers are used
to see the lines of workers in front of their eyes
• It doesn’t matter if they are really working, at
least they are there and I can see them, I have
the feeling that they are producing

51. I WON’T SEE THEM
• To avoid this it is necessary to Focus on Results
• It needs to be shared with the clients (sometimes it
is really not easy and it needs a step by step
approach)
• Provide tools to measure the results
• Build the trust
• Give feedback and ask for feedback

52. MESSY COMMUNICATION
• Hold structured meetings
• Daily standup meetings
• Weekly updates
• Quarterly company retreat

53. PEOPLE MAY LOSE CONTACT
• Remote work has a lot of benefits but it limits the
face-to-face contact
• In-person activities are important
• Host regular company retreat
• Help the people to organise tech meet-ups were they
can also meet in a non-work related environment
• Participate in/Organise events

54. POSSIBLE UNBALANCED LIFE
• Working from home may lead to unbalanced
day life
• For this is important to have a rhythm, also the
SCRUM and other methods uses ceremonies to
keep track of the time
• Landmarks are important to know were you are
• Help the people to have a regular daily schedule

55. ISOLATION
• Working from home may lead people to get
isolated, especially in long projects with the
same set of interactions
• Smart working / Co-working could fix partially
the problem, alone but together

56. DELEGATION
• There are cases when in-person meetings are
required
• Choose delegates from team (by proximity,
availability, logistics, or others..)
• This can be good practice at the beginning of
every initiative, not only for the problematic
ones

57. THE “BIG-PICTURE” IS NOT VISIBLE
• It is important that every team member is aware of the big
picture, the are not producing one line of code, they are
creating the software to manage an eShop
• During a visit to the NASA space center in 1962, President John
F. Kennedy noticed a janitor carrying a broom. He interrupted
his tour, walked over to the man and said, "Hi, I'm Jack Kennedy.
What are you doing?"
"Well, Mr. President," the janitor responded, "I'm helping put a
man on the moon."
• The Product Owner must have the tools to keep track of what is
going on

58. US VERSUS THEM
• It is easy to enter in this mood
• We should avoid the team to exclude the
stakeholders or even the Product Owners
• It is important that the same rules of
communication are standing inside and outside
the team

59. BIG AMOUNT OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
• It is important that people are organised and
with good written skills
• It is important that people have the right tools to
collect and share the information
• The tools have to give easy access to the
information when needed

60. Do you want to share your challenges or
pitfalls?
QA

61. ADVANTAGES
And finally the

62. TALENT
• When the location is not your limit you can choose
the person you want
• It is possible to cherry pick the persons that you
want to include in your team
• You can find the best-of-breeds for the topic that you
require
• Since people are the main asset, this is a quite
important advantage

63. PRODUCTIVITY
• Usually people working with few disturb given
from a normal office environment are more
concentrated and more productive
• Also the environment (own home) can have
positive effects on the person

64. MINIMAL INFRASTRUCTURE
• There is no need for a complex infrastructure
when people are working from home
• Also there are less problems with law
compliances related to infrastructure security

65. DIVERSITY
• The distribution is great for the inclusion of
people from different location and with different
backgrounds
• Diversity is important to face projects with
different perspective

66. ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
• When people are working from home they will
limit as much as possible the use of
transportation

67. WORK/LIFE BALANCE
• There is no travel time to work so the day is
better optimised
• It is possible to participate more in the family life
• Bring kids to/from school, spend time with the
new borns, spend time with relatives, have a
lunch in family

68. COST REDUCTION
• Managing a light weight infrastructure has a
huge impact on costs

69. BENEFITS FOR THE TEAM
• There is no need for a complex infrastructure
when people are working from home, the costs
are reduces so:
• In this way it is possible to reimburse the
expenses for the connection, mobile, eventual
transportation to the team
• In general there is a wider margin for employees
benefits

70. COMFORT
• The home environment allows you to work in
the best way you wish
• No clothing rules (it is enough a shirt when
conferencing :) )

71. Do you want to share your advantages?
QA

72. And Technologies
Tools

73. PROCESSES
• The main framework we use for our teams is
SCRUM
• We have 5 SCRUM teams
• 3 to 7 people per team
• Little different from the plain SCRUM, the
Product Owner is not in the Team

74. PROCESSES
We have different kind of projects
• Technical, Process, Architectural, UX, Strategic
Consultancy
• Technical, Process, Architectural, UX, Strategic Training /
Training on the job
• Shared development (with clients’ team or other
suppliers)
• End-to-End product development

75. PROCESSES
• We have taken inspiration from many different
frameworks
• We find suitable many concepts from the LeSS
framework (Large Scale Scrum)

76. taken from: http://less.works

77. PROCESSES
• LeSS is for multiple teams working on the same
product sharing the same sprints and objectives
• LeSS is based on SCRUM
• We do not apply strictly LeSS but we use some
concept
• Decoupled application can fit well in this
framework

78. PROCESSES
“organisations which design systems ... are
constrained to produce designs which are copies of
the communication structures of these
organisations"
— M. Conway, 1968 Symposium of modular
programming

79. PLANNING AND FORECASTING
• Plans are useless but planning is indispensable
• We needed the right tools for planning and
forecasting to be dynamic enough for our
structure
• Change of plans happens multiple times in a day
• We use JIRA Software and Tempo for planning
and forecasting

80. AUTOMATION
• The automation is a crucial factor for being agile
• Developers have to spend time in development
not in setting up the infrastructure
• We use Bamboo or Jenkins for the task
automation, Ansible for provisioning and a
Docker-based system for running the servers
(mainly Kubernetes)

81. DEVELOPMENT AND VERSIONING
• We try to uniform the tools of development
• This can be a limit for someone which has his
own favorite editor but it is a plus for the whole
team, the knowledge on the tool can be shared
• We use IntelliJ (or PHPStorm, WebStorm for the
specific technologies)

82. DEVELOPMENT AND VERSIONING
• The versioning is on GIT on Bitbucket Server
• It is integrated with JIRA and it follows the
feature branching model with an integration
branch for each environment (dev, test, prod…)
• We use Pull Request to validate the code and
eventually to start the automation

83. KNOWLEDGE BASE
• All the knowledge related to an initiative is
hosted on Confluence
• This is valid for product requirement pages,
design documents, prototypes and so on
• Confluence allows interaction between team
members and also interaction with the
stakeholders

84. PROTOTYPING
• We use different tools for prototyping
• Balsamiq, Axure and Adobe Experience Design
• These are good tools to keep interaction and
communication between team members and
stakeholders during the design of a product

85. FILE REPOSITORY
• We use Sharepoint as file and document
repository
• It is important to make available the documents
to every team member
• Here they can also find company related
documents, templates, fonts and so on

86. COMMUNICATION
• Of course Mail, we use Gmail
• We use Slack for the instant messaging
• We have one channel per project and one channel per
technology (competence center)
• We also have some fun channels (cinema, music, jokes,
…)
• We use Telegram for informal communication and
spontaneous chats out of the working hours

87. COMMUNICATION
• For the daily scrums and for the conferences we
use Google Hangout
• For webinars or for remote meetings we use
either Hangout or GoToMeetings (the latter one
to grant access to phone)

88. for the attention!
Thank you

89. Questions?
Do you have

90. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS
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Individual Sponsor Fabian Dennler
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91. your European
technology advisor
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email
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support@ibuildings.it
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