How to manage your mobile app development project remotely?

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how to manage a remote team

The mobile industry is thriving nowadays as there are over billions of smartphone users worldwide. But with the increasing demand for mobile applications, there are many concerns as well. These days the major concern for any mobile app development startup or established business is hiring developers to work remotely. We all know the pandemic has changed a lot for us. Our way of working has changed which has raised this question: how to manage a remote team? Even when everybody sits in the same place, we all know that things can get tricky, so the vision of a developer working remotely to be responsible for key components of a project might seem daunting.

It doesn’t have to be that complicated, or stressful to work with remote developers. All it takes is a bit of goodwill and good planning for a company. So here is our guide to how to make it easier to collaborate with remote teams for your mobile app development.

Challenges in managing remote teams

The reality is that it can be very difficult to manage a remote team, particularly when you want to do “business as usual” and have your staff work in a way that makes them feel like they are working towards the same goals. Also, the seasoned managers face some common challenges with remote teams. Let’s have a look at challenges faced in managing remote teams and the techniques you can use to solve them.

Lack of communication

Open contact is not always easy when teams are remotely working. Traditional email marketing is also a structured approach which does not allow fast discussion. A common ground should be  made for communication wherein all team members can communicate with each other regarding a project.

An internal forum for communication will make communication possible on many platforms. Which allows all employees to get answers to the regular questions. No matter what you choose, remote workers don’t have to feel isolated, as long as two-way communication is facilitated. Always remember communication is the key.

Productivity tracker

One of the main remote team management tips. It is very important to know how much work your remote team accomplishes and at what rate. Remote management therefore needs to define ways in which all workers can monitor efficiency. This may include the calculation of how much work per day is required to be done.

The KPI metrics you use to assess remote employees’ productivity should also be the same measures used by employees from office. This means that clear standards are defined no matter how and where the team is operating from.

Various people have different roles in the team depending on which the KPIs should be decided. Teams may include various roles such as remote sales, software creation, blog posts, or SEO employees how to manage remote developers. Each will have their own KPIs.

Scheduling

Scheduling a task, call or meeting can be a challenge too. This can be complemented by independent contractors with incoherent work schedules. To find a time for all to work well requires knowing where participants live and their schedule. Various scheduling remote team management tools can be a great help. One may use online tools to promote planning meetings, video conferences or meeting remote teams.

Team meetings

One of the easiest ways to work with others is to get to know them in person. Plan to meet people, if possible, to get to know the people in real life. It can consist of an annual meeting or trips. Managing a remote team faces many challenges. Fortunately, team building tasks, improving collaboration and introducing new procedures can be easily solved. Remote teams are expected in the future to become more popular.

Tools to manage remote employees

Remote work is actually impossible without remote team management tools: these tools simplify teamwork, ensure better time management and allow you to control the performance of your team efficiently. Remote team management tools are important as they help you develop the work of your team.

A productive remote team will have multiple tools: an email service, file sharing capacities, instant messaging network, applications for project management, video conferencing, and more. There are ample tools in the market that can help. Here are some tools which you can choose from.

TasksTools
Remote Collaboration ToolsGoogle Drive
Dropbox
Remote Project Management Tools and Task AssignmentBasecamp
Connecteam
Asana
Trello 
Hubstaff Tasks

Screen Sharing Tools
TeamViewer
Join.me
Windows Remote Desktop Connection
Screenleap

Video Conferencing Tools
Skype
Zoom
Google Hangouts
Appear.in
Customer supportAcquire
Remote communication toolsSlack
Krisp.ai
Troop Messenger
Zoom
InVision
GitHub

Calendars and To-Do Lists
Google Calendar
Microsoft To-Do
Todoist
nTask
Anydo
Reward ManagementWooboard
Fond
Kudos
Security Tools
LastPass
Cleverfiles
Dashlane
Sticky Password
Monitoring Tools
TimeDoctor
Toggl
Sapience
RescueTime

Remote team management practices

With help of the essential tools and knowing the challenges faced in managing remote development teams the other things which are required are a regime or remote team management practices that need to be followed which could help you achieve desired results. Continue reading to have a better understanding of practices that could help you managing remote development teams.

Hire remote developers

Be extra vigilant while bringing new members into your team for your mobile app development project. Hire remote developers who have understanding of what deliverables and objectives are critical while working in a remote setting. While such persons do need help, they must be able to do the work wherever they are.

This implies that such people can rely on minimally supervised results. During the limited interview time, it could be a struggle to find the right personnel. One way to address this problem may be to employ more people for a few projects in the short term and test their capabilities. From that pool, you can then choose your team members.

Know your responsibilities

Interactions between team members in a remote environment may not be as much as interactions between a team. One of the main tasks is therefore to provide you with a sound understanding of what others need. This ensures that every employee knows what they are supposed to be doing and how they are linked.

You must also take into account your role in the reasonable and consistent implementation of the company’s rules. Furthermore, you must ensure that workers have access to and access to the appropriate resources in case of an emergency.

Schedule communications

Remote teams can operate from various places and even from various time zones. Proceeding the meeting does not only help you plan workflow and day in your team, it also reduces the time gap and the delay at the start of your project.

One way to ensure that interactions occur frequently is to schedule certain times of the day and remind workers that during these periods they can book short sessions with you. Then there should be a calendar so remote workers know which blocks are being taken.

Consider building a communication plan for everyone to know how communication would take place inside the remote team. This determines the number of meetings within the team. This would be the key tip amongst remote team management tips.

Tools for remote teams

Tools to manage remote employees are important, as they structure the work of your team. The most powerful is a remote team with popular email systems, file sharing, instant messaging platforms, project management tools, video conferencing, and so on.

Many creative project management tools have the key benefit of allowing discussions to take place inside projects rather than in emails. There, anyone who has access to the tool can track conversations, reducing the time it takes to locate data and ask questions that have already been answered.

Define the work process

One must outline the idea for the project and explain in detail what you plan to do. The estimation of the project depends on your contact with the team. The formation of transparent teamwork, success, and responsibility project guidance allows teams to understand what to expect.

When team members work at various places, you can quickly disconnect. Reduce this by building momentum for teams. A consistent schedule of meetings should be developed, and the team members should know what various people do to get an understanding of how they cope with the operation.

In order to ensure that all functions are balanced, the project specifications documents must be closely reviewed. Several businesses work on the basis of agile methodologies. It is therefore always wise to break the whole process into several separate iterations and recommend that the project manager have a briefing with the team after every meeting to identify the new goals and decision making.

Feedback

Remote workers have no chance of informally communicating with you in one building, so that both formal and informal input can be given to them. The outcome of every discussion will only depend on how quick and extensive your feedback is. It is is very critical to keep the feedback loop and time gaps minimal in order to ensure optimal transparency.

The vocabulary that everybody in the team can understand is another thing that helps when it comes to having people on the same page. Try to give your thoughts a solution to misinterpretations without the medium of slangs and idioms. It requires you to be consistent about feedback.

Reward the remote developers

To continue with the appreciation cycle, you can begin each team meeting with praise for the work you have done so far. Be sure to clarify what you liked about the project course. A positive appreciation like this will encourage your team to step in the right direction. This motivates the team and helps in how to manage a remote team efficiently. Remote working has also been related to an increase in overall morale.

Advantages of remote app development

Outsourcing a project for the production of a mobile app allows you to speed up the project, avoiding the compulsion to include deadlines due to a shortage of in-house staff. The team that has enough people to complete your mission in the given timeframe can be dynamically selected.

If you have a major project that you want to finish early, the versatile and remote teams do wonders. It would be economical as well as convenient to set up the cost and time estimates before the beginning of projects for your requirements. At the end of the day, there will be no issues ruining the image of the finished product.

In terms of cost, time and efficiency, remote recruitment of a mobile app development team has many positive benefits. The greater advantages are as follows:

  • Cost effective
  • Faster Project completion Time
  • Project built on your terms
  • Availability

More advantages of remote development is constant development. As there are no unnecessary breaks and lesser distractions, remote production appears to come with much smaller disturbances. All this combined reduces the time to market to a massive degree. Various surveys also prove that remote working is more engaging. Using modern video conferencing platforms, remote developers typically feel a lot more connected than those who choose to work in an office setting.

If still you have doubt in accepting remote working or have doubts on how to manage a remote team let’s have a look at some of the established companies that have practiced remote working.

Companies managing remote development teams

There are a range of software firms that have been set up and are still working with the help of remote frontend developers, backend developers, and UI developers remotely. Here are some famous firms that have adopted the remote style of working.

  • Buffer
  • Automattic
  • Gitlab
  • Invision
  • Trello
  • Github
  • Zapier

Summation

You’ll achieve tremendous advantages if you continue to work hard and learn to handle remote teams. Great mobile app developers are spread geographically but location does not change the quality of work. Working remotely with a remote team should not be any different from working in person with a team. If you follow the work procedures you have developed with your project manager and demonstrate excitement and responsibility for development that would lead to success.

Get involved, give feedback and inspire your remote team for your mobile app development project and see the results. Your project’s overall progress and the pace of production will depend on the answers you provide to your team.

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Bluein Christian
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Content Writer with experience of 6+ years. Have experience writing content for different industries, such as travel, education, fashion, and more. A creative person by birth and by profession. She loves learning new concepts and creating useful content about them. She loves traveling and is always up for new challenges.

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