Hussam Ahmad - Experience report: setting up and working in distributed teams/cross boarders

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Decision Support for Weather Sensitive Operations 3 steps to successfully set up and work in distributed teams Hussam Ahmad [email protected]

Transcript of Hussam Ahmad - Experience report: setting up and working in distributed teams/cross boarders

Page 1: Hussam Ahmad - Experience report: setting up and working in distributed teams/cross boarders

Decision Support for Weather Sensitive Operations

3 steps to successfully set up and work in distributed teams

Hussam Ahmad [email protected]

Page 2: Hussam Ahmad - Experience report: setting up and working in distributed teams/cross boarders

Who is StormGeo?

Managing RiskOne of the world’s leading suppliers of Decision Support for Weather sensitive operations. .

SolutionsTransforming know-how into cutting edge products together with our customers.

Core CompetenceMeteorology OceanographyInformation Technology Naval ArchitectureStatistics

Page 3: Hussam Ahmad - Experience report: setting up and working in distributed teams/cross boarders

Who am I?• 10 years from social care and education sector• >20 years from IT industry

– System Architect, Developer– Project manager, Product owner– CTO– CEO

• Coaching – Lean & Agile Implementation– Waste management– Communication & Motivation– Goal setting & Achievement– Personal development

Page 4: Hussam Ahmad - Experience report: setting up and working in distributed teams/cross boarders

Where can distributed teams help?

• The ultimate goal for a business/project is to create profit by exchanging value for money

• Prerequisites for success:– Clear mission– Manpower – Time– Technology– Materials

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Ingredients of excellence• Motivation

– A reason for acting or behaving in a particular way• Communication

– The exchanging of information using some medium

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Step 1: Know where you are

• Analyze your current situation– Decide on where you are today

• Capacity, quality, availability, cost– Decide on Target/goal

• Capacity, quality, availability, cost

• Remember: Motivation and communication

        Goals         

         

     

     

Current situation       Current results

What to change?

What to change

to?

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Step 2: Make a plan

• Create a stepwise plan for how to reach the target– Plan should only details the closest steps

• Remember: Motivation and communication

        Goals         

         

  ? ?    

  Next step ?    

Current situation       Current results

What to change?

What to change

to?

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Step 3: Start going the way!

• Go the way step by step, evaluate and adjust!

• Remember: Motivation and communication

        Goals         

         

  ? ?    

  Next step ?    

Current situation       Current results

What to change?

What to change

to?

How to cause the change?

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Remember!

• Motivation:– Goal setting. Focus on End goals– Goal achievement. Focus on Means goals

• Communication.– Focus on End goals. This is the big WHY

• Aim on creating great teams– Communication is easiest when working in cross

functional teams

Product owner

Potentially shippable productCustomer specific function

ArchitectTester

Developer

Developer

Business analyst

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Great teams comply to• Same goals, same agenda• Team members are passionate• They trust each other and do not have to guard each

word in their discussions• They are willing to sacrifice for the success of the team• They do whatever it takes to prevent letting their peers

down• They do not seek credit for their own contributions

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Main challangesChallenge SolutionThey vs. we - Cross boarder teams

- Team is accountableCheaper vs. better - Can also be combined

- Good and bad skilled people are everywhere

Cultural differences - Team building & visits- Respect people

Time zone - Distribute the burden Belonging

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Most valuable tools• Cross boarders cross functional teams• Have a dedicated “Build master” who understands

interhuman relations, but also technology• Reviews:

– Daily standups (audio & video)– Product owner review– Backlog grooming

• Available business domain knowledge and access to it. Preferably inside the team

• Process retrospectives: Evaluate & Adjust periodically

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StormGeo does it overall the globe.

Decision Support for Weather Sensitive Operations

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Gains for StormGeo• Accountability to the organization• Quality increased• Issue blowback reduced• Ability to determine project risks quickly

– Red flags raised earlier– Identification of blocking issues, bottlenecks,

dependencies etc.• Software production predictability and reproducibility

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No success comes for free

Hussam Ahmad [email protected]