DEV Community: Yassine Tounsi

How to effectively communicate in a remote team

Yassine Tounsi — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 11:21:00 +0000

Communication and action work hand in hand. Effective communication enables the exchange of information and ideas from one person or group of people to another. This is vital to delivering a successful project. A reliable remote team needs to have excellent communication. It is also important to use communication tools that are easily accessible by all stakeholders.

A project management team has three communication areas. These are internal information exchange, information management, and project marketing. Effective project communication management needs to follow three processes; planning, management, and control. The communication strategy chosen by the project manager should promote the goals and objectives

In this article, we will discuss some of the tips for building a successful remote project management communication plan. At Foretheta, we have incorporated these tips while working and collaborating with our remote teams. They have consistently proved to be reliable and effective.

Defined Charter

A project charter captures ideas and thoughts into goals and objectives. It is the first stage of project management. Here, the project manager needs to develop a business case and scope that is established within the project. A business charter provides the goals, limitations, challenges, time-frame, and budget of the project.

A clearly defined charter is the best way to kick-off your project. The project’s initiation stage is the most critical as it puts every stakeholder on the same page. It ensures that everyone is aware of the project and their expectations about the assigned tasks and final deliverables.

Communicating Reliably

Communication is the backbone of any remote team because this is where all the project coordination is done. The project manager needs to provide a platform that can be used to promote seamless communication. Proper communication is developed with clearly documented tasks, deadlines, decisions, feedback, organized information, and made accessible to every stakeholder.

Frequent communication is critical to ensure that every stakeholder is on the same page, the feedback was received, and updates are received on time.

Communication Channels

The communication plan determines the success of a remote project. Communication channels are the environments that enable the transfer of information between stakeholders. Short-comings within the communication structure lead to the derailment or failure of the project plan. Informed decisions need open channels of communication for a seamless flow of information.

As a project manager, you need to incorporate communication channels that are customized to your projects. Every stakeholder should be able to access these channels. This way, all the communications can be delivered effectively and on time.

Proper communication channels are also essential for organized documentation. They ensure that all emails, chats, and communication are easy to track. It gives the project the revolution in terms of organization and task allocation. Check out the available remote project management platforms to find out which works best with your team.

Communication Tools

The right project communication tools promote seamless collaboration. Every project team determines the form of communication that works best for them. Tools should be tailored to a specific type of communication. This could be discussion, weekly status reports, chatting, or status board. For instance, a project board captures the work-plan and tracks the progress. Trello, PivotalTracker, and Jira are some of the tools that are opted for project boards.

For written communication tools, a team should practice asynchronous communication. This allows organized follow up on those who haven’t gotten the message.

Sponsor Engagement

Many project managers credit the successful projects to detailed charter, the right resources, and an engaged team. You need to realize that an active project sponsor plays an important role. This is the person behind the identification of the need for the project. The sponsor co-manages the project to ensure ideal deliverables.

It is important to keep the sponsor engaged and informed throughout. This should be done in a well-outlined process. In case of an urgent decision, state a clear aim, and required actions. While you may want to adjust to the sponsor's style and preference of communication, the message should always be clear and direct. This avoids wastage of time and prompts quicker feedbacks

Visibility

Visibility ensures the progress of the project is accessible by every stakeholder. It ensures every member meets their deadlines for assigned tasks. Project management software makes tracking project visibility easy. The remote team members should understand the technology and how to access it. Timely and consistent communication and collaboration updates of stakeholders fosters project visibility.

Maintaining visibility goes hand in hand with communication and ensures the project is on track. Reasonable deadlines and milestones should go with tracking and monitoring of progress.

Right Team

Is your project on time and within the budget? Is every stakeholder putting in their best effort to complete their assigned task? Then you are definitely looking forward to a successful project. The success of the project depends on a communicative remote team. Communication within a team maintains project visibility and clears miscommunication. This ensures everyone is on the same page.

As a project manager, you should assemble a team that is self-driven and works well together. Also, promote a culture of transparency and empathy within the adopted structure. This minimizes miscommunication that leads to friction, frequent conflicts, and derailed deliverables.

Conclusion

Remote project management can sound discouraging on the planet. The truth is, it is. If you think about getting the right team and resources. The hack lies in getting the right team and establishing the right communication culture. Be patient and invest in a team that understands the importance of communication. Familiarize every member with the communication technology you will be using.

At Foretheta, we work with dedicated and self-driven remote teams. Every member of our team is familiar with all the tools and channels that make communication reliable. That is how we are able to track visibility and deliver successful projects.

Are remote teams less engaged?

Yassine Tounsi — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 11:03:19 +0000

Employee engagement is the degree of an employee's involvement in the workplace. It is the emotional connection and ownership employees feel they have for an organization.

A lot of managers believe that remote teams are not engaged enough because they are not working in an office.

This article will state why managers feel that on-site workers are more engaged; it will further explain how remote teams can showcase engagement and deliver exceptional results.

1. Sense of belonging

Active engagement thrives on employees' enthusiasm. Employees have an interest in engaging when they feel like they are part of the organization.

Some managers assume that employees feel a sense of belonging only by being physically present. Having a sense of belonging is not about physical attendance but rather about motivation. Workers can be present on-site and still feel like an outsider in the organization.

Managers can create a strong sense of belonging within remote teams by simply creating opportunities for team members to participate in the decision-making process.

Seeking your team's opinion on how to enhance services, for instance, instills a sense of belonging in them. They go the extra mile to get involved in the planning process to make the project successful.

Carrying your team along also makes them accountable. Everyone takes part in the responsibility of reaching team goals.

Everyone understands that the manager is not solely responsible if things go wrong: the entire team bears the consequences because they collectively took the decision.

2. Face-to-face interactions

An organization excels when team members interact with each other on their projects.

On-site workers have the privilege of face-to-face interactions. Managers feel connected to workers just by meeting them or seeing them do their work.

Remote teams can also have face-to-face interactions through video calls. They can be more deliberate about their interactions. They can leverage specific tools to engage their team on tasks.

A manager can have weekly 1on1s with each team member. This interaction allows you to connect with members about their assigned tasks. Both the manager and the employee can identify better ways of getting things done.

You can also have casual interactions where workers share ideas about specific topics. Noman Gul, an employee at Foretheta, introduced a weekly question and answer thread. Anyone can ask an open-ended question. For example, one of his recent questions was: What is something you recently tried but failed to do?

Such discussions will start interesting conversations that allow you to understand your team better.

3. Regular communication

Communication is a big part of engagement in the workplace.

On-site workers have the advantage of physically being in the office. Managers can message workers and have spontaneous meetings.

Remote teams can also communicate frequently. A manager can have weekly meetings with employees to ask for progress on assigned tasks. You can also have monthly sprint planning meetings about current and upcoming projects.

You can communicate with your remote team on a centralized system like Slack. There are also channels for private and public conversations. You can post information for the entire group on public platforms where someone can ask questions, and any team member can respond whenever they have time.

It is wrong, however, to use for constant communication: no one would be able to get work done if that were the case.

Communication among remote teams does not always have to be work-related. There should be room for small talk since informal discussions help remote teams bond and connect better.

You can schedule monthly non-work related calls for the team to hang out and unwind. Video applications like Zoom are suitable for remote group interactions: you can see and hear everyone as they chat away.

Working with a remote team does not mean you can never meet your team in person. You can organize an annual retreat for the whole team to meet up in a physical place.

4. Giving Feedback

Feedback on performance is essential for employee engagement. It gives them a sense of recognition of their efforts, and it highlights areas of improvement.

Managers feel that giving on-site workers instant feedback is not only faster but also more comfortable.

Remote teams can also get instant feedback by leveraging technology. Some software allows managers and workers to share the same virtual workspace at the same time. So, managers can give feedback in real-time as well.

You and your team can provide feedback on projects via a distributed conversation. People can post observations and suggestions for everyone to see.

The team at Foretheta does quarterly feedback on peer performance. Everyone fills out a simple questionnaire about their peers' performance, and each person has to come up with a suggestion for improvement. This feedback helps team members be more efficient in their duties.

5. Better training and learning

Continuous training and learning are vital in an evolving business place. Employees need to learn new skills to keep up with new trends in their field.

Managers feel that it is easier to train on-site workers. They not only tell them what to do but show them how to do it.

Remote training is quickly becoming a trend. Organizations want to cut the high cost of physical training by adopting the remote method.

Remote teams are the first beneficiaries of remote training. They deploy digital tools for employee onboarding and continuous learning.

You can set aside a budget for training and self-development courses. You can also encourage employees to share what they are learning on the job with the entire team. Other team members can learn a thing or two from others' experiences. Contributing to the team's knowledge and skills instills a sense of pride in your group. It also makes them feel like part of the company.

Employee engagement thrives when managers and team members have a common goal. A manager has to stir their team in the right direction. Remote teams can be as engaged as a manager wants them to be: the resources and practices discussed above can make it happen.

In this article, we talked about several ways in which remote work can be just as effective as working on site. It requires a little bit of thought and effort to come up with strategies to manage employee engagement. Hopefully, some of the tactics mentioned here can get rid of some misconceptions that managers might have regarding remote work.

Five challenges for remote project managers

Yassine Tounsi — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 10:43:28 +0000

This article contains an overview of some of the most common challenges that remote project managers experienced. We will also provide tips on how to avoid mistakes most project managers make at one point.

1. Lack of Motivation

Face-to-face communication sets the foundation for building stronger working relationships and fostering engagement and innovation. Thus, such collaborative environments ensure employee satisfaction as well as company culture and growth. On the other end of the spectrum, remote teams rely on various means of communication for rather formal interaction.

Setting up tech-tools, defining roles and processes, and establishing communication are the priorities. Keeping employees motivated is a challenge for most managers. Therefore, remote project managers have to lead a team that is neither motivated nor self-driven since motivation influences productivity.

Solution
Remote project managers should keep a continuous communication flow to ensure that their team members are updated on the expected level. The best approach is the use of remote project management communication software.

Communication technologies have made remote work more convenient. It enables a team to be more connected and informed, which promotes engagement and sustains productivity. It is also essential to keep the team as part of the company's bigger picture. This way, they will know that each one of them has a role to play.

The project manager should also take every opportunity to motivate his team by identifying the individual contribution and the outstanding work done within a project.

2. The difference in Time Zones

Different time zones are a more significant challenge to remote teams whose members come from different continents and countries. Finding an appropriate time for meetings is hard, especially if the time difference exceeds 8 hours. If members have to sacrifice their personal time to attend, they may end up resenting the project. As a project manager, it will be hard to work with a team that is discontent with a project.

Solution
One solution is to divide the team into geographical regions. If you have team members in North America and Asia, then it would be more convenient to have two separate teams. This will make it easy for the team members to have meetings and follow up as the project progresses.

Another option is to reduce the number of meetings altogether. Meetings should only take place when necessary. Otherwise, meetings at inconvenient times might negatively impact the team’s productivity.

Rotating the meeting schedule to switch between time zones is also an option to consider when all the members cannot agree on an ideal time.

If all the above solutions fail, the project manager may decide to record the meeting and send the videos to the members who did not attend.

3. Communication Challenges

Communication is an important aspect of remote project management. Lack of seamless communication throughout the project phases may delay the turnaround of the project. For this reason, many project managers look for software and digital tools that help them get the job done. It can be in the form of online chats, audio calls, or video conferencing.

But the availability of these tools doesn't minimize miscommunication. In an onsite setting, communication is easier for receiving feedback, and asking for clarifications is quicker. You have the opportunity to meet people outside the workplace and get to know them. Informal communication within and outside the workplace is the norm. This has made many people contemplate more on onsite projects as being better than remote.

Solution
The project manager should work towards normalizing informal interactions between team members. There should be a culture where informal communication between stakeholders is routine. This way, team members can engage with each other and clear miscommunications before they escalate and cause any setbacks.

The project manager should use remote project management tools and software to solve miscommunication issues. There are different modes and tools of communication that work for different teams according to the project needs. Most of these tools are designed to increase output while avoiding burnouts. It is important to choose software, tools, and means of communication that can easily be adopted by each team member. Some common tools we use are Slack, Trello, Zoom, Google Drive, and, of course, Github.

4. Output Analysis

The success of a project depends on the input of each team member. As a project manager, being able to track the efficiency of employees' input is essential for better estimation. If Project managers find it challenging to determine employees' output then they can't estimate overall team output with any degree of accuracy.

Solution
Picking the right tools is key to estimating the output of an employee. Whatever tool you pick, make sure the whole team is using the same tool. They should have access to each other’s work in the project management tool. This ensures timely dissemination of all project updates on the project to all involved parties.

This has an additional benefit of reducing the project manager's effort to check on the employees and track their progress frequently. With less overhead, the focus can be on the output instead. Focusing on the right things is important, as it determines the success of a project.

5. Analyzing Risk Management

Risk management is all about identifying and assessing possible challenges and obstacles to focus on treating such areas to avoid potential failures. The prioritization involves resource allocation and monitoring to observe the change or turn of events. Project managers have to plan for emergencies in case the project took an unexpected turn. This means that the project manager has to determine the risks the project is bound to face or encounter. The uncertainties involved in a project management process turn out to be a considerable challenge to most managers.

Solution
Strategic planning and research is the best way to understand the potential risks. Before the start of any project, a project manager should conduct intensive research. Analyzing previous projects and sorting for the field's experts and mentors consulting is an excellent way to familiarize yourself with the potential risks. This way, you can develop proper control measures.

Conclusion

In conclusion, lack of motivation, different time zones, lack of communication, managing the team's output, and accurately managing risk are some of the setbacks that most remote project managers may encounter. Experts, experience, and research show that you may be able to deal with many of these challenges if you incorporate these solutions in time. This is what we will like to call a proactive management strategy. Project managers should be dedicated to the constant analysis of setbacks and challenges as they implement effective ways of maneuvering the hurdles to achieving success. With the right strategies, remote teams have proven to be more effective than the traditional onsite teams because of their skills, knowledge, and experience diversity.

Do remote teams deliver lower quality software?

Yassine Tounsi — Mon, 14 Dec 2020 22:11:55 +0000

Remote work has changed the dynamics of the workplace. Companies are no longer restricted to physical locations to function and flexibility is essential for recruitment according to the findings of the 2019 Global Talent Trends Report by LinkedIn.

Organizations that allow employees to work from remote locations have an easier time keeping their employees, especially with more employees wanting flexibility with travel and avoiding commutes to work.

But this vision is far from the current reality: Managers still prefer on-site workers because of prejudice against remote teams. We will list some reasons behind this bias and explain how remote teams get around them.

Engagement

The staff’s collective effort contributes largely to achieving organizational goals. Managers have to engage employees in the establishment of projects and plans. Having managers on-site makes engagement and collaboration with workers easier. They can reach out to them for meetings, to brainstorm, and to delegate tasks.

However, remote teams do not have to be less engaged. Team members can leverage technology to stay connected. A variety of tools are available for different activities. Some of these activities include instant messaging and video conferencing for communication.

Collaboration becomes easy with the help of tools at the disposal of a remote workforce. Everyone can take part in ongoing projects. Members have the option to work either as a group or as individuals. Notifications are in place for handoffs, so team members know when they turn to take over or make an input.

Focus

A focused team needs to pay attention to details for excellent performance. Managers feel that on-site workers are more focused on their job than remote teams. This idea stems from the belief that remote teams get distracted by their families and friends, and their home chores, although distraction is not exclusive to remote teams.

On-site workers also suffer from distractions from co-workers and office activities that are beyond their control. There is a lot of physical movement at the workplace: People are always moving files from one desk to another or asking each other questions. They grab the slightest opportunity to talk about other matters unrelated to work.

Remote workers have control over their schedules and environment. They have the power to avoid distractions by choosing a convenient time and place to work.

Remote teams working from home can choose specific working hours. They don’t need to combine office work and home chores when they can do both at separate times. Choosing an isolated part of the house for work is one way to manage distractions at home.

Management

Effective management maintains organization in the workplace. The center stage falls apart when there is no coordination among workers. Managers believe that on-site workers are easier to manage. This belief is because they can monitor every move their employees make. They end up micromanaging workers at their own expense, thus wasting time and resources.

Employees feel overworked and pressurized when they know someone is watching them. They also ask their managers for help. As a result, managers answer repeated questions at their own expense.

Remote teams work according to stipulated guidelines. They have the information they need to work alone with little supervision. This independence is of significant benefit to managers as they have enough time to focus on other tasks instead of micromanaging the team.

Credibility

Credibility is vital for the sustainability and durability of a business. An organization loses its customers when it loses its credibility. Managers believe that having on-site workers makes their business more credible to clients. This belief is a case of misplaced value proposition.

Credibility lies in the quality of the delivered work and not the location of a business. Having a room full of workers does not guarantee excellent results. On-site workers may underperform if they are not well-grounded in their job.

A manager can build a remote talented team to deliver excellent services to clients. It is possible to hire talents with superb skill sets from different locations. Managers cannot achieve this with on-site workers because of the location barrier.

Trust

A trustworthy team protects the interest of an organization and goes the extra mile to get things done. Managers equate trust with activity. They are more comfortable seeing workers seated on their desks in front of a computer system.

However, research shows that on-site workers waste time surfing the internet at work. They know what managers want to see, and they offer it to them. They pack their bags and leave at the closing time.

A Stanford study found that remote teams are more productive than in-office workers by 13%. Their performance measurement was not done based on activity, but on the delivered results where there is no room for pretense.

There is no one-size-fits-all method in business. Organizations have the prerogative to adopt practices that are most suitable for them. Remote teams are a convenient alternative for managers who are more flexible in their working style. High performance is non-negotiable in remote teams. The only way they can meet this standard is to do their work. The results speak for themselves.

The 8 levels of autonomy in delegation

Yassine Tounsi — Thu, 07 May 2020 13:53:25 +0000

Delegation is a key management skill. We all know the advantages, so I will not go through them in this article ;-) However, many are now aware of the different levels of autonomy that they can grant to the delegate, and this is what the article about!

Delegation is usually performed in four phases. Phase 1 is to evaluate what task to delegate and to whom. Phase 2 is to actually handover the task. Phase 3 is to support and coach the delegate while performing the task. Finally, Phase 4 is to debrief after the delegation is over.

During the handover phase, it’s really important to be clear on how much autonomy to give to the employee to do the given task and to make sure that they share the same understanding as you.

Autonomy is the level of independence a person has to complete a task. Ross A. Webber defined 8 levels of autonomy that you can give to your employee with level 1 being the least amount of autonomy and level 8 being the most. These levels are differentiated by the level of analysis the delegate provides, who makes the decision, and who takes action.

Level 1: The delegate has no autonomy. Delegate looks into the problem, gathers the information, and gives it to the manager who makes the decision. The manager also takes action.

Level 2: Delegate explores the alternatives available, noting the pros and cons of each option. The delegate presents this analysis to the manager, who decides what to do and takes the action.

Level 3: Delegate explores the options and makes a decision, recommending a course of action to the manager. The manager approves the decision and takes the action.

Level 4: Delegate explores the options and makes the decision about a course of action, but delays implementation until the manager approves it. At that point, the delegate takes the action.

Level 5: Delegate informs the manager of his or her plans and can take action unless the manager says not to (The manager is holding veto power).

Level 6: Delegate takes action and informs the manager after the fact what was done and how it turned out.

Level 7: Delegate takes action and only communicates with the manager if the action was not successful.

Level 8: The delegate has complete autonomy at this highest level. The delegate takes action and does not need to communicate anything to the manager.

Learning about the 8 levels will absolutely change the way you delegate for the better! You will be much more clear with both yourself and your delegate, which means the whole delegation process is better for everyone.

How to set up a transparent process with clients when building web applications

Yassine Tounsi — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 13:25:29 +0000

Despite its significant advantages, some companies are not aware of the importance of transparency in business and still operate as a black box. The clients of these companies don't know the exact progress of work, how many people are effectively working on the project, what blockers and discussions are going on along the implementation processes, etc. Dealing with such companies is similar to hiring a taxi at the airport with no registration or licensing, and the result is ending up being tricked.

Transparency means always telling the customer the truth and communicating the good news and the bad. However, informing the prospects about this value during the pitching process is not usually a good idea to convince since every company pretends to be transparent and perfect at all levels. At Foretheta, we decided to share our working process publically to contribute to the industry's shared knowledge and inspire others to find ways to improve their processes too.

In the first few emails and calls, the client specifies the requirements of the web application. Then, we break down the prominent features into stories or tasks that should be small enough to be estimated and assimilated by developers. When all these features are listed out, we request the client's review and confirmation.

Next, we estimate the complexity of tasks and verify whether the client's deadlines are realistic or not. Projects with impossible deadlines are not accepted because they are deemed to fail. Usually, web applications go from a few weeks to several months, depending on the number of features and their complexity.

When it comes to the cost, we explain clearly how much the assigned developers can do. At Foretheta, we share our team's velocity with clients. For example, when affecting a team with a sprint velocity of 50 story points and the client's features were estimated at 150 story points, we inform the client that three sprints are required to reach the defined scope.

At this stage, we send our quote, or statement of work, with three essential information: scope, cost, and timeline. We use google docs to make it easy to get comments and feedback. Same to contract, we send a gdoc file. Once reviewed and confirmed, we use HelloSign for signature.

Practical work starts with drafting the web pages in the Balsamiq mockup. Once approved, we provide a proper UI using Sketch. After getting the client's feedback and reaching the final version, we can start the sprint.

At Foretheta, we give clients access to Github. Sometimes, clients request that their work is done in their repositories. We have found Github to be the perfect tool to foster communication with clients and let them be aware of all issues, technical tasks, bugs, regressions, and change requests. Similar platforms, such as JIRA or GitLab, can also play the same role.

For the validation process, Forethata creates two branches: development and production. When the project manager verifies a feature, the latter notifies the client to verify the development's expected feature. Once validated, it will be pushed to the production branch. This way, the client will be sure about the quality of our delivery. This, of course, doesn't exclude the necessity and the importance of maintenance.

These are the things that have worked for us. Embracing transparency isn't easy. Letting the client see unfinished work can feel uncomfortable at first, but that transient discomfort will disappear as soon as good results show up.

Why using t-shirt sizes to weight user stories doesn't help too much?

Yassine Tounsi — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 10:15:13 +0000

In order to address their needs, IT companies and startups adapt and customize their implementation of Scrum methodology. Processes have to be simpler with small teams and relatively smaller projects; however, some simplification practices may deprive product owners and project managers of the great advantages offered by Scrum. In this post, I will talk about the practice of using t-shirt sizes instead of story points to weigh user stories.

At a glance, both the t-shirt sizes and story points tend to appear indistinguishable. But when the practical aspects of it are considered, the difference is easily notable. To understand this, you need to analyze the practical aspects starting with the objectives of weighing stories.

What is the key metric in Scrum? The answer is only one word; Velocity. Velocity is the measure of the amount of work a team performs during a single sprint. It is calculated at the end of the sprint by totaling the points of all fully completed user stories. Imagine what can happen if we don’t have numbers given by story points!

When starting to evaluate user stories, comparing t-shirt sizes is not an easy approach. We cannot, for example, compare two user stories having S and L with one user story having XL or assume that XL is two times L. The statistics will be difficult to comprehend and used by both product owners and development teams. With story points, it’s quite simple; a story that is assigned 2 story points should be twice as much as a story that is assigned 1 story point. This makes story points more straight-word.

Let’s assume that all user stories are evaluated with t-shirt sizes. It will be almost impossible to define sprint velocity accurately. However, with story points, the product owner can easily find out what his/her team can tackle in a specific number of points over time. The objective is always to increase the number, but this will usually follow a linear curve.

For instance, if a team can perform 50 points per sprint, then it will be useless to plan a new sprint with 100 points. This is because planning a new sprint will result in an uncompleted sprint and overwhelming frustration. Planning 55 points or 60 points is the right and most appropriate decision. If well planned for, stories are done before the end of the sprint while additional stories are added from the backlog.

Project managers are most concerned when it comes to the team’s velocity. It is from this that they can control the project schedule and communicate reasonable deadlines to clients. This helps in decision making and outlines the importance of story points over t-shirt sizes.

Finally, we may all know how difficult and costly it is to change any process in the organization. The same applies when it comes to the decision to shift from using t-shirt sizes to story points. This is why there is a simple technique to use in the first stage by combining both of them. Here is an example of linking the Fibonacci sequence with T-Shirt sizes: 1XS, 2S, 3M, 5L, 8XL, etc. When everyone gets used to numbers, then t-shirt sizes could be removed forever.