Working in distributed team setups has a bad reputation - for good reasons. I remember many frustrating and useless telcos, so how can this kind of collaboration possibly work out in an agile team setup? Spoiler alert: if you allow people to do home office you already have a distributed team setup.

1. Sample to Insight
Agile in Distributed Team Setups
Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/handshake-hands-laptop-monitor-3382503/

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Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/rock-cliff-high-tableau-mountain-731140/ 2
Some years ago I was offered a project There were options for staffing…
a. throw more money than you have at the
problem -> $ 
b. grow reasonably but miss the deadline
->  
c. mix-in nearshore developers
-> Agility?
• Requirements: unclear – but HUGE
• Prescribed technology: unknown & special
• Developers: none
• Deadline: ambitious
• Budget:
◦ fix
◦ calculated based on “normal” rates

3. Sample to Insight
Source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/no-negative-finger-hand-stop-1532839/ 3
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Agile when the team is
not co-located?
=> Don’t do it!

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Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/suit-business-man-business-man-673697/ 4
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What if people want to
make you do it?
1. Push back
2. Fight hard
3. Don’t do it!

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THANKS!
Questions?
Andreas Czakaj
andreas.czakaj@qiagen.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasczakaj/
https://www.xing.com/profile/Andreas_Czakaj
https://blog.acnebs.com/

6. Sample to Insight
Source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/no-negative-board-chalk-font-1532840/, https://pixabay.com/photos/board-school-uni-learn-work-test-2450236/ 6
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Saying “no” is
always an option.
But without trying
something first
it’s the risk-free &
lazy option.
#inspect #adapt
Simply put:
it’s the non-agile option.

7. Sample to Insight
Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/interior-design-room-office-home-3778708/ 7
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Also, work has changed,
people have changed.

8. Sample to Insight
Source: https://pixabay.com/illustrations/man-notebook-new-york-businessman-1071769/ 8
Work has changed As a result…
• People want
• … Home Office / flexible work locations
• … flexible work schedules
• … options for part time work
=> Mandatory for hiring & retention today,
imho
• Meetings need to include remote staffers
• ditto bilateral alignments, brain storming,
pair programming, …
• Work time scheduling needs planning
=> Distributed teams are already part of
“New Work”

9. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/photommo/27591598184/, Thomas 9
#1 problem:
sourcing

10. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sarairachel/7526343460/, Rachel Samanyi 10
Reality:
• There’s only a limited supply of specialists in your area.
• Hiring takes time & is expensive
• Opportunity costs pile up

11. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/4387582220/, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center 11
Facts:
• There are more specialists outside your area.
• Not all of them are willing to relocate,
• … or are intended to be relocated,
e.g. offshore contractors, service provider teams, …

12. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/11216872256/, Alan Levine 12
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So, how agile can working
with distributed teams be?
Let’s “ask” the
Agile Manifesto.

13. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/113325057@N03/33725785878/, Lauren Proffitt 13
Relevant parts in the Agile Manifesto
• P. #4: “Business people and developers
must work together daily throughout
the project.”
• P. #5: “The most efficient and effective
method of conveying information to and
within a development team is
face-to-face conversation.”
• P. #12: “At regular intervals, the team
reflects on how to become more effective,
then tunes and adjusts its behavior
accordingly.
• VP #1: “Individuals and interactions over
processes and tools.”
• VP #3:“Customer collaboration
over contract negotiation”
=> It’s all about human interaction

14. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobsfever/6735633099/, Robert McGoldrick 14
Human
interaction
Sourcing may
be problem #1
…
… but the way
people work
with each other
is max #2

15. Sample to Insight
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Word
exchange
Email
Video
Conference
Chat
Personal,
Face-to-
Face
Personal contact,
Empathy
Responsiveness
Asynchronous Real Time
High
Low
Phone
call
Human Interaction
Shortest path to
„performing“
phase *
* See Tuckman's stages of group development
Forever stuck in
„storming“ phase *

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The better you know each other…
Responsiveness
Asynchronous Real Time
High
Low
Human Interaction
People tend to
respond faster
when they know
and respect each
other.
Shift
Word
exchange
Email Chat
Personal contact,
Empathy

17. Sample to Insight
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The better you know each other…
Responsiveness
Asynchronous Real Time
High
Low
Human Interaction
People tend to
understand each
other better in
non-personal
communication
when they know
each other well. Shift
Word
exchange
Email Chat
Phone
call
Video
Conf.
Personal contact,
Empathy

18. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/15372204640/, Juhan Sonin 18
Human
interaction
Goal:
Make sure people get to know and respect each other

19. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/156883244@N04/35161789973/, Meg H 19
Some things that have proven to work As a result you need to…
• Before working remotely:
3-4 weeks onsite work required
• Repeat onsite work 1-3 times per year,
round-robin for efficiency
• Team building measures
(lunch, dinner, pub, go to stadium,
bowling, …)
• Inclusive, open culture
• Switch to English (docs, culture, …)
• Create internal “travel office” (visas,
tickets, airport pick-up, …)
• Provide good accommodation
(apartments, cleaning service, key hand-
over, …)
Some proven recipes

20. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/brinzei/6748313909/, Paul Chiorean 20
Some caveats:
• Keep the additional cost in mind.
This is not about optimizing for
cost figures in XLS!
• This is a change and some people
don’t like it or get scared, e.g. for
bad English language skills.
(tip: offer training)
• Inclusive, open & non-
discriminating:
Some people are insensitive,
borderline racist
Leadership needed!
• Inclusive culture vs. ANÜ/AÜG:
Keep the (German) “Arbeitnehmer-
Überlassungsgesetz” in mind.

21. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/32708495171/, Alan Levine 21
Tools do
matter

22. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/44176115@N07/15401776380/, Kev 22
Network:
• fast
• high-volume
• stable
• low-latency
• (in each location)

23. Sample to Insight
Source: https://pixabay.com/en/children-win-success-video-game-593313/ 23
Audio:
• Avoid standard conference phones
• Good microphones and
speakers
• Good headsets
-> best audio experience
• Try (and test!) alternatives, e.g. specialized
mic+speaker combos for USB
• Try (and test!) high end conferencing
solutions
• Avoid pure audio interaction…

24. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pboyd04/1429484536/, Patrick 24
Video:
• Avoid pure audio interaction…
(see “personal contact, empathy”)
• … always turn on cams as well
(look at each other for effective
human interaction)
• Make sure each participant in on camera
• In group situations, use additional cams
to capture the situation from different angles
• For visualizing ideas, make sure to also
capture the whiteboard/flipchart/…
• -> requires HD cam
• -> requires some practice (write in larger “font” size, don’t block the camera, …)
• (or use a digital whiteboard, e.g. Draw IO, Web Whiteboad, Tutorials Point,
spice it up by using a drawing tablet)

25. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/shoesfullofdust/3998612411/, Dylan Foley 25
More tools:
• Physical boards may work
(e.g. by taking a picture 1x per day)
• … but if you want more real-time data, or
avoid manual work, there’s a plethora of
well-known tools,
e.g. JIRA, Trello, TargetProcess, etc.
• Retrospectives: try Funretro (or others)
• Planning: Estimation Poker, PlanITpoker
• Conferencing: try Zoom, Google Hangout,
WebEx, Skype, …
• Some allow for phone dial-in
• Some offer digital whiteboards
• Some allow for sharing the mouse

26. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kylemcdonald/7855319852/, Kyle McDonald 26
Caveats:
• Technology can a b*tch
• -> Make sure your tech is up and running by
the start of the meeting
• -> Even better, start the tech before the
meeting. This way the early participants can
just chat, do small talk and bond.
• Long video conferences/phone calls can be
exhausting
• set time boxes, take breaks, shorten sprints
• Agile Manifesto, Value Pair #1:
“Individuals and interactions over
processes and tools”
• Whenever the tools oppose the individuals
and their interactions
– stop, inspect and adapt

27. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/photogaby/6151904410/, Gaby Av 27
Sounds
good so far?
Hold that
thought…

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II
Relevant parts in the Agile Manifesto
• P. #8: “Agile processes promote
sustainable development.
The sponsors, developers, and users
should be able to maintain a constant
pace indefinitely.”
=> Time zone differences can be a real
problem
Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTC%C2%B10#/media/File:Timezones2011_UTC%2B0.png

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Time Zones are a real thing…
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
German FT 1
German FT 2
German PT
Ukrainian FT
+1
Indian FT
Summer: +3.5
Indian FT
Winter: +4.5
Philippine FT
+8
Shared time slot
Title only (a)
Shared time slot


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tl;dr:
Some setups just don’t work
• if we want direct communication
• if we want work-life-balance
(“… constant pace… motivated
individuals…”)
Potential solution:
• Split up into separate teams
• … each of which is fully empowered and
self-organized
Source: https://pixabay.com/photos/street-sign-note-direction-possible-141396/

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Team MEMBER
distribution
Team Distribution
Low High
Each one remote
All onsite
High-level distribution options
1 team,
all onsite
Remote only
n
autonomous
teams
Some Home Office
Frequent Home Office / remote work
60-80% remote, round-robin onsite (see slide 24)
Challenge:
Work
scheduling,
internal
coordination
Challenge: governance, scaling agile

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+ more
problems
Success or
failure
depends on
more
aspects…
Source: https://pixabay.com/en/crawl-mud-obstacle-soldier-919224/

33. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/_nezemnaya_/3133496869/, Olga/ Олька 33
Known issues
• Remote team not dedicated to project
• Travel restrictions
• Cultural mismatch
• …
• Distance to needs, domain & feedback
(see next slides)

34. Sample to Insight
Standard Scrum team setup
34





Customers
Sponsors
Users
Dev Team
Scrum Master
Organization

Business People, Users
Needs
Domain
Knowledge,
Feedback
Distance between a
developer and
• needs: 0-1
• domain: 0-1
• user feedback: 0-1
Product Owner



35. Sample to Insight
(Let‘s ignore the Scrum Master for the sake of simplicity)
35




Customers
Sponsors
Users Product Owner


Dev Team

Business People, Users
Needs
Domain
Knowledge,
Feedback
Distance between a
developer and
• needs: 0-1
• domain: 0-1
• user feedback: 0-1

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Common setup when working with Service Providers
36

Product Owner


Dev Team

“Proxy
Product
Owner”
“Proxy
Customer,
Sponsor,
User,
Business
Person”
Customers
Sponsors
Users
Needs


Domain
Knowledge,
Feedback
Distance to…
• needs: 1-2
• domain: 1-2
• user feedback: 1-2
0
1
2

37. Sample to Insight
Alternative setup when working with Service Providers
37

Product Owner


Dev Team

Offshore
coordinator
Onsite
coordinator

Customers
Sponsors
Users
Needs


Domain
Knowledge,
Feedback
0
1
2
3
Distance to…
• needs: 2-3
• domain: 2-3
• user feedback: 2-3

38. Sample to Insight
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II
Relevant parts in the Agile Manifesto
• Value Pair #1: “Individuals and interactions
over processes and tools”
• VP #2: “Working software over
comprehensive documentation”
• P. #9: “Simplicity - the art of maximizing
the amount of work not done- is
essential.”
• P. #4: “Business people and developers
must work together daily throughout the
project.”
=> Distance leads to non-personal &
low responsive collaboration
Source: https://pixabay.com/de/photos/silo-tanks-blauer-himmel-blau-2133890/

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• However, this is DISTANCE in the
project setup, not necessarily the
PHYSICAL DISTANCE
• .. as a larger organization can incorporate
multiple levels of accountability & governance
- without remote teams
• Remote teams “only” add more
◦ challenges for planning
◦ human issues
◦ potential for cultural mismatch
◦ … distance (in both meanings)
• i.e. issues with remote teams / remote team
members may be symptom of a deeper
organizational problem opposing agility
Users / Customers
Marketing
Global Head of …
Cost Center Owner
System Dev Lead
Software Sub-
System Lead
Product „Owner“
 Dev Team
6
1
2
4
0
5
3

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Also, there are so many possible variations,
and combinations of options…
• Maybe I should write a book about it?
• … or maybe someone else already has:
• Johanna Rothman: “From Chaos to
Successful Distributed Agile Teams:
Collaborate to Deliver”
• Agile Toolkit Podcast with Johanna:
http://agiletoolkit.libsyn.com/johanna-
rothman-agile2018

41. Sample to Insight
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/respres/6977262826/, Jeff Turner 41
Conclusion
Agile work IS possible in distributed setups
provided…
• … a healthy team culture
• … good tech
• … sufficiently long shared time slots
• … experiments, inspection and adapting
• … short “distance” between dev team and
• needs,
• domain and
• feedback

42. Sample to Insight
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THANKS!
Questions?
Andreas Czakaj
andreas.czakaj@qiagen.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasczakaj/
https://www.xing.com/profile/Andreas_Czakaj
https://blog.acnebs.com/