Sonatype is a distributed workforce. Most of us work remotely, and we are hiring. But before you apply, do you know what it means to work on such a team?
We’ve seen too many collections of people described as teams. A team has a common single goal: to solve a problem for the business or users. To accomplish that goal, team members depend on each other and collaborate to finish the work. An agile team has all the skills and capabilities it needs to produce the work for that goal.
Creating a great distributed team is more than finding people with the right technical skills. People also need collaboration skills, and that depends on their personalities and how they work. The team needs time to understand each other’s preferences so they can best collaborate to deliver value.
Collocated team members can see when team members are available, and they can see or share the equipment each team member uses or has access to.
Distributed team members, on the other hand, need to be explicit about their availability and equipment. Some team members may have office space. Some may work in a shared family space. Some team members might prefer coworking spaces. Team members should be aware of what advantages and obstacles these different working spaces provide to themselves and the entire team.
Consider taking time for the team to discover their preferences, skills, and abilities. When the team creates their working agreements, everyone can learn how they need to work together.
An agile coach or another experienced facilitator may help the team quickly explore these preferences and decide what might work best for everyone. Some examples might be:
- Based on our time zones, do we have core work hours? If so, what are they?
- What should someone do if they (Read more...)
For Distributed Teams, It’s Not All About the Tools
