Remote work can provide benefits to both companies and individuals but requires certain skills. Building trust, shared understanding, and strong relationships within the team is more important than any tools when working remotely. Successful remote teams require individual responsibility, proactivity, clear communication, and ensuring that culture and collaboration do not suffer from physical distance. Regular meetings, feedback, and emphasis on transparency can help remote teams function effectively.

1. Surviving
AGILE REMOTE TEAMS
… why remote work is a SKILL.

2. @JensBroos
https://www.xing.com/profile/Jens_Broos
Agile Coach at Mayflower
Jens Broos

3. M YFLOWER

4. Remote work is a trade-off

5. (Good) Reasons for
remote work

6. ‣ Possible savings
‣ Teams off-/nearshore
‣ Salaries
‣ Office space, furniture, technical setup etc.
For the company ...
Reasons for remote work

7. WAR
for TALENTs
CC0 Lizenz: https://www.pexels.com/de/foto/computer-verschlusselung-programmierung-programmierer-97077/

8. “[…] you aren't able to hire the
best person for the job,
you can merely hire the best person
who is prepared to relocate.”
(Martin Fowler)

9. (Inter-) National
CC0 Lizenz: https://www.pexels.com/photo/activity-adventure-blur-business-297642/

10. ‣ free from interruptions => "Flow” => more performance
‣ Skipping travel times
‣ Benefits for private circumstances
‣ Taking care of
‣ Children
‣ Domestic care of relatives
‣ No mandatory need for overlapping working hours
‣ Chronobiology, time zones, etc.
For the individual...
Reasons for remote work

11. Scenarios of remote work
(Martin Fowler: https://martinfowler.com/articles/remote-or-co-located.html)

12. Single Site

13. Satellite Workers

14. Multi Site

15. Remote First

16. Best Case:
one team in one room
‣ Face to face
‣ Video chat
‣ Phone call/ voice chat
‣ Chat
‣ E-mail
Bandwidth

17. Pitfalls

18. Two layers of remote work

19. Tooling
… what most people talk about

20. TEAM
relationship / culture
… what is truly important!

21. Short excursion:
Goals of collaboration in agile teams

22. ‣ Explicit
‣ Scrum rituals
(i.e. backlog refinements,
estimations, retrospectives)
‣ workshops, lightning talks,
discussions
‣ Implicit
‣ Osmotic communication
Agile teams
Shared mental model

23. ‣ Trust
‣ Most significant factor of team performance
‣ Complex learning
‣ Team agreements
‣ How do we want to work together?
‣ Shared values
Agile teams
Teambuilding

24. ‣ Being proactive and mindful
‣ “Work out loud“
‣ Invest in personal relationship / in your network
Agile teams
Individual responsibility

25. ‣ Collaboration in an agile team
‣ Shared mental model
‣ Trust
‣ Team building & team agreement
‣ Individual responsibility
‣ Proactivity and mindfulness
‣ “Work out loud“
‣ Invest in personal relationships / in your network
Agile teams - Summary

26. REMOTE WORK is a SKILL

27. Tooling
… okay, okay ... we need that, too ;)

28. Minimal setup
CC0 Lizenz: https://www.pexels.com/photo/iphone-laptop-notebook-workspace-7105/

29. What you need in an agile team
Tooling
Video chat
Chat
Screen sharing
Wiki, information
Backlog, task board
Pair programming
Version control system
Online collaboration

30. What you need in an agile team
Tooling at Mayflower
jitsi.org
groupmap.com
Video chat
Chat
Screen sharing
Wiki, information
Backlog, task board
Pair programming
Version control system
Online collaboration

31. Problems & Risks

32. Compliance
CC BY-ND 2.0:https://www.flickr.com/photos/dskley/14657736498

33. (technical) barriers
too highmm

34. Language, dialect
Time zone
Culture
CC3 Lizenz:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_Taj_Mahal_from_the_South_(from_the_platform_of_the_Great_Gate).jpg

35. Problems & Risks
Introversion
vs.
Extroversion

36. Remote meetings
CC0 Public Domain: https://pixabay.com/de/treffen-beziehung-gesch%C3%A4ft-1019875/

37. ‣ Sitting in one room you can see, if your colleague will sit at his desk
and if he will be approachable
‣ That’s not possible working remotely!
‣ Ever tried to maintain a chat- or Skype status?!
Problems & Risks
Þ Short response time
Þ Make your current status explicit /
reduce uncertainty
High latency

38. ‣ Lack of “communication culture”
‣ People are not used to use chats, video conferencing, etc.
‣ People don’t know when to use which media
‣ Lack of “communication competence”
‣ I got (digital) empathy and know how to interpret my
colleagues
Problems & Risks
Remote communication

39. Oldschool management
‣ “This guy is sitting in front of his
computer. He MUST be productive
right now!”
‣ But:
‣ Can’t see you working remotely
‣ Can’t “control” you
‣ Leads to: scepticism & mistrust
Problems & Risks
‣Better:
‣Do retrospectives using a peer review
‣”What do I need from my team being able to deliver?”
‣”What does the team need from me being able to deliver?”
‣ => shared mental model

40. Good Practices

41. Vision, Mission, Goals
CC3 Lizenz: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Compass_align.jpg

42. The more time I invest into a ramp up phase (one team in
one place) at the beginning of a project, the better my
collaboration in the team will be. (Mayflower)

43. ‣ Functional
‣ i.e. sprint change meetings
‣ Strategic
‣ i.e. company goals (Objective Key Results)
‣ Company retrospectives, etc.
Good Practices
Regular get-togethers

44. Remote first in meetings
Good Practices

45. ‣ The sources of information are explicit to the team
‣ Everyone knows where to find or where to place information
‣ Reduce additional effort
‣ No redundant data, for example digital and physical Scrum boards
‣ Do as much digital as you can
Good Practices
Exchanging information

46. ‣ Strategically
‣ Case studies about other competitors and companies
(same domain)
‣ Find promoter in your company
‣ Simplicity of tooling, keep technical barriers low
‣ Make the benefits visible
‣ Give people a good experience working remotely
Good Practices
Introducing remote
collaboration

47. ‣ On team level
‣ Make small experiments
‣ Single days / single meetings
‣ Inspect & Adapt
‣ “Just DO it!”
Good Practices
Introducing remote
collaboration

48. Good Practices
Make (core)
working hours visible

49. Good Practices
Team Glue
(in remote meetings)

50. ‣ Regular, individual feedback talks
‣ i.e. 1:1
‣ Be an information radiator
‣ Conflict management
‣ Moderation of remote meetings
Good Practices
Tasks of a Scrum Master

51. Window
To the team

52. Summary

53. Remote work is a trade-off
Relationships and team culture are
more important than tooling
Individual responsibility
Remote work is a SKILL

54. Remote work is a trade-off
Relationships and team culture are
more important than tooling
Individual responsibility
Remote work is a SKILL

55. Remote work is a trade-off
Relationships and team culture are
more important than tooling
Individual responsibility
Remote work is a SKILL

56. jens.broos@mayflower.de
@JensBroos
https://www.xing.com/profile/Jens_Broos
https://blog.mayflower.de
Mayflower GmbH
Mannhardtstr. 6
80538 München
Thank you very much <3
Jens Broos