When working with a part time software development team there may be some difficulties apart from all the possibilities it gives to you. And most of them are connected with management issues and keeping productivity on a high level.
And this issue is even worse when talking about part time remote development teams. It takes much more effort for successful management. As you have no opportunity to communicate with engineers personally it may be difficult to gain some information about atmosphere and mood in a team or about some difficulties they faced. What is more, if it is a part time developer you’ll never know how many tasks he is managing right now apart from yours. And it can be one more stress factor that should be solved.
Also developers may struggle with some extra responsibilities that take their time and desire to work. Or even they may have some ideas for improving the work process or yourself as a professional and it is important to hear it and take it under consideration. All these points can be solved by wise management.
It is important to remember that specialists you are working with are people and, unfortunately, human beings are far from perfect. Sometimes people may be exhausted or stuck in their work but it can be solved due to right management mechanisms.
So here are effective management tips that can help you to keep or even increase the productivity of the project if you are working with a remote software developer.
1. Allow Developers to Do Their Jobs
The first and most common tip is to recognize the width of a developer’s abilities and trust them. Let them write the code – it is their main goal and they surely like doing it. The point is just to find a way that will satisfy both developers and you. A bit of freedom and feeling of trustworthy can make part time software developers think wider and do his work even better. Possibility to seek new and creative solutions freely gives confidence to specialists. And it is leading to better results that is the main advantage.
2. Handle Non-development Work
Tasks that are not connected with writing a code may be unimportant for the most developers and irritate them or exhaust them. It can lead to falling productivity that may have bad consequences. So decreasing the number of non-developmental meetings or extra work that is not connected with the main specialization of developers may be the solution.
Also it may be great to prioritize expected tasks and give them in a reasonable way. Unrealistic deadlines or foolish tasks may badly affect workers’ desire to manage the task. If it is evidently unachievable then what makes sense to try doing it? So this approach is ineffective as it leads to lower developers’ motivation and scores, as a result. Try to be realistic and humanistic in some way when making requirements.
3. Listen and Respond
Even if you think that the task is well clarified or easy there always may be extra questions from developers’ side. And it is especially important when you are working with a developer freelance or remote. As there is no ability for face to face communication, you need to pay more attention to this tip.
Try to build such a space where in a comfortable manner everyone would have an ability to ask or suggest something. Maybe your developer knows a way to deal with this task faster or in a modern way. Or maybe he wants to warn you that the goal is unachievable or will take more time. These points are very important.
And apart from that it can make the process itself better it also will show your team that you trust them and their opinion. It will make them feel heard and then happy as they can influence and improve the project they are working on.
4. Encourage Progress
As we are all human beings, sometimes we can experience downsides or lack of motivation and sometimes we are seeking for something new with an extreme desire. And the task of a good manager is to support or encourage that progress.
Thus you can give developers small tips on how to manage the task in a more effective way. It may be something like an advice to divide the task into smaller parts or a motivation to improve it. It would be great if you could see the points that cause difficulties and be near for help. Maybe you even be able to set a direction to specialists for overall improvement.
There is also a solution to get outsourced technical support if you experience some problems with it. It will affect not only the current project but all projects in a perspective as developers will gain more skills.
5. Emphasize Quality Over Quantity
A large team does not mean fast and perfectly done work. It would be better to make a small but productive team where each member has his own part of responsibilities and do them very well. It is also important to compile a team with professionals of different levels (junior, mid-level and senior). Thus less experienced members would bring something new into a process and gain some skills from real professionals at the same time.
6. Review the Right Metrics
To keep in touch with a team and project’s progress may be useful to check metrics sometimes. But it does not mean checking all possible metrics. You can just ask your developers which ones are the most reflecting and keep looking for them from time to time.
7. Avoid Task Switching
And last but not least tip is to be consistent in your tasks. Multi-tasking is something like a trend in a modern society but it is extremely bad for efficiency especially in software development. Try to avoid switching among the tasks. The solution may be to divide a team into smaller parts where each will do its own specific task.
And it is even more important when hiring a part time or freelance software developer as he may be working on other projects apart from yours and such a chaos will affect the results badly. So dedicate him a concrete task to avoid this.
Keys to Successful Organizational Design
Talking about the keys of successful organizational design it is essential to say that it is not something like a mystery but common following main humanistic values. Treat each member of your team with trust and fairness, be ready to hear and help them. All tips mentioned above will help you to do this.
Also, if you feel like you have no efforts to do this there is always an opportunity to address remote software companies. Thus you can hire developers in Ukraine, for example, and get your best team or perfectly completed project.
This was a sponsored post.