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Why we do it

How we do it

How it works

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WHY

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Making virtue out of necessity

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Some cost benefits

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Also some extra costs

Staff heat & lightBroadbandPersonal development budgetInternational pay-rollCompany get-togethers

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High quality staff

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Benefits from staff perspective

Work-life balance

No commute / petrol / travel costs

Less distractions

Flexibility of schedule when projects

allow

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Ability to move house / country and stay with same company

Set up your office/desk how you want

Lunch options are greater at home

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Setting priorities – being self managing makes you a better professional

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HOW

The tools

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IRC

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VOIP

(Orbtalk)

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Redmine with Xplanner

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Google docs

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Intranet

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Google hangouts

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HowThe process

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Morning scrumProject managers meeting every dayTwice weekly team meetingIndividual project scrumsSales groupQuarterly meet-upPair work and pair programming

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HOW DOES IT WORK?

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Structure matters

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Strict project management methodology

Agile/Scrum

ISO 9001

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Isolation

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In space no one can hear you scream

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Hiring

- do they have experience of it?- what's their home circumstances?- what's the motivation?- what's their career plan?- are they sociable or syllogistical?

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Some heavyweight developers have lousy social skills

I have lousy social skills

I must be a heavyweight developer

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Do they know the phrases “I don't know” and “does anyone know how to?”

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Will they get the company culture?

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Support and development

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Buddy systemAvoid working aloneAlternate the rolesStaff reviewsEveryone is client-facing

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“fundamentally all we want is to come in to work at a sensible time, leave at a sensible time and have the tools and processes to do a good job”

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Thanks for listening