Distributed teams give companies access to talent that they may otherwise not have access to locally. Projects can be completed in a faster manner if people in different time zones are continuously working on a particular project. Lastly, but certainly not least, companies can obtain significant cost savings if they work within a distributed team environment.
One of the biggest challenges to overcome when implementing Scrum within a distributed team is that of communication. Within a formal Scrum environment, everyday person-to-person conversation is a valued part of the process. Consequently, it is important to have that face-to-face time during vital points in the project - such as the planning and design phase of the project. For that reason CompuSight attempts to bring its distributed teams together during those crucial planning phases in order to achieve the design consensus and gain that initial momentum based on a common project understanding. Even during the implementation phases CompuSight Scrum masters are quite open to briefly unite the teams if they notice any “wear” on the team velocity due to the lack of the common requirement and design understanding.
Tags: distributed teams, Outsourcing, Scrum