LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / November, 23, 2021 / Alexey Semeney is the CEO and founder DevTeam.Space, a non-traditional software development company that provides services globally. DevTeam.Space is a vetted community of expert development teams supported by an AI-powered agile process. Since 2016, the company has completed over 150 projects and managed 600 developers.
In this article, Alexey Semeney shares the specific process to help structure remote team management for consistent results. This process is helpful for product managers of any kind or for people thinking of starting their software startups.
Semeney explains how this process can be transitioned and used for managing other departments, including marketing teams. "I'll first share why it's vital to have a similar process in your organization if you have a remote team. Then I'll tell you exactly the one we have in our organization," Semeney says.
Reasons for the Process
At DevTeam.Space, we came up with this process for two reasons. One was to survive on the market and be efficient, and two was to be scalable yet deliver the best possible results as opposed to traditional software outsourcing models.
The most common problems with current processes are inconsistency. Other issues include a build-up of debt of any kind, such as unfinished tasks, incomplete documentation, and lack of reports. Most other problems include a lack of communication needed to address employees' concerns in completing tasks.
Your company can avoid some of these problems by hiring and vetting employees to ensure their ethics align with the company. However, even talented people without a process in place will not deliver. More than that, a manager who doesn't have a strategy for the team will most likely fail the entire team, even if it consists of great people. So what's the solution?
The Process
DevTeam.Space found that commitment to the process is one of the most critical factors for implementing or improving the company process. The manager and the team members should understand that the task-management process is vital to achieving consistent results. A well-structured process that consists of specific steps that are simple enough to follow might feel robotic; that's why some team members usually don't want to follow the process and be "creative" about their work.
But that's precisely how it should feel, so once you learn it, you'll be able to follow it habitually, with zero effort; that's the beauty of an exemplary process. Once you have this process in place, it allows your systems to run smoothly, so you can then use your craving for creativity to grow the business.
Tools and Rules
Over-communication is another problem for managers. "After a manager has spoken with 4-5 people in the morning, they go on to their own business, and by lunchtime, they cannot recall what was discussed, and the same goes for employees and clients. Instead, there should be just enough communication of different sorts." Semeney explains.
You'll need to use tools and have rules and guidelines for using these tools. In addition to these tools, you need to have reminders, reports, and regular calls. The tools we use for project and team management include PivotalTracker and Jira for outlining the tasks to team members and structuring the project in weekly sprints and 1-2 months phases.
We use Slack for daily text communication, Proprietary dashboard for daily updates and reminders, Git for code storage, and Zoom for calls. But the most crucial aspect of implementing these tools are the rules and guidelines for using them.
For example, it's pointless to outline the entire project in a task management tool because you will spend a day or two on a proper setup. Instead, you can focus on outlining the tasks at hand only for the current week. This is quick and easy to go over the list of completed tasks at the end of the week.
As for the calls, after managing over 150 different projects, I can clearly say that it's pointless to host daily meetings. Instead, it's best to host one weekly call to discuss the list of tasks for a week, approve it together with the team members, and go over questions, if any. It usually takes 30 minutes or so. At the end of the week, you host another call to discuss completed tasks and approve the list of tasks for the following week.
This approach would keep everyone in the loop, and your team members would actually enjoy having those calls.
As for the business chat messaging apps like Slack, it's best to define specific communication hours during the day. Psychologically, we're wired to perform the best work while focused and not distracted. If a manager distracts a team member with a question, it could take up to 30 minutes to get back into a flow state.
Imagine how chatting all day long would affect the overall productivity of your team. We found that it's best to allocate two hours per day for slack updates in our practice. So the rest of the day, your teammates can be focused on their tasks. Obviously, if there is something urgent, you can always reach out to them.
And the same "middle-ground" rule applies to reports. Nobody wants to write or read long reports after a long day of work. Instead, we found it extremely useful to post daily updates of just 1-2 sentences long. It's easy to write them, and it's very easy to read them.
Conclusion
The goal is to have the ideal process working consistently. One of the major indicators that the process is working is that you don't even think about it as a manager. Meaning if someone were to ask you if there are any issues with your team, you would be able to replay with a complete understanding and updates in mind that you have not noticed any. This process allows you to have a sense of clarity and control.
For more information, visit https://www.devteam.space/ or [email protected]
SOURCE: DevTeam Space