When Robert and Richard Sherman sat down to pen the song “It’s a Small World After All” back in 1962, they had truly no idea how much smaller the world would be getting in just a few short decades. With the advent of high speed and blindingly powerful technology in the past thirty years, the landscape of collaborative work has started to shift. Where businesses were once limited to building a team by geographical constraints, technology has now opened up the opportunity for individuals, teams, and businesses to effectively work together, regardless of their physical location.
Many businesses have begun to embrace the small world/big technology environment that we now find ourselves in, and the outcomes have been remarkable. Global software development can now be just that: Global. Software development can now dip into the pool of talent worldwide as opposed to being limited to the individuals who live within a 50 mile radius of their office.
The benefits of building a remote software development team are many. The overhead is shrunk when a large facility need not be maintained. Differing time zones allow for a wider work day, creating an opportunity for around the clock productivity. There are even huge ecological benefits to remote development teams, reducing the individual carbon footprint, reducing the amount of mass produced supplies, and reducing the amount of resources wasted.
Greater than all of these aspects, remote working has also been shown to increase overall productivity in workers because these individuals are able to maintain something that is near impossible in the corporate world: Work-Life Balance. When happier with their lot in life, workers tend to produce better work more efficiently, and tend to be more open minded and creative with their solutions. The ability to work with people on the other side of the world while petting your dog in your home is a wonderful thing.
Knowing the benefits the questions now arise “How does one build a successful remote team?" "Where does one start?” As with any team, a remote team is nothing less than the sum of its parts. In the next post I will discuss how to assemble a successful remote team with the most productive players and the tools necessary to enable them to thrive.
It’s a small, small world.
