10 challenges faced by distributed teams
By Jeena / Filed under Agile, Collaboration, Scrum, Self Organization / October 18th, 2011
A few weeks ago we posted a blog on how our team at Conscires manages to effectively synchronize between different people in different locations. We are constantly striving to improve the way we work, by understanding the challenges we face as a team, and trying to resolve them.
This post summarizes the issues faced by distributed teams when working towards a common goal.
1. Without regular (as far as possible, daily) communication, it is easy to misunderstand what another team member is doing and miss important things. This could lead to the team going out of sync and not discovering it in time.
2. For a distributed team, connectivity is of utmost importance. Issues like power supply failure, Internet connectivity problems, login failures etc. could lead to a lot of time being wasted during meetings / discussions.
3. When the team members are based in different timezones, the overlap may be very thin. Hence, some or the other team member may be required to make compromises on personal time.
4. When communication happens through email exchanges, the action items or discussion points may get lost if not properly maintained and recorded. This is true even with a local team, but is more pronounced in distributed teams. Without face-to-face interaction, the chances of vital information and/or creativity getting lost in translation is very high.
5. Establishing rapport with team members one has never ‘met’ could take time and may give rise to a feeling of distance between them. This could lead to hesitation in discussions, hindering open and free communication that is essential for the team to function well.
6. When working with or learning new tools, a person isolated from his team may hit roadblocks and find it difficult to get help. Similarly, it might not be as easy to provide training to a remote team member as it is to one sitting nearby, even with technologies like remote desktop access, screen sharing etc.
7. Pairing for a task over the Internet is not as easy as when two people are seated side by side.
8. Maintaining a remote team to work together could be expensive because of the technical & human resources required to keep them in sync, motivated and up-to-date. For example, without effective version control system, project/defect tracking tools, conference call/chat softwares, multiple team leads for different locations etc., the team could lose its way.
9. It’s difficult enough to try to carry on teamwork and business across oceans when all participants share the same language and cultural norms, but add language and cultural differences into the mix and there is potential for miscommunication and misunderstanding (and sometimes comic relief!) when teams work together virtually.
10. Distributed teams don’t get much face time with the leadership of the organization or team, and may feel left out and become unmotivated if leadership doesn’t continuously integrate offshore teams into core business culture, activities, and initiatives.
What other issues could arise in distributed teams? Do you have experiences with distributed teams that you would like to share with us?
(With inputs from Neeta Singh, Vanessa Brown, Lisa Montano, Indu Menon, Bachan Anand and Edith Alizadeh.)
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