App Development | Frontend Development |
Offshore development teams operate remotely to deliver software development solutions for businesses. With a rise in the number of businesses working remotely, offshore development has become an integral part of many such IT companies. Understanding the challenges that arise when working with an offshore team is the first step to mitigating them.
For instance, issues with time differences, cultural barriers, lack of face-to-face communications, slow development cycle, cyber security and data sharing impediments, and incongruous backend systems all lead to sloppy management of offshore development teams. However, these obstacles can be met head-on with agile, transparent, and organized interactions.
Here are a few effective tips that you can follow to manage offshore development teams:
Create a project pipeline that is end to end. In other words, define the major milestones for the product development operations, the volume, and the timeline for each task. This is a rough sketch or schematic for building a comprehensive Scope of Work (SOW).
Based on this design, the scope of work can be mapped to remove redundancies and fill gaps in the DevOps cycle. It helps the team plan the development process and organize tools and talents in a tailor-made manner that suits the needs of the business.
Once the basic milestones have been defined, it is important to categorize the workload and deadlines for the deliverables. This process can be effectively managed by charting out an end-to-end roadmap for the product development pipeline. This roadmap is a micro-level extension of the overarching product vision defined by milestones.
The main goal is to streamline the development process and provide a crystal clear picture of what is required of those in the team. It also helps align backend software and bridge communication barriers among remote teams.
Periodically meeting on stand-up calls to align immediate and short term milestones and receive updates on long-term milestones are paramount. This helps resolve communication gaps that usually bog down large-scale projects. Especially when more than one action area is simultaneously covered, the team must stay aptly informed about the overall progress and the vital milestones achieved throughout the entire DevOps process.
This is an important aspect of remote product development since an array of tasks have to operate in cohesion with each other. Besides, effective communication doesn’t mean regular meetings. A weekly or biweekly interaction for relevant checks is usually enough for the entire team to be on the same page.
Product demonstrations are essential for checking for changes and upgrades. It is key to understanding the iterative processes involved in the development cycle and distributing work to all team members accordingly. It helps eliminate all issues concerning redundancies, research, and product design.
Moreover, regular product demos help keep communications open-ended with the business. The client is kept updated about all the latest developments and stages of the DevOps cycle in this way.
Online communication depends on how well you can use the available digital media assets. Project management systems such as Jira, Monday.com, HootSuite, and Trello help adjust project management requirements to meet the needs of the time. It is extremely important to track the project’s progress using such systems, especially when most of the team members are scattered throughout the globe.
This helps in bridging all communication gaps in terms of remote product management. It helps businesses keep updated about the changes, edits, and developments in the DevOps cycle.
Conducting meetings that leverage product development is of paramount importance. For instance, a 15-minute meeting or conversation about the current status, past impediments, and the future goals of the project would perhaps be enough the address what the company requires.
Yet, only a handful of businesses are able to tackle these obstacles head. They rely on offshore management teams to ensure flexible yet structured product development. So, the agile method of product development remains vital to ensuring the meeting of the requirements in a timely manner.
When working in a remote setup, not everyone is available for meetings at a given time. To resolve the issues with communications in a situation such as this, ensure that you know the time zones that each employee works. This will help you fix meetings according to the availability and preference of the employees at the organization. This will also facilitate DevOps processes and ensure transparency in diurnal operations.
Ensuring a streamlined flow of conversation requires a specific brand guideline document. This ensures all the best practices revolving around the organization are met with relative ease and precision. It may also include the creative aspects of the business that creates the overall framework for the product as well as the business the app caters to. The brand guideline acts as a go-to document for the developers and designers who are looking to align their products to the vision of your company.
Providing incentives to the DevOps team members helps to create a sense of urgency. This more often than not delivers faster and more effective results. Incentivizing team members for their productivity is a key element in controlling remote organizations to ensure holistic growth for the business as well as the DevOps team. When a member achieves a milestone before the given deadline, a small reward goes a long way. This is the basic idea around this tip.
While most of the aforementioned tips are interlinked and intertwined with each other, they are all equally as important. Choose an offshore development team for your business that helps you meet the needs of your business and the times ahead. For a future-ready DevOps solution, reach out to Focaloid Technologies and transform your daily business processes fit for a digital tomorrow.
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