A discussion with Dan Menard of Macadamian, covering the importance of taking the time to build personal relationships; the advantages of having a team that’s split across time zones, the practice of distributed code review, and much more!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Announcements:
- I’m looking for a sponsor so I can do the podcast on a more regular schedule! Contact me if you’re interested.
- Get your free copy of the Dispersed Team Kick-Start Guide by signing up to the Wide Teams mailing list.
Show notes:
- Dan blogs at dan-menard.com and is @dan_menard on Twitter.
- Macadamian
- How to work with someone 12 hours away
- Yammer
- Smartboard
- The Wine project
03:15 – Dan’s background
- Macadamian Technologies based out of Ottowa, Canada, with offices in Romania and Armenia
- Product creation company that helps other companies bring products to life
- Software development
- User research
- User experience and visual design
- Quality assurance
04:02 – History with oversea startup
- Helped to work more effectively with clients in different timezones
06:00 – Schedule Flexibility
- Adjusted schedule
- Work from home or office
07:28 – Importance of relationships
- Personal connection
- Avoid “Us” versus “Them” mentality
- Skype is useful
- Personal presence at all offices
09:50 – Advantages of working with teams across time zones
- Working in teams across time zones expands a regular work day
- Instead of fitting 8 hours into a work day, you can get around 16
- Get projects done in half the time
- Overlap shifts slightly to sync up with SCRUM meetings, etc.
12:00 – Tools
- Skype
- Confluence (Wiki)
- Internal mailing lists and news groups
- Yammer
14:40 – Smartboard
- Whiteboard with a projector hooked up to it
- Touchscreen
- Interactive
17:06 – Code Review
- Patch-a-day
- Do things in small batches
- Develops good patterns and catches bugs earlier
- Responsibility
19:00 – Adjustment to working with distributed teams
20:52 – Future of working with distributed teams
21:24 – Advice to distributed groups
- Do whatever works for your individual team
About the Author: Avdi Grimm
Avdi has been leading and participating in dispersed software development teams since 2007. He works from home in Southern Pennsylvania, and loves the fact that working remotely enables him to spend more time with his wife and five (soon to be six) children. 
Subscribe in iTunes
Even harder than getting software developers who are 12 hours away to work together is getting different functions working together on the same product. For example, getting UI designers and product management at HQ to work with the remote development team in India, for example!
(http://www.macadamian.com/services/)