EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF VIRTUAL TEAMS – THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY
Keith MacKay, [email protected]
JUGGLING = PM (METAPHORICALLY) Must keep ALL balls in the air Drop one, derail the works Juggling and PM: disciplines
Learnable techniques May understand theory,
but practice required for success …and, yes, half the people you deal
with as a PM will also think you’re a clown.
WHO IS *THIS* CLOWN? MIT, Brain & Cognitive Sciences Co-founded a team-based robotics
competition at MIT, now a class for credit Over 1000 projects since ‘84
Developer, BA, PM, Managing Director,CTO, Founder, Advisor
Co-author of QUE Office book Past-President – MIT Club of Boston Instructor, Northeastern University
Online MBA Mentor MIT Class “Solving Complex
Problems” Virtual/distributed teams
In-/out-sourced, on-/near-/off-shore Teams (and/or I) have variously been in
Europe, India, China, Japan, Uruguay, Canada, and all over the U.S.
VILLAGE SOFTWARE Outsourced software
design/development Onshore Offshore
Outsourced PM Insourced PM
ON EXPERIENCE
“Fools say that they learn by experience. I prefer to profit by others' experience.”
-attributed to Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898)
WHAT I’LL COVER Overview plus Tested Tips and
Techniques for: Better Management of Virtual Teams Cultural Differences/Factors to Consider Language Challenges
Tools to facilitate productivity with remote teams (or local ones, for that matter)
PM ABHORS A VACUUM Never enough time Always more to do Project expands to fill available space
A la George Carlin’s “Stuff” By definition, virtual teams mean more to
do…
IS IT WORTH IT? Ideal Case:
Supplemental skills Lower Overall Cost Diversity
Different strengths Different education
Maybe different infrastructure and resources
Round-the-clock 6-heads-are-better-
than-1
“Anything worth doing well is worth doing badly at first” Must Make
Investment Time, energy, systems
Must Pivot as Needed Review Correct
Must Manage and Support your People
MANAGING VIRTUAL TEAMS Peter Drucker:
Managing Professionals = Managing Volunteers
Almost all of the downside of your live teams Conflicts Power struggles Miscommunication Ensuring motivations are aligned [Your favorite challenge here]
ADDITIONAL CHALLENGES: VIRTUAL TEAMS
Less frequent communication Slower team cohesion/longer ramp-up They may have no advocates other than you Harder to monitor Accountability
Microcredit example How do you get it?
Relentless follow-up Daily concalls Test and review
ADD’L CHALLENGES: WORK-FROM-HOME
Do your people work well from home? Professionalism
Separate work space “Uniform”
Distraction
YOU MUST BE A TRANSLATOR/DIPLOMAT PMs/BAs have always had to speak
multiple languages and do translation Originally, between biz wonks and tech
geeks Now, cultural factors added to the equation
Thinking about how to communicate with your *specific* audience matters Message often needs repackaging
depending on the listener
CULTURAL FACTORS Breakfast cereal rollout in India
As of 2007, 30% growth/year And yet, initial rollouts failed
“I have a doubt” Different visual cues “Face” and respect
TRANSLATION FOR “I HAVE A DOUBT”…
You are out of your
mind.
Nuts!
Not possi
ble.
No way!
Are you kidding?
You have flipped.
Your elevator doesn’t
go to the top. You’re not playing
with a full deck.
Lost your marbles!
Not in a million years.
Hahahaha!
PM *IS* COMMUNICATION Every issue I’ve encountered came down to
a people issue or a communications issues Clarity Brevity (Thomas Jefferson quote) Parenting is good prep—establish standards
and rules while remembering to have fun REMEMBER: PM really equals “People
Management” (you manage people, not projects)
LANGUAGE
LANGUAGE FACTORS Multi-cultural teams, variety of languages
An ear for accents helps--exposure Communicate in writing
less pressure = more understanding Multi-modal communication reinforces
Establish language standards Well-commented code--in Vietnamese. Didn’t
help my team of U.S. developers… Code page standardization
TOOLS FOR VIRTUAL TEAMS—START HERE Meticulous Project Documentation
No software will solve existing problems here Complementary Skills Mix on Team
No software will solve existing problems here Diplomacy
No software will solve… You get the picture. Start with solid PM. Having *A* tool is more important than the specific
tool use what works for you—but use SOMETHING A little discipline can save a lot of time and effort
MATURING MARKET FOR TOOLS Scheduling Communications Remote Access/Screen Sharing Document Sharing/Tracking Document Collaboration Tools Bug/Incident Tracking Process/Project Tracking Source Code Control
SCHEDULING Free web apps: Doodle, TimeBridge,
Tungle Pro: simple Pro: free Con: Don’t distinguish live/f2f vs phone Con: Don’t handle physical location (some
meetings need to be in-person, and people are free but not in same location)
Con: Rescheduling is a pain, no automated apologies, etc.
Con: Don’t allow prioritization of conflicts
COMMUNICATIONS Synchronous
Telephone Videoconferencing Web Meeting
Synchronous or Asynchronous IM/Chat (Trillian) Web-Based Phone Services
Asynchronous Email Wiki Facebook Wall Twitter
PHONE & VIDEOCONFERENCING Phone
FreeConferenceCall.com Video—Corporate
Polycom Tandberg
Video—Free or Cheap Skype iChat ooVoo
WEB MEETING Webex GoToMeeting DimDim.com AT&T Web Meeting Service Yugma.com Vyew.com – Free option (advertising
supported)
WEB-BASED PHONE SERVICES Skype.com Fring.com Google Voice Ribbit.com Phonebooth.com Ringio.com
ASYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS Email – use appropriately! Wiki – for sharing/documenting
SocialText/Microblogging, etc. Facebook Wall – can be useful with Facebook
group to create community Blogs – Useful for team and for outsiders. Am
going to start using this more. Twitter – meh. Has its uses, but it’s a broadcast
mechanism. Command/control doesn’t work well in team-building.
REMOTE ACCESS “Screen Sharing”
LogMeIn.com GoToMyPC
Remote Desktop VPN
DOCUMENT SHARING/COLLABORATION Document Sharing/Tracking
SharePoint SocialText
Document Collaboration Tools Google Docs Wiki
BUG/INCIDENT TRACKING
Mantis RMTrack Bugzilla BugTracker.NET
PROCESS/PROJECT TRACKING
Microsoft Team Foundation Server Project GoPlan Basecamp
SOURCE CODE CONTROL
Subversion (SVN) Microsoft Team Foundation Server Git Perforce CVS