Many of us have worked on projects where we were required to co-locate; This required a project team taking over a boardroom or purpose-built space to sit as close as possible to a team member. This will not be continuing at least until a vaccine is developed. Many of us will be attending meetings and discussions remotely. How does this impact project? The team? And technology?

 

Life as we know it has changed you will no longer be able to just drop into a restaurant patio and grab an empty table outside. It will require planning and booking, restaurants will have to come up with unique ways to turn a profit with fewer tables. Do they do food delivery using expensive third-party applications? Or do they develop there own mobile application and community following and do their delivery.

 

Grabbing team members for an informal chat or just coffee catchup will not be available for some time, some institutions are proposing that teams get split into two, with 50% attending the office for two weeks with the others working remotely, then after two weeks, they rotate. I can see many potential problems with this scenario, it will take strong project management to not create two separate teams that compete with each other. I would recommend a solution that mixes the teams up often where some team members ever cycle get one week remote and others three.

 

Many of us are familiar with Parkinson’s law, this is that work expands to take up the available time for completion. For example, if you say to a developer you have two days to complete a task, chances are it will take two days. Meetings are usually blocked in 30-minute segments, keeping team members engaged remotely is critical. The good news is that you may as the team have fewer meetings and all meetings have to be booked in advance.

 

Having managed several remote development teams on multinational projects, having a web camera is a necessity but does not solve problems.  In most cases, the camera is on the laptop and you cannot see the other team members, you also cannot see the body language. Remote team building offers new opportunities for you to set up new problems and solutions using trivia about the team or the geographies where the team(s) are located.

 

In conclusion, you want to keep your staff safe and your projects running smoothly. This is the new world, contact us at Tecnita as our team has managed projects globally and in Canada. We have a successful delivery system and can make your project a success.