Virus is a Test: How to Save IT Team Efficiency

How to prevent development inefficiencies at the times of virus and remote work? If you manage an IT project, how can you protect it from failed deadlines and other risks? Here are some lifehacks that we use in custom software development at SimbirSoft.

Large IT companies were among the first to take measures on reducing coronavirus infection risk. At Microsoft and Google up to 80% of employees started working from home — IT industry adapts to new conditions faster than others. However, in-house teams can still experience stress, especially if they used to work in one office on a common project.

It is easier for outsourcing IT companies to switch to remote work as they have a large number of projects with distributed teams. Years-refined workflows and processes in such teams allow them to be independent of external conditions. If you want to build your teamwork in the most flexible way, consider the following key factors.

Factor #1. Rules

That may sound obvious, but this is very important to follow the team’s rules, which are the same for office and remote employees. It is necessary to regulate all processes: the general workflow, as well as individual procedures, such as code review and others. Even If a specialist works from home he still participates in daily team calls on a set schedule. The results of his/her work are reviewed by the head of department, team leader or project manager depending on the rules in the team.

Factor #2. Services

Both public services (Skype, Slack, Jira, Confluence) and custom-made services are used. For example, we have our Base of Knowledge for documents and the internal social network where developers from different cities can communicate, share ideas, and create groups of their interests. Various reporting, planning, and monitoring services are relevant to project management.

Such services are widely used for project management in outsourcing companies. The necessary metrics are: a code quality, a number of bugs and reopend tasks, bug-fixing time per each specialist and in total. For example, e-commerce projects have their own metrics based on business measures, such as time-to-market, service downtime and so on. A set of technical metrics is defined by a product owner, team leader, or other specialist who is responsible for managing the team. Metrics must be clear and available for all team members.

Factor #3. Loyal Control Methods

Developers often appreciate the climate of the team and trust is a key factor. To evaluate a specialist’s performance, we analyze quantitative and qualitative results (for example, plan vs. fact analysis). At the same time, we avoid all kinds of automatic control systems, focusing on the analysis of the performance indicators. It is important for any specialist, including a remote one, to feel comfortable among his team. So it is important to maintain communication during scrum meetings and video calls.

In times of remote business it is a good idea to talk regularly with every team member and make sure that everybody has no obstacles to communicate.

Factor #4. Coaching and Base of Knowledge

Each team needs a mentor to share experience and help new specialists to adapt. We also have a unified BOK with our business cases, stories of solving non-standard problems, our values, standards and practices and templates, such as an architecture design template. Clear and intuitive BOK structure helps specialists to find an answer to any question.

Factor #5. Automatization and Automation

Automation of routine procedures helps to avoid chaos and make the team’s work more transparent. In an in-house team you can automate the monitoring of parameters that affect the product. As an example: if users leave feedback about the company’s mobile app, a bot immediately sends it to a company support service. So a team can provide a rapid response, and solve the user’s problem (if a problem exists) as quickly as possible.

Factor #6. Culture

A team is it’s members and their traditions. For example: to ring the bell after a release, to sing the song, to go to a bar or online bar if your company is quarantined. When celebrating a success of a project, a company event, or an anniversary of cooperation, it is necessary to invite all remote employees. For example, we order them pizza at home. Video calls and online communication are essential — this allows to involve all the participants.

Factor #7. Soft Skills

Flexibility in solving problems, respect for co-workers and mutual assistance are very important and couldn’t be overvalued. They are far more important when working remotely. Emailing or texting is less effective than video or phone calls. Be attentive to your colleagues, always inform them about tasks and problems, and more communicate as a team while working from home.

Summing Up

If a team works remotely, help everyone to get involved in the workflow. At first everyone will have to put in a little more effort than usual to interact and communicate effectively. Involvement and feedback are especially significant for specialists at this stage. As for a team, co-workers should use common collaboration tools, such as various online editors, and shift all interactions online.

Remote work requires self-discipline and high personal responsibility. In-house teams still prefer to work together in one office. However, there are more and more outsourcing teams and remote employees. It is becoming easier for employers to manage allocated teams as there are many tools for it. Though the culture of interaction and communication skills are still crucial. It takes time to accustom, especially if there are representatives of the “baby boom” and “X” generation in a team. According to our experience, generation Z or younger specialists adapt to remote work more quickly and easily. But first of all, the success of interaction depends on team and company processes, and culture.

Peter Urvaev, Technical Director at SimbirSoft

Thanks for your attention! We are ready to share our experience, leave your stories in the comments.

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