Having clients from all over the world, it’s important to let your customers know you’re open during their work hours.
At Daxima, we have engineers in Europe, Asia, and North America, where many collaborate on the same projects at the same time, whether that be for custom mobile applications, custom software, or anything else.
Integrating the Agile methodology for project management, you define clear goals for your team so that they can get their work done any time of day without needing support.
Table of Contents
Define Team and Pod Size
One of the most important aspects of Agile development is keeping team sizes below 6 or 7 developers.
At Daxima, with our extensive experience with Agile development, we’ve found that the number is generally dependent on the type of project.
However, we’ve certainly found that larger teams are generally not efficient.
There is a degree of diminishing returns when your team gets above 6 or 7 team members.
At Daxima, our pods consist of team members that can be scattered across the globe.
Experienced Team Leader
We cannot overemphasize the importance of an experienced and dynamic team leader at the helm.
The leader must be the conduit that makes the entire pod function efficiently.
They are responsible for interfacing and communicating with the business, planning the sprints, managing the QA process, and making sure the team meets the velocity goals defined in the sprint.
In addition the team leader needs to understand geographical challenges, and should effectively divide the work into regional categories where employees from one region can focus on specific functionality that will not hinder on the work of other regions.
At Daxima, we’ve spent years refining this process. You can check out our CTO services if you are lacking in this area.
Daily Sprint Meetings
Given the different time zones, finding the time to meet can be difficult.
However, it is critical that you find at least a single time slot for the entire team to meet daily for the standup meeting.
Daily sprint meetings are a core aspect of successful Agile implementation, but in a large team spread out in different regions, it can become cumbersome.
In our case, we found that the 10 AM PST time zone seems to be the ideal time for all of our team members.
Agile Development Tools
At Daxima, we’ve used a number of tools, such as Jira, Rally, Asana, and Visual Studio Online.
What we’ve found is that there is no perfect tool on the market.
However, it is nearly impossible for us to run a successful agile project without the right tool.
In our case, the choice of a tool can be driven by customer demand or project type.
Communication Tools
Online communication can be difficult, especially if you need to get a clear answer from someone.
However, because of the distance between many of our team members, instant messaging and online team collaboration tools allowed us to maintain discussions without having common technical difficulties you may get from VoIP services or video chat.
There is no perfect solution for a communication tool either.
At Daxima, we use Skype, Hangout, and Slack, but again, that decision sometimes depends on our client’s needs.
Conclusion
An Agile approach is essential for managing global teams effectively and ensuring smooth project progress.
At Daxima, we prioritize small, efficient teams and experienced leadership to optimize collaboration across time zones.
Daily standup meetings at a shared time help maintain momentum and alignment among team members worldwide.
We rely on tools like Jira, Rally, and Asana for Agile management, adapting our toolset to meet client and project needs.
Communication platforms such as Slack, Skype, and Hangouts are key to maintaining clear and responsive communication across our distributed teams.
Our refined process enables us to deliver consistent, high-quality results for clients around the globe.