Note: I wrote this before the COVID-19 and other life-changing events steamrolled in February and March 2020. It was in my Q for posting and I’m accelerating it to help folks. I hope you find useful guidance in my recommendations…
There are literally three things that come up in any of my training adventures—
How to handle estimates and forecasting with fixed-date projects?
What are “Good” agile metrics?
How to be “Agile” with distributed teams?
I thought I’d explore the last question on distributed teams in this post by listing some references that you might find helpful.
First, I think the Jutta Eckstein was the first author in this space. She wrote—Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams: Staying Agile in a Global World in 2010 and updated it in 2018. She was probably one of the first folks who started sharing her experiences in distributed agile and her work has stood the test of time.
Next, Johanna Rothman and Mark Kilby have written perhaps the most complete work on the topic in agile contexts. From Chaos to Successful Distributed Teams: Collaborate to Deliver is an incredibly useful look at how to make distributed teams work in agile contexts. Written by two seasoned coaches from their work in the real world. And here’s an Agile Alliance article they wrote about collaborating on the book.
And here’s Johanna and Mark’s contribution to Comparative Agility’s assessment tool.
Next, Lisette Sutherland is a “hidden gem” of wisdom in this space. She blogs at Collaborative Superpowers and shares many, many secrets there to improve your distributed team collaboration. She’s also written a wonderful book entitled: Work Together Anywhere: A Handbook on Working Remotely—Successfully—for Individuals, Teams, and Managers.
Judy Rees publishes some interesting and useful advice for distributed teams on her website and blog. She’s a bit of an expert in this area. For example, here’s a blog on tracking energy levels in an online meeting. I would definitely put Judy on your radar.
Finally, here are a few online articles you might find useful:
Miro Guide to Remote Teams - https://miro.com/guides/remote-work/
Atlassian Guide - https://www.atlassian.com/agile/teams/remote-teams
Tech Beacon article - https://techbeacon.com/app-dev-testing/distributed-agile-teams-8-hacks-make-them-work
Agile Thought blog - https://agilethought.com/blog/articles/three-success-factors-for-distributed-agile-teams/
And I can’t help it but mention a couple of my own posts ;-)
There! Now I can point folks to this post to answer the agile distributed teams’ question. I hope that works…
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.