How to Assemble an Efficient Agile Team Offshore

Agile software development is a way of building software in an iterative approach. It prioritizes:

• Effective collaboration among team members,

• Faster delivery of working software; and

• Immediate response to change.

However, organizing an offshore team that adopts an Agile methodology is quite challenging due to several factors like communication, coordination, and collaboration.

For collaboration to work, there is a need to establish an effective interaction and communication between business owners and the software team. So the question is: are Agile principles and approaches can be used in assembling an offshore team? How does one assemble an efficient agile team offshore?

The efficiency of the performance of an agile team offshore depends on team members' teamwork, productivity, and quality of work in a given time frame.

To assemble an efficient agile team offshore, consider the following factors:

• Start with a small team to facilitate better communication.

• Choose the right team member that satisfies all the required skills.

• Make a research on your potential partner.

• Establish a strong connection between team members.

• Choose the appropriate communication and collaboration tools.

Start with a small team to facilitate better communication.

According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Two Pizza Rule: "no meeting should be so large that two pizzas can't feed the whole group". This means that working with a small team helps you easily manage and establish effective interaction and communication between them. Keeping your team in a smaller and manageable size motivates and inspires them to perform well and become more productive.

Choose the right team member that satisfies all the required skills.

Hiring someone with the right skills and attitude to be part of your team is not easy. You need to properly determine the right person that best fit for the job. In choosing the right person for the team you have to identify not only the different skill sets that you need for your offshore team but also their attitude towards working with other members of your team.

In finding the right person for the job, candidates should undergo intensive logical, technical, and practical exercises that involve solving complex problems, algorithms, live coding, and panel interviews to test their technical and logical expertise.

The following are the possible skill sets that you might need to be part of your software development team:

• Chief Technology Officer (CTO). A chief technology officer (CTO) plays a vital role in the success of your offshore agile software development team. A CTO helps you plan and design the infrastructure of your software product so that it functions well when deployed. A CTO guides and motivates team members on how to properly perform their tasks for the success and better quality of your software.

• Project Manager (PM). A project manager (PM) is responsible for overseeing the overall execution of the development of your software project. A PM helps you ensure that your software project reaches completion. It manages, monitors, and encourages team members to perform their tasks efficiently for the success of your project.

• Front-end Developer. An application interface where users interact is one of the important parts of a software product. A front-end developer is expected to create and design an interactive user interface for the end-users of your software product.

• Back-end Developer. A back-end developer creates code that makes your software product work. It works on the server-side business logic of your software and the integration of the interface created by the front-end developer.

• Full-stack Developer. A full-stack developer performs both designing the user interface and implementing the application logic of your software product. A full-stack developer is proficient and knowledgeable in both front- and back-end programming languages and databases.

• QA Tester. Testing a new software product is important to ensure its quality. QA is responsible for testing the new software product to ensure that it does not have any defects or issues and it meets all specifications and requirements. QA helps and supports developers identify and trace issues encountered and ensure that the new software product is error-free before it is released to consumers.

Being able to identify the right person for the job is better to leverage for you to be able to have an efficient agile team offshore.

Make a research on your potential partner.

Selecting the right partner for your offshore agile development project plays a vital role in the project's success. Before you decide which IT provider to engage with; you have to consider their:

• Portfolio. Usually, you can view a software partner's portfolio on their website. If not, you can request for it.

• Development methodologies. In assembling an agile team, it is important to know if your potential partner uses agile software development methodologies in their development process for you to works with them smoothly when starting your project.

• Domain expertise. Knowing the domain knowledge of your potential partner in terms of software development is also crucial for the success of your project.

• Company culture. Understanding your potential partner's goals, attitudes, practices, and shared values is important to identify the characteristics of their organization.

Establish a strong connection between team members.

Having good relationships between team members enables them to collaborate well and share their insights for the project. Team members should build strong connections with each other to be able to establish effective collaboration and interaction while working on your project.

Choose the appropriate communication and collaboration tools.

Communication and collaboration are the most important factors to consider in assembling an agile team offshore. Different types of concerns require different types of communication tools.

A good software partner will implement multiple communication tools for team members to use when communicating with each other to resolve problems encountered in the development process.

The following are some of the communication and collaboration tools that can be used by your agile team offshore:

• Instant messaging tools like Slack can connect team members regardless of location to a specific room where they can easily leave messages to discuss issues encountered while working on their respective tasks.

• Project Management tools like JIRA and Trello where project managers used in planning all tasks and creating the workflows for team members. These are also used to monitor the progress of all tasks assigned to each member of the team.

• Email can be used also by team members to send reports and other important documents about the projects that require sharing and decisions with all the members of the team.

• Voice and video calls are important during strategic meetings like sprint planning sessions where it requires group discussions and team collaborations. These are significant when managing your agile team offshore.

• Wikis are used to document common information like instructions, guidelines, notes, and other information that can be used and accessed by the team for reference purposes.

Having the best communication and collaboration tools for your team members are important to help them establish effective interaction and more productive relationship while working on the project.

Planning to assemble an agile team offshore? We can help.