Today technology companies are integrating remote work across their business framework every day. Many have successfully learned to manage and hire remote developers to boost operational efficiency and collaborate with productivity. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the model of remote working by employees has seen a widespread increase within multiple organizations and businesses. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the implementation of remote working in many organizations, businesses, and employees as a means of survival to maintain business continuity. Therefore, I want to share some tricks for building remote software development teams in this article.

You will learn the following:

• • Which skills and qualities to look out for when hiring remote resources?
  • How to manage the development process of the software development team?
  • How to set up Communication in a remote team?

So let us dive right in.

Step 1 – Find the Best Resource for a Remote Team

As evident as it seems, the secret to hiring a perfect software development team lies in the people. Actually, as essential as mastering hard skills (like coding or testing), the candidates should also contribute to your company’s morale.

The truth is, even though a remote team will not be employed, this team will partner with your project. So while interviewing a possible software development team, pay attention to candidates’ soft skills.

Team Player is The Key

Today developing products is not only about coding programs. In fact, balance teams with integrated Communication have more probability of producing a thriving product than a team of isolated developers. Check candidates’ capacity to communicate, make everyday decisions, share experiences and achieve goals together.

Stability Between Privilege And Responsibility

Can you imagine that privilege and responsibility are not antecedents but rather complementary sides of one coin? In fact, this is where Netflix came from – “the no rules rule” dogma. A harmonious confluence of privilege and responsibility.

Putting Business Needs First

Your software development team may consist of the best professionals who are good at completing work and finding solutions to problems. But that will make no difference if these decisions do not benefit the business.

Make sure every decision in your company should prioritize the business needs, and your remote team knows that.

Check if a candidate is business-oriented during the interview by noticing the questions he/she asks. If these questions link to your business goals, the candidate has more chances of being helpful to you. Share your business objectives with the candidate and ask how he/she could help.

Step 2 – Organize the Work Process In Software Development Team

By organizing your working process, you can align the work of your software development team. It takes stringent working guidelines, deadlines, and defined documentation for your team to work productively. To achieve this goal, you can undertake the following steps:

Disclose The Idea Of Your Project

The horrible thing you can do for your software development team and your project is to leave ambiguity for them. For the best result, you must explain your ideas, present the complete project details, and ensure the software development team understands your goals. Moreover, with more information, the development team will deliver each milestone for your project faster. Specifically, you can mention:

• • Expectations from your partnership and Pre-history of your product

• • Explain your business goals and expectations, and give them a brief outline of where you want to get in the end
  • Tell about the area where the end product will operate.

Use Management tools to communicate & manage your Remote Team.

One of the most underrated things an entrepreneur can do to keep their team happy is to invest in quality project management software specifically designed for remote teams. Nowadays, a range of cloud-based solutions allows you to manage staff at all hours of the day, which is especially important when one has a global presence and hires people from all corners of the world.

• • Slack – for daily operations;
  • Jira – for ticket management;
  • Zoom and Google Meet – for calls;
  • Figma – for design development;
  • Miro for real-time teamwork with a whiteboard.

Provide Proper Documentation

The project’s documentation includes all the functional and non-functional specifications and limitations for the developers to start the project. So make sure you have shared all the requirements of your project.

Software documentation is an integral part of software development. But don’t worry, as you do not have to handle it alone. In fact, a capable team of developers will help you outline your project’s requirements individually.

Step 3: Set Up The flawless Communication

Excellent Communication is one of the most essential things to managing a remote software development team. Well-organized communication in a software development team and review process forms the bedrock of an effective team.

We can’t pressure it enough: Communication is the main thing. So here are some recommendations that could help you to set up Communication while working remotely:

Set Up A Calendar Of Meetings

Good Communication means regular Communication. Therefore, being systematic is very important for business.

Another concern is how you check in with your workmates in a remote software development team: keeping it organized rather than improvising is better. These could be meetings with a manager or team lead or personal check-in with each team member. The main point is – they should be frequent.

Another point here is frequent meetings are about something other than controlling the development team. Instead, in trust-based relationships, you literally “check in” on the team’s productivity, help to remove the hurdles and align the future plans.

Here are the types of regular meetings that help you to stay synchronized within Scrum methodology:

• • Backlog Grooming meetings. Here you will discuss the remaining items in the backlog and plan what will be completed during the upcoming sprint.
  • Planning meetings. You will prioritize the existing tasks and the tasks from backlogs at these meetings.
  • Daily check-ins. Daily sprint. Meetings are essential to keep in touch with every team member via discussing the routine tasks and providing help if necessary.
  • Demo. The sprint demo is critical. Teams hold demo meetings to show what they’ve got. It’s a particular time, usually at the end of each sprint.
  • Retrospective. This informal discussion with your team about what worked and what didn’t, why it didn’t work and identify how to improve it.

Build Personal Connections

While maintaining regular connections with the remote software development team leads or managers, remember to build friendly relationships with all team members. For this, you could organize informal online meetings and set up individual check-ins with each team member, for example, one-to-one sessions.

While maintaining regular connections with the remote software development team leads or managers, remember to build friendly relationships with all team members. For this, you could organize informal online meetings and set up individual check-ins with each team member, for example, one-to-one sessions.

Daily/weekly one-to-one meetings should not be only about the business. Informal small chit-chat is also a way to build a corporate social structure within the company.

Roles and Responsibilities should be Defined In Your Remote Software Development Team.

The structure of your remote team can be different, depending on your business needs. However, normally software development team consists of the following resources:

• • Software Engineers – the persons who will handle your software’s front-end and back-end parts. Your product functionality depends on the work of these people. So investing in the technically best engineers pays off in the end.
  • QA engineer – a Quality assurance engineer who makes sure the software functions the way it is required in the documentation;
  • Project Manager – the person who handles all the documentation, budgeting, and manages risks according to the project requirements;
  • UX/UI Designers – not only will these specialists make your app/website vibrant and appealing, but also they will check on the app’s usability for the end-users.

Additionally, the software development team can also include:

• • Product Owner – a person who translates the business requirements into software requirements;
  • Product Manager – manages the project, advises you on product development and drives the product development cycle.
  • Business Analyst – a specialist, charged with determining the scope of work and gathering requirements for the project.
  • Sr. Architect – If you have a complicated project with different departments and teams, you will need an architect to coordinate the workflow between these teams.

Conclusion

The most significant benefit of using a remote software development team is hiring talent that would otherwise be unreachable, improving your overall capability to compete in the marketplace. In addition, delivering successful remote work will help you establish a good working relationship, enabling you to grow your business.
However, the following steps are also critical for the successful management of a remote software development team:

• • When you try to communicate with a remote team, it is essential to consider the time difference. Because of that, use appropriate tools and ensure you use the correct communication channels to get your points across.
  • Make sure you structure your work using applications that will allow you to remain organized and understand the amount of information you may receive from your team members during the day and night.
  • Team building is also crucial for a successful alliance, so applaud developers for even small tasks they complete (even if it’s in a single word on Slack).
  • Remote work is about saving work hours; you need intelligent tools that help you to accomplish just that. One way to manage a remote team is to automate everything you can.