{"id":545,"date":"2012-09-03T12:25:22","date_gmt":"2012-09-03T12:25:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.binfire.com\/?p=545"},"modified":"2012-09-03T12:25:22","modified_gmt":"2012-09-03T12:25:22","slug":"managing-distributed-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing distributed teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

As you know managing distributed teams used to be really hard work. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The differences in time, language and culture create many\u00a0obstacles\u00a0to effective management\u00a0of projects.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In my view, the biggest barrier\u00a0to the acceptance of distributed teams is overcoming the cultural differences.<\/span><\/p>\n

Different cultures have different\u00a0customers when working together, how they communicate and accept hierarchies.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other issues we did mention about namely language and time could be easily solved by technology.<\/span><\/p>\n

So why the cultural differences great such havoc when people work together?<\/span><\/p>\n

Humans by nature mistrust people who are different from them and feel uncomfortable to collaborate with them.<\/span><\/p>\n

To manage this mistrust the management could do lots of things which we will be covering in this post.<\/span><\/p>\n

12 rules for distributed teams<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Open communication:<\/span><\/strong> Proper communication is essential\u00a0for the success of any team, but for distributed teams it is critical.<\/span><\/p>\n

Figure out how to make it possible for the team to have real-time communication anytime it is needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, tools like a message board could help communication when not all the team members are online at the same time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Select the right project management method<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This might sound strange, but it is really important. You need to use a method that is compatible with remote work and distributed teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are three main project management methods that are\u00a0in wide use today.<\/span><\/p>\n

The first and most popular project management method is Agile. <\/span><\/p>\n

Due to its nature of rapid development and minimal supervision, it fits the distributed model but it is not a perfect fit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The main reason for lack of the perfect fit is the fact that in Agile project management<\/a> documentation and specification is lax.<\/span><\/p>\n

A remote user needs to make sure that all decision and agreements about the project are known across\u00a0the team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The second project management method in wide use is Waterfall or WBS. The waterfall method<\/a> is the least\u00a0compatible with remote work, due to its rigid decision-making structure.<\/span><\/p>\n

The third project management and the newest method is Hybrid project management<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The beauty of Hybrid project management is that it combines both Agile and WBS methods.<\/span><\/p>\n

This created an environment\u00a0in which rapid development and distributed decision making coexist and there is enough documentation to help the distributed\u00a0teams.<\/span><\/p>\n

Setting Rules and guidelines<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Local teams need rules and structure, distributed teams need it even more.<\/span><\/p>\n

The scope of the project needs to be absolutely clear and know to everybody on the team.<\/span><\/p>\n

The project mission, the deadlines, how things get done, who to go when there are issues and when to ask for help, all needs to be spelled out!\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As you know managing distributed teams used to be really hard work. \u00a0 The differences in time, language and culture create many\u00a0obstacles\u00a0to effective management\u00a0of projects.\u00a0 In my view, the biggest…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[11,7],"class_list":["post-545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-collaboration-2","category-project-management-2","tag-project-collaboration","tag-project-management"],"yoast_head":"\nManaging distributed teams - Collaboration Corner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As the distributed teams become more common, you need to have a plan on how to make these teams work effectively. The right tools can make this happen.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Managing distributed teams - Collaboration Corner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the distributed teams become more common, you need to have a plan on how to make these teams work effectively. The right tools can make this happen.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Collaboration Corner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-09-03T12:25:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Distributed-teams-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Robins\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Robins\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Robins\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7cab738f49cc42aa1e195126e7dd65\"},\"headline\":\"Managing distributed teams\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-03T12:25:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/\"},\"wordCount\":444,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Distributed-teams-3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"project collaboration\",\"project management\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Collaboration\",\"Project management\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/\",\"name\":\"Managing distributed teams - Collaboration Corner\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Distributed-teams-3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-09-03T12:25:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"As the distributed teams become more common, you need to have a plan on how to make these teams work effectively. The right tools can make this happen.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Distributed-teams-3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Distributed-teams-3.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":512,\"caption\":\"distributed teams\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Managing distributed teams\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Collaboration Corner\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Collaboration Corner\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/cropped-binfire_logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/cropped-binfire_logo.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":324,\"caption\":\"Collaboration Corner\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7cab738f49cc42aa1e195126e7dd65\",\"name\":\"David Robins\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca569889b88b6ab05131d38fa14f2548bbd90ac85a17da19bf28a69bb2ab9eb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca569889b88b6ab05131d38fa14f2548bbd90ac85a17da19bf28a69bb2ab9eb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Robins\"},\"description\":\"David Robins is the founder and CEO of Binfire. David studied at both Cornell and MIT, and was the Director of Software Engineering at Polaroid for 11 years.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/author\/david\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Managing distributed teams - Collaboration Corner","description":"As the distributed teams become more common, you need to have a plan on how to make these teams work effectively. The right tools can make this happen.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Managing distributed teams - Collaboration Corner","og_description":"As the distributed teams become more common, you need to have a plan on how to make these teams work effectively. The right tools can make this happen.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/","og_site_name":"Collaboration Corner","article_published_time":"2012-09-03T12:25:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Distributed-teams-3.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"David Robins","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Robins","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/"},"author":{"name":"David Robins","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7cab738f49cc42aa1e195126e7dd65"},"headline":"Managing distributed teams","datePublished":"2012-09-03T12:25:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/"},"wordCount":444,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Distributed-teams-3.jpg","keywords":["project collaboration","project management"],"articleSection":["Collaboration","Project management"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/","url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/","name":"Managing distributed teams - Collaboration Corner","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Distributed-teams-3.jpg","datePublished":"2012-09-03T12:25:22+00:00","description":"As the distributed teams become more common, you need to have a plan on how to make these teams work effectively. The right tools can make this happen.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Distributed-teams-3.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Distributed-teams-3.jpg","width":1024,"height":512,"caption":"distributed teams"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/managing-distributed-teams\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Managing distributed teams"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/","name":"Collaboration Corner","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Collaboration Corner","url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/cropped-binfire_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/cropped-binfire_logo.png","width":696,"height":324,"caption":"Collaboration Corner"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7cab738f49cc42aa1e195126e7dd65","name":"David Robins","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca569889b88b6ab05131d38fa14f2548bbd90ac85a17da19bf28a69bb2ab9eb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca569889b88b6ab05131d38fa14f2548bbd90ac85a17da19bf28a69bb2ab9eb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"David Robins"},"description":"David Robins is the founder and CEO of Binfire. David studied at both Cornell and MIT, and was the Director of Software Engineering at Polaroid for 11 years.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.binfire.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/author\/david\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}