Your tech talent is separated by city blocks, by time zones, or by oceans--so how do you best facilitate successful project completion? Keith MacKay describes strategies, techniques, and tools for working with teams that are rarely (if ever) in the same place at the same time. After managing 1000+ projects, Keith has strong opinions on what works and what doesn\'t. Come join this lively session to learn from others\' experiences and to share your own.

1. Effective Management of Virtual Teams – The Good, The Bad, and the UGLY Keith MacKay, TechnoFacto Keith@KeithJMacKay.com

2. Juggling = pm (metaphorically) Must keep ALL balls in the air Drop one, derail the works Juggling and PM: disciplines Learnable techniques May understand theory, but practice required for success …and, yes, half the people you deal with as a PM will also think you’re a clown. 

3. Who Is *This* Clown? MIT, Brain & Cognitive Sciences Co-founded a team-based robotics competition at MIT, now a class for credit Over 1000 projects since ‘84 Developer, BA, PM, Managing Director,CTO, Founder, Advisor Co-author of QUE Office book Past-President – MIT Club of Boston Instructor, Northeastern University Online MBA Mentor MIT Class “Solving Complex Problems” Virtual/distributed teams In-/out-sourced, on-/near-/off-shore Teams (and/or I) have variously been in Europe, India, China, Japan, Uruguay, Canada, and all over the U.S.

4. Village Software Outsourced software design/development Onshore Offshore Outsourced PM Insourced PM

5. On Experience “Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others' experience.” -attributed to Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)

6. What I’ll cover Overview plus Tested Tips and Techniques for: Better Management of Virtual Teams Cultural Differences/Factors to Consider Language Challenges Tools to facilitate productivity with remote teams(or local ones, for that matter)

7. PM Abhors a vacuum Never enough time Always more to do Project expands to fill available space A la George Carlin’s “Stuff” By definition, virtual teams mean more to do…

8. Is it worth it? Ideal Case: Supplemental skills Lower Overall Cost Diversity Different strengths Different education Maybe different infrastructure and resources Round-the-clock 6-heads-are-better-than-1 “Anything worth doing well is worth doing badly at first” Must Make Investment Time, energy, systems Must Pivot as Needed Review Correct Must Manage and Support your People

9. MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAMS Peter Drucker:Managing Professionals = Managing Volunteers Almost all of the downside of your live teams Conflicts Power struggles Miscommunication Ensuring motivations are aligned [Your favorite challenge here]

10. Additional challenges: virtual teams Less frequent communication Slower team cohesion/longer ramp-up They may have no advocates other than you Harder to monitor Accountability Microcredit example How do you get it? Relentless follow-up Daily concalls Test and review

11. Add’l Challenges: Work-from-home Do your people work well from home? Professionalism Separate work space “Uniform” Distraction

12. You must be a Translator/diplomat PMs/BAs have always had to speak multiple languages and do translation Originally, between biz wonks and tech geeks Now, cultural factors added to the equation Thinking about how to communicate with your *specific* audience matters Message often needs repackaging depending on the listener

13. Cultural factors Breakfast cereal rollout in India As of 2007, 30% growth/year And yet, initial rollouts failed “I have a doubt” Different visual cues “Face” and respect

14. Translation for “I Have a doubt”… Not in a million years. Hahahaha! Are you kidding? You have flipped. Your elevator doesn’t go to the top. You’re not playing with a full deck. Lost your marbles! You are out of your mind. Nuts! Not possible. No way!

15. PM *is* Communication Every issue I’ve encountered came down to a people issue or a communications issues Clarity Brevity (Thomas Jefferson quote) Parenting is good prep—establish standards and rules while remembering to have fun REMEMBER: PM really equals “People Management” (you manage people, not projects)

16. Language

17. Language factors Multi-cultural teams, variety of languages An ear for accents helps--exposure Communicate in writing less pressure = more understanding Multi-modal communication reinforces Establish language standards Well-commented code--in Vietnamese. Didn’t help my team of U.S. developers… Code page standardization

18. Tools for virtual teams—START HERE Meticulous Project Documentation No software will solve existing problems here Complementary Skills Mix on Team No software will solve existing problems here Diplomacy No software will solve… You get the picture. Start with solid PM. Having *A* tool is more important than the specific tool use what works for you—but use SOMETHING A little discipline can save a lot of time and effort

19. Maturing market for Tools Scheduling Communications Remote Access/Screen Sharing Document Sharing/Tracking Document Collaboration Tools Bug/Incident Tracking Process/Project Tracking Source Code Control

20. Scheduling Free web apps: Doodle, TimeBridge, Tungle Pro: simple Pro: free Con: Don’t distinguish live/f2f vs phone Con: Don’t handle physical location (some meetings need to be in-person, and people are free but not in same location) Con: Rescheduling is a pain, no automated apologies, etc. Con: Don’t allow prioritization of conflicts

21. Communications Synchronous Telephone Videoconferencing Web Meeting Synchronous or Asynchronous IM/Chat (Trillian) Web-Based Phone Services Asynchronous Email Wiki Facebook Wall Twitter

22. Phone & Videoconferencing Phone FreeConferenceCall.com Video—Corporate Polycom Tandberg Video—Free or Cheap Skype iChat ooVoo

24. Web Meeting Webex GoToMeeting DimDim.com AT&T Web Meeting Service Yugma.com Vyew.com – Free option (advertising supported)

26. Web-Based Phone Services Skype.com Fring.com Google Voice Ribbit.com Phonebooth.com Ringio.com

28. Asynchronous communications Email – use appropriately! Wiki – for sharing/documenting SocialText/Microblogging, etc. Facebook Wall – can be useful with Facebook group to create community Blogs – Useful for team and for outsiders. Am going to start using this more. Twitter – meh. Has its uses, but it’s a broadcast mechanism. Command/control doesn’t work well in team-building.

29. Remote Access “Screen Sharing” LogMeIn.com GoToMyPC Remote Desktop VPN

30. Document Sharing/collaboration Document Sharing/Tracking SharePoint SocialText Document Collaboration Tools Google Docs Wiki

31. Bug/Incident Tracking Mantis RMTrack Bugzilla BugTracker.NET

32. Process/Project Tracking Microsoft Team Foundation Server Project GoPlan Basecamp

33. Source Code Control Subversion (SVN) Microsoft Team Foundation Server Git Perforce CVS

34. Have a good story or a tool to recommend? Send me an email! Keith MacKay Keith@KeithJMacKay.com Twitter: @KeithJMacKay