Time Zone crossover, Global Agile development and DevOps Culture.

In today’s world software companies are developing software applications which are developed by global software development teams. It is very common that different teams or members work from different time zones. Previously the biggest trouble with developing teams was that the whole team needed to be at a single place for the team to work efficiently. This is no more a problem because of the many online tools like GitHub where users can develop code simultaneously from anywhere around the world. Managing a global development team can sometimes be very challenging but with sprint agile development we can yield more benefits and fewer complications.

In the sprints each team member has well defined roles and communication has been made simple through different applications available on the internet. This means that each team member is aware of his role and the set time frame for the completion of the task. Team members receive their tasks in the scrum meetings and constant communication between the team members and with the project owners makes it any room for error minimum. Once the tasks are clearly defined team members who are living in different time zones can work flexibly. They can work in timing that suit them and produce the deliverables within the given time frame. Some people might think that this is inefficient in fact it is the opposite. Team members working globally from all different time zones means that when a certain team member is sleeping the other team member is working, this increases work efficiency with minimum wastage of time. Once the team manager wakes up a lot of the work is completed and delivered because different team members were working while he slept. All the team manager has to do is check the quality and make sure that the deliverables are as promised instead of waiting for the team members to complete the task and deliver the deliverables.

To manage a team working from different time zones certain steps are necessary for highest productivity and effective project management. These steps include:

• Time zone boundaries should be defined properly. Each team member should discuss his/her working hours clearly. There should be a team calendar which clearly mentions the working hours of each team member.
• When date and time is to be discussed the time zones should be mentioned clearly so that there is no room for error or miscommunication.
• Every team member should be mindful of the other team members working hours, so they are aware of the availability of every team member. Working hours of each team member should also be respected.
• Different work shift and working hours should be tested before creating a work calendar so that maximum productivity can be reached.
• Virtual processes and communication tools should used for communication and each team member should be trained for using these tools.
• Less urgent tasks and email should be scheduled in a manner that international clients are also available to give input.
• Each team member should be patient with client responses and should be flexible so that quick chats and instant messaging can take place regularly.