Time is of the essence when it comes to app and software development. This is why it's always preferable to be able to work directly with your developers to see how they’re progressing. Unfortunately, many teams have to work remotely these days and may not be used to the challenges that come with it.
One of the biggest issues is productivity and accountability. But, with the right tools and techniques, you can ensure that your developers are working to the best of their capacity. Let's take a look at how you can keep remote dev teams productive.
Use Multiple Project Management Methodologies
Scrum is usually the tool of choice for dev teams and it has a lot of advantages. The issue with Scrum is that it works better on managing overarching projects, but what it’s not that great at is when it comes to micro-management.
You should consider using Kanban in addition to Scrum. Unlike Scrum, everything can be monitored in real-time using Kanban. You can see exactly who is doing what and how long it's taking them. You could start collecting data on how much time it takes to complete certain processes and who may be over or underperforming. You could also start refining your processes or revise the amount of work in progress that your employees can handle.
Hire a Top-Notch IT Team
One of the best ways to know if people are active or not is to monitor their activity. If you're not working with a third-party team for IT, we strongly suggest you do so right away. You have outsourced IT services that will allow you to see how much activity is happening in your systems. You'll be able to see who logged in and from where. Also, you could notice some suspicious activity or see that someone hasn't been on the whole day.
Keep Strict Schedule
Remote work shouldn’t be free work, especially when it comes to development. You have to make sure that everyone still has a strict schedule and that there are consequences if anyone doesn’t show up. This will not only allow them to be productive, but it’ll help them make a clear demarcation between work and their personal life as well.
Improve Communication
Dev teams rely on communication to get stuff done, and since they won't always be able to speak directly, you need to establish clear guidelines for written communication. You want to make sure that everything is as clear as possible for everyone. Also, you have to eliminate as much back and forth as possible. This can be done by ensuring that messages are detailed enough to not require follow-up questions from the person receiving them.
These are all great techniques that you can do to squeeze every bit of productivity out of your dev team even if they’re working from home. Make sure that you apply all of them and don’t be afraid to hear what your team has to say as well.