What are your greatest challenges working on a remote team? What techniques did the project manager use to make sure everyone on the team was engaged? Saving Changes...
As Rami commented, communications are key. I develop a little my experience regarding communications.
- Scheduling meetings. With time differences sometimes keep all the teams' members happy with the schedule is a nightmare.
- Language Barriers. Yes, yes, all us tried to do our best to speak in English...but sometimes, native speakers forgot that there were team members (as me) that don't understand "game A" expressions. (After few projects, I know what it means, but, hey, always there are some word that I need to look at google)
- Virtual meetings...Rami has joined the conference, Mayte has left the conference, Mayte has joined the conference...Technical issues, another challenge.
Pros&Cons...in IT outsourcing is something very common. Depending on the organization and the teams, I found different pros and cons.
Adding to what Mayte said; -
- As leaders you also need to have sensitivity to local dynamics for your remote team - like Bangalore (which has bad traffic - so the team time has to be planned properly), sociopolitical environment of your remote team, festivals etc
- Visit your team at a regular interval and utilize that time to connect with the people on ground and understand their concerns
- Align the remote time to the overall project objective - as Rami said - communication is the key. You can chose daily stand ups, leads meetings, full team meetings etc,
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2 replies by Mayte Mata Sivera and Prateek Gupta
Feb 22, 2017 11:34 AM
Mayte Mata Sivera
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Prateek,
Sometimes visit the local team, is something that not usually was in the budget. I worked with teams in India, I requested to my company to visit the site, the team, the people... mission impossible.
However, as a team leader, I used to work with Indian Competence or Excellence centers, then one year, during my vacations, I took my backpack and I traveled to India. I only bought the flight, no hotels, no tourist guide And traveled around the country during 20 days, in the train, in bus...no too much time for such amazing country. I will come back.
Then, after the visit, after understanding the culture, the people, the traditions, I thought that I can manage communications, and understand better than before my teams in India.
In all the project that I worked, with outsourcing team, I continue pushing the "big boss" to get money to visit the team, and I will continue doing, knowing that I have low probabilities to get it...but I'm with you, a visit is important!
Feb 23, 2017 1:58 AM
Prateek Gupta
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@Mayte - Appreciate your energy! Hope your stay and experience in India was good.
- As leaders you also need to have sensitivity to local dynamics for your remote team - like Bangalore (which has bad traffic - so the team time has to be planned properly), sociopolitical environment of your remote team, festivals etc
- Visit your team at a regular interval and utilize that time to connect with the people on ground and understand their concerns
- Align the remote time to the overall project objective - as Rami said - communication is the key. You can chose daily stand ups, leads meetings, full team meetings etc,
Prateek,
Sometimes visit the local team, is something that not usually was in the budget. I worked with teams in India, I requested to my company to visit the site, the team, the people... mission impossible.
However, as a team leader, I used to work with Indian Competence or Excellence centers, then one year, during my vacations, I took my backpack and I traveled to India. I only bought the flight, no hotels, no tourist guide And traveled around the country during 20 days, in the train, in bus...no too much time for such amazing country. I will come back.
Then, after the visit, after understanding the culture, the people, the traditions, I thought that I can manage communications, and understand better than before my teams in India.
In all the project that I worked, with outsourcing team, I continue pushing the "big boss" to get money to visit the team, and I will continue doing, knowing that I have low probabilities to get it...but I'm with you, a visit is important! Saving Changes...
Lessons Learnt :-
1) Elaborate and justify from the learning of this project that for future projects, Allowance for either Co-location of vendor resources with the Project Team or allowance for travel to the remote site to establish a rapport and relationship is a must for Project Success, especially where an overseas vendor is involved.
2) Tighten the Accountability for the remote team by putting more rigor into Vendor Management and more legality into the Scope of Works, including penalty for significant delays and poor performance.
Great to capture lessons learned to carry them forward to apply or reflect on for future projects. Saving Changes...
Naomi, I think that maybe is a little sensitive topic, because based in my experience when a company decides to outsource some IT services the key point to the decision is a cost reduction.
Based on my experience, I will share that first time was very challenging.
Organizations have many choices when it comes to providing a solution, build, buy or stay with the status quo. Many times its a trade-off of cost vs value/investment, benefits, innovation and often times risk to stay competitive in the marketplace. The return on investment, improvement of processes and procedures and redirection of staff for strategic initiatives play into the considerations in making a decision to outsource. Many times the talent does not exist internally and impacts the time to get to market, implement the investment, competition and budget cycle. It is the price of doing business in the global economy.
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1 reply by Mayte Mata Sivera
Feb 22, 2017 12:56 PM
Mayte Mata Sivera
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Yes, that's what happens.
Impressive explanation. I have a lot to learn from this community. Thank you,
Organizations have many choices when it comes to providing a solution, build, buy or stay with the status quo. Many times its a trade-off of cost vs value/investment, benefits, innovation and often times risk to stay competitive in the marketplace. The return on investment, improvement of processes and procedures and redirection of staff for strategic initiatives play into the considerations in making a decision to outsource. Many times the talent does not exist internally and impacts the time to get to market, implement the investment, competition and budget cycle. It is the price of doing business in the global economy.
Yes, that's what happens.
Impressive explanation. I have a lot to learn from this community. Thank you, Saving Changes...
Cons :-
Poorly designed contract may be exploited by the vendor to whom the service is outsourced, either inadvertently or knowingly.
Frequent communication may be difficult to achieve if the vendor is offshore, especially in a different time zone.
If the vendor gets taken over by another company or changes it's delivery team drastically, the Intellectual property may be lost and will affect the level of services provided
The Customer often has a single point of contact or failure , which is the Project Manager on the vendor side and the customer's view of the vendor's world is solely through this conduit and the communication then depends very heavily on that Project Manager
Very going point; certainly highlights the importance for PMs to have good knowledge of vendor and contract management. Know what you are buying or contracting before you sign on the dotted line. Saving Changes...
Yes, I am currently experiencing this in one of my projects where the Architect is remotely located as well as the project and communication is very difficult so I almost spend twice the amount of time on communication more than I normally do on other projects.
Yes, this is an issue for virtual teams but there are many solutions.
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1 reply by Rami Kaibni
Feb 22, 2017 4:45 PM
Rami Kaibni
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There are always many solutions but the question is are they free of charge and without time implications ? The answer is No.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Feb 22, 2017 12:58 PM
Replying to Naomi Caietti
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Yes, this is an issue for virtual teams but there are many solutions.
There are always many solutions but the question is are they free of charge and without time implications ? The answer is No.
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2 replies by Mayte Mata Sivera and Naomi Caietti
Feb 22, 2017 4:54 PM
Mayte Mata Sivera
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Completely agree. And if there is a Yes for an answer...I'll keep my eyes and my active listening skills completely open.
Feb 22, 2017 6:54 PM
Naomi Caietti
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Rami:
Actually, I was thinking of the best solution required and that is leadership tools, techniques and tips. I'll share more here on the solutions at ITPMXPO in April on this topic.
There are always many solutions but the question is are they free of charge and without time implications ? The answer is No.
Rami:
Actually, I was thinking of the best solution required and that is leadership tools, techniques and tips. I'll share more here on the solutions at ITPMXPO in April on this topic.
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1 reply by Rami Kaibni
Feb 22, 2017 7:08 PM
Rami Kaibni
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I am not sure I am aware of this Expo ? Where is it taking place ? Online or In-Person ? Thanks Naomi.
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