Doing Agile across distributed locations around the globe makes it harder, but not impossible. It puts strain on the Agile principles, we have to work hard to make sure that the focus remains on delivering value to the customer. It is very easy for the complexity of the situation to stop us dead in our tracks. There are a number of essential elements that need to be right to ensure this doesn’t happen; these include working practices, tools, effective teamwork, a shared vision and effective ways of communicating. Each of these is an essential piece of the jigsaw that needs to be considered if you are going to have distributed teams and be successful.
Agile 2008 will be in Toronto at the beginning of August, I have submitted a proposal mainly to share two case studies on distributed agile teams that I have been involved with over the last couple of years. However the final part will draw together experiences from these projects with other multi-site projects that myself and colleagues have been involved with.
What have we learnt from these experiences?
· Challenges facing distributed teams
· Key patterns for delivering with distributed teams
· Anti-patterns – what doesn’t work with distributed teams
· How to facilitate successful iteration planning, reviews and retrospectives
· How to create an environment where distributed teams can collaborate effectively
· Tools and development environments
To see the proposal go to http://submissions.agile2008.org/node/4455, to give feedback you will need to create an account if you don’t have one already. Your support would gratefully be received.