In current business scenario, teams are frequently located at different locations separated by miles. With profits earned from Outsourcing, this trend is bound to increase logarithmically with time. Managing teams in this situation where face to face communication is rarest possibility, is a difficult task. Frequent misunderstandings and communication gap, if not taken care of, lead to increased difficulties for managers. We are currently working in similar situation. Although our teams are located in same time zone, still we are facing challenges in executing projects with the other team. We have development team and part of testing team located at one location and other testing team working at second location. Challenges faced in this situation can be classified as those related to Operational, Technical and Human factors.
Operational issues like Network connectivity affect project execution seriously if project repositories at both locations are not synchronized. Repository synchronization should be automated so that updating one repository will lead to immediate updating at other location. Also if test environments are not maintained separately at these locations, connectivity failure leads to complete breakdown of testing activity at the remote location. Alternative connectivity solutions should be made available to minimize the effect.
All stakeholder should be made aware of importance of reporting so that status of work carried out by one team will be always know to other team. This problem can be eliminated by using test management tools for carrying out test activities. These tools can be shared by both teams. Since most tools are web based, managers are able to get reports from anywhere using internet. Open source tools like TestLink, Fitnesse etc. can be used for this purpose. Vital and updated information should be made available to new joiners so that learning period can be minimized. Customized Handover templates/ checklists can be utilized for this purpose.
Since members of both team do not get chance to meet face to face, there is always a feeling of separation and mistrust. In order to minimize this, periodic meetings and video conferences should be conducted. Messenger used for communication between teams should support conferencing and should be able to maintain history so that information exchanged during conferences can be easily tracked. Initiatives like common picnics and peer exchange may help in improving trust between teams. Role of managers and leads becomes vital to maintain co-ordination between teams. Steps should be taken to increase sense of belonging and responsibility in both teams.
This blog is featured on http://www.testrepublic.com/
Operational issues like Network connectivity affect project execution seriously if project repositories at both locations are not synchronized. Repository synchronization should be automated so that updating one repository will lead to immediate updating at other location. Also if test environments are not maintained separately at these locations, connectivity failure leads to complete breakdown of testing activity at the remote location. Alternative connectivity solutions should be made available to minimize the effect.
All stakeholder should be made aware of importance of reporting so that status of work carried out by one team will be always know to other team. This problem can be eliminated by using test management tools for carrying out test activities. These tools can be shared by both teams. Since most tools are web based, managers are able to get reports from anywhere using internet. Open source tools like TestLink, Fitnesse etc. can be used for this purpose. Vital and updated information should be made available to new joiners so that learning period can be minimized. Customized Handover templates/ checklists can be utilized for this purpose.
Since members of both team do not get chance to meet face to face, there is always a feeling of separation and mistrust. In order to minimize this, periodic meetings and video conferences should be conducted. Messenger used for communication between teams should support conferencing and should be able to maintain history so that information exchanged during conferences can be easily tracked. Initiatives like common picnics and peer exchange may help in improving trust between teams. Role of managers and leads becomes vital to maintain co-ordination between teams. Steps should be taken to increase sense of belonging and responsibility in both teams.
This blog is featured on http://www.testrepublic.com/
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