Underperformance of remote development teams is an uncomfortable topic for the software industry to talk about, particularly if you are in the business of buying or supplying low-cost, offshore developers.
It’s also really stressful being a client on the receiving end of incomplete and broken features, delivered slower than expected, in a manner that increases tech debt and degrades the codebase.
Drastically improving the performance of remote teams is not as difficult or costly as you may think, and below is a summary of how our work goes about doing exactly that.
Large enterprise organisations, particularly those not developing technology-first propositions, are simply unable to achieve much of what conventional agile coaching espouses.
Some organisations don’t want agile
Difficulties of outsourced development
The manager too busy for agile
Imagine being an offshore developer
Agile software development teams working in less-than-fully agile settings behave in some rather ‘fruity’ and unhelpful ways.
Gnarly behaviours of Scrum teams
Patterns of enterprise agile dysfunction
Business analysis is a powerful enabler for software development teams struggling to thrive under an agile doctrine or framework.
When business analysis really would help
Clear and unambiguous software requirements
Well refined, not fully defined, user stories
Being a hands-on business analyst
Developers want to work in a way that maximises their effectiveness; avoiding blockers and frequent, unwanted interruptions/context-switching.
Developers decide the implementation
Developers don’t start with a blank sheet of paper
Developers don’t want constant conversations
My ticket is blocked says the developer
Tailoring the agile framework to accomodate organisational limitations is a pragmatic and highly effective approach.
Becoming less agile to be agile
Moving beyond sprint planning
One of the best agile experiences
More extensive writing on software requirements, business analysis, product management, agile development can be found here.
Frank Ray Consulting. Software requirements for agile development teams, particularly distributed, remote and offshore development teams working in financial services.
Get in touch if you need our help