The world is flat and the barriers to communication have been broken down. Increasingly, companies are employing a globally distributed, virtual workforce to aid in their development efforts. In addition, these same companies are looking to employ Agile development practices to get to market faster with the right product. When working with a global team, culture, not only of the company but that of the workforce, comes into play. How can companies help ensure that a distributed, cross-cultural Agile team can work together successfully to achieve business goals? This presentation dives into how a company can build a multicultural team around Agile principles, in a fully distributed global environment, remaining on the same page at all times, and getting things done.

1. Distributed Agile In A
Multicultural World
Robert Dempsey
adsdevshop.com

2. Thank You!

3. Welcome!
Robert Dempsey
CEO & Founder
LinkedIn: robertwdempsey
Twitter: @rdempsey

4. http://scrumd.com

5. Agenda
• Culture
• Agile and Culture
• The Role of the Modern Product Manager
• Window Into Cultures
• Tools
• Lessons Learned
• Questions and Answers

6. Poll

7. What is Culture?
Attitudes
Beliefs
Goals
Practices

8. Layering of Cultures
Team
Business
Country

9. Business Culture
Values
Customs
Traditions
Meanings

10. The New Team

11. The Extended Team

12. The Challenge

13. The Missing Piece

14. Major Agile Ideas
• Individuals and Interactions
• Working Software
• Customer Collaboration
• Responding to Change

15. 12 Principles, Or 7
• Delivery
• Embrace Change
• Collaborate
• Support The Team
• Use Correct Metrics
• Technical Excellence
• Kaizen (Continuous Improvement)

16. Build Around Agile

17. Cultural Roadblocks

18. Additional Roadblocks

19. Role Of The Modern PM

20. United States

21. United States
• Equal respect
• Individual involvement
• Heavy focus on time and schedules (donʼt miss deadlines)
• Employees speak directly up the chain
• Team play
• Straight-forward communication
• Friendly, and get down to business
• Single-minded; focused on a single goal

22. South America

23. Brazil
• Build a relationship, possibly via a third-party
• Everyone in the company has their role
• Very creative and work well in teams
• Failures can lead to a loss of self-confidence
• Timescales and deadlines are somewhat fluid
• Be very careful with criticism

24. India

25. India
• Strong hierarchical structure
• Failure can lead to a loss of face *
• Relationships are important
• Reinforce the agreed-to deadlines
• Management makes the decisions *
• Be careful to not shame anyone *
• Non-confrontational (the “yes man”)

26. Philippines

27. Philippines
• Hierarchical
• Relationship-driven culture
• Managers look out for their teams *
• Indirect communication style *
• Timescales and deadlines are somewhat fluid *
• Innovative when asked to be *
• Clarification might not be requested (loss of face) *
• Public praise is good; public criticism is not

28. Western Europe

29. Switzerland
• Be direct
• Be on-time
• Build a relationship over time
• Management provides direction and materials to the team
• Title are important
• Focus on the group
• Adherence to protocol
• Like to be prepared

30. Eastern Europe

31. Poland
• Rules and regulations *
• Eager for a challenge
• Innovative *
• Great in teams
• Decisions are made at a team level *
• Detail-oriented
• Straightforward and frank

32. Commonalities
• People want to do good work
• They want to be respected
• They want to be praised when they succeed
• They donʼt want to be publicly humiliated
• They want to be understood

33. Tools

34. Project Tools
• Project Management
• Code Repository
• Continuous Integration (CI)

35. Communication Tools
• Instant Messaging (IM)
• Skype
• Web-based Collaboration
• Mockups

36. Mockup

37. Lessons Learned
• Choose the best fitting Agile method *
• Make expectations known
• Map Agile principles to your situation
• Make communication a big deal
• Increased documentation is not the answer
• No big-bang implementation of Agile
• Visit the people you will be working with, or vice versa

38. Questions And Answers

39. Thank You!
Atlantic Dominion Solutions
321-274-4684
http://www.adsdevshop.com
Robert Dempsey
CEO & Founder
LinkedIn: robertwdempsey
Twitter: @rdempsey