Offshore work has grown to be more and more common in the IT industry. With several companies working to collaborate with external resources, it’s a mode of working that can help save time, money, and several other resources.
But what is an offshore scrum development team?
To simplify the explanation furthermore, we divide the term into two divisions – Offshore and scrum team. For starters, an offshore team is a team that is situated in another country compared to the original working office of your business. However, the team is employed by your company.
On the other hand, a scrum team is a collection of 5 to 9 members that work on delivering specific product increments. When the two terms come together, we get an offshore scrum team that’s working towards the development of product increments through a coordinated program designed to ensure smooth workflow.
However, the problems that arise with an offshore scrum team are quite similar to the ones that we began to face when the world had to move their offices to their respective homes – distrust.
It’s common to question a person that’s not constantly updating you with the work you’ve assigned to them, especially if they’re not doing the work even in the same country as you. Due to this, it’s important to acknowledge a set of characteristics that help you distinguish the trustworthiness of an offshore scrum development team:
No Need for Micromanagement
We’ve all been at a stage where we’ve micromanaged – sometimes, even unconsciously. Moreover, when you hire an offshore team, it’s only natural to be more worried, especially since you’re working with a team that isn’t working in front of you.
However, a trustworthy offshore scrum team won’t even let you consider the need for micromanagement. If you’re able to present reliable communications software, you will see that there are timely updates and the work that needs to be done is being finished concerning its deadline.
If you do end up micromanaging, however, you might end up breaking the trust of your international team. Moreover, it can lead to the development of bitter feelings and leave no room for creativity or innovative thoughts. It’s important to build trust with your offshore team rather than doubt it.
A trustworthy offshore team will be proactive in their work, allowing you to rest free of constant anxiety. With the help of communication software and skills, the team will be self-motivated and be able to absolve petty issues internally rather than raising them needlessly.
A self-motivated scrum team will help raise your trust and deliver effortlessly!
Transparency
Building trust with a team that isn’t in front of your eyes at all times can be difficult. That being said, it’s not impossible.
Daily standups are one of the most integral parts of building trust with complete transparency. These help to bring forth complete clarity on the progress of daily tasks as well as a clear view of what needs to be worked on first. With the help of communication software, teammates can be brought together on a single platform to discuss all the happenings of the company as well as everything that needs to be done.
Communication software helps get everyone on the same page – an essential part of building trust with an offshore scrum team. Not only will this effectively resolve any work pressure that comes your way, but it will also help easy management.
Complete transparency in communication has grown to be an important factor to ensure that trust can be built, even when it comes to in-house teams. The relationships of employees and employers tend to flourish when every impediment is overcome together through combined work and mutual trust.
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Process Adherence
When you’re lending out your hand to hire dedicated development team, you’re putting a lot of trust on the line. It’s a matter of following company policies, ethics, guidelines, work schedules and maintaining relationships between in-house and offshore coworkers, and more.
When it comes to your offshore team, you might not necessarily be able to give them the benefit of the doubt as soon as they’re brought on board. However, when it comes to an offshore team like GrowExx’s, you’ll soon be able to bet your trust.
For us, it’s important to put all guidelines assigned by the client first. Process adherence by following the general scrum rituals as well as those assigned by the company we work in coordination with falls above all else.
We coordinate with your team to maintain the timely execution of the project. From ensuring that the next steps are clear to reviewing the timeline and deploying the work on time, we work on it all.
Frequent Communication
Possibly the most important factor of consideration when it comes to an offshore scrum team would be communication. When a team is working in-house, you can easily communicate any changes that need to be done or any updates in brief, mainly because your team is sitting right in front of you. It’s easier to explain through face-to-face conversations
However, when it comes to an offshore scrum development team, it’s easier for miscommunications and confusion to occur due to the distance. To overcome this, you can choose to use communication software that allows both you and your offshore team to track the work in progress and what still needs to be done. Moreover, updating communications software makes it easier for everyone – be it your in-house teammates or your offshore ones to be on the same page. This helps in building efficiency whilst also making it easier to collaborate through simple means of text-based, audio-based, or video-based communication.
Softwares like Slack, Zoho, Microsoft Teams and more are some of the products that make it easier to share documents, comments, and team insights.
Once you’re able to put communication software in line, your offshore team is bound to feel like a ‘part of the team’ and not just as an outsider working in your firm.
Code Commit and Reviews
There is a stark distinction that falls between creative and tech teams. While creative teams gain the liberty of moving forward with the approach they develop, tech teams, or more specifically, coding teams, tend to need to keep the history of their code in check to ensure none of the previous codes are lost. This is mainly done to keep track of the timeline as well as go back to an older code easily – it saves both time and effort.
At GrowExx, we use the best version control software like Git, Mercurial, and Subversion to ensure that our work can be tracked gracefully. Moreover, it gives us the benefit of expanding a branch of work whenever needed, making the entire process smooth and clean.
On the other hand, code reviews allow us to notice and overcome any errors that befall the script, allowing us to streamline the process without a delay. A consistent track of prior codes and an updated check for errors allows us to build trust as an offshore scrum team.
Tool’s Knowledge and Discipline
A build of trust with an offshore team is the outcome of 2 things – stable communication and knowledge of the field. As a scrum team, we must stay updated with the latest forms of tech that can drive a business’ success as well as maintain our knowledge on the subject.
In times like ours, the digital world is growing with every passing second, allowing tools to undergo the process of development with every passing second. Not only do we educate ourselves on the use and purpose of tools like Wrike, Jira, and Scrumwise, but we also work on keeping the way of work consistent.
Consistency helps in building discipline in our way of work. Since software development can be a field of questions, a disciplined mindset helps in keeping the digital workspace calm and collected – which can be integral in a distant workforce.
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Responding to Change
Developing a product isn’t just about executing and forgetting. As many say, “There is no such thing as a finished project – it just means the project is no longer yours.”
There are quite a few developments that occur over the time of the development of a product. It’s possible to lose sight of what the goal of creating the product truly was or even where the product stands in the market. It’s important to respond to changes like this through adapting the business according to the product or building the product to be well-understood.
This can only be done through timely communications with a trustworthy offshore scrum team, like the one we host at GrowExx.
If you’re looking for an offshore scrum team that can help you go from ideation to execution through transparent communication, we can help. Scrum with an offshore team that’s got your back – contact us, now.
