Remote Development Teams: Manage your team effectively to ensure best results

Outsourcing software development is a great option that will save your company time, money and resources. Here are some tips to help you effectively manage your software development team remotely to ensure the best results:

1. Choose the right vendor – The first and most important step is finding the right outsourcing vendor that is most compatible with your company. Make sure they have the knowledge and experience to efficiently execute your project, as well as the right team in place for your needs. Here are some tips for selecting the right outsourcing vendor.
2. Provide clear instructions to reduce miscommunication – Miscommunication is one the biggest issues when managing remote teams. Be sure to be transparent with your team and give clear directives of tasks and expected outcomes, leaving no ambiguity. After your initial correspondence, provide a secondary report of instructions in the project management tools. Providing the remote team with clear instructions will minimize the risk for error.
3. Use a project management tool – Project management tools help teams track the status of projects and deliver quality products more efficiently. The Shinetech team developed an in-house web-based Project Management System for our Agile software development teams that can easily be modified to meet the requirements of different clients and projects. We also use other project management tools that our clients may prefer, such as Target Process, JIRA, Pivital Tracker, TFS and more.
4. Daily reports & productivity monitoring – As communication is a two way street, your remote team should also prepare reasonably detailed daily reports of progress and updates. Do not hesitate to ask your team any questions you may have in terms of the work completed and understanding next steps. This will help you track development progress and identify problems in timely manner.
5. Be available to your team at all times – It is extremely important for you to be present or available for your remote team at all times. The remote team should always be able to contact you online, via email or instant messenger, or by phone. This is especially important for projects that require quick check-in or discussions, where decisions must be made quickly and issues addressed correctly.
6. Be involved – Although you won’t be involved in the actual development of your project, it is important for you to actively be involved with the remote team during the initial development process. Be clear about your needs and make sure the vendor fully understands your goals and objectives.

Following these important steps will help you achieve a positive end result and eliminate any frustrations. Communication is key!