Tips to Manage Remote Teams Working on Mobile App Development

The Pandemic affected the whole world and interrupted the standard working process of many companies irrespective of domains, even the mobile app development team is not exempted from getting persuaded to work remotely, indeed it became a blessing in disguise because mobile reached the hands of the people living in rural areas. It became one of the important sources or devices for their entertainment, education, business, and increased the number of users which may have served as mere good news to the concerned companies.

Many companies in the world had to adapt to this aberration to maintain a safe and healthy work environment, thinking that managing a remote team for app development will be a massive task.

Managing App Development Project Remotely

Compared to remote working on app development, managers and team leaders would be at ease in the office to see the team working in front of them. However, when you need to manage global workforce remotely, it’s essential to maintain clear communication and structured workflows to avoid deviations from work standards, which could impact the project’s success.

Below are some of the tips for managing an app development project remotely

1. Communication

Communication plays a vital role in maintaining harmony. Every team in the office will be just a cabin or floor away whom they can contact for small to big queries but in the remote working culture, the communication depends totally on interpersonal skills. So it is high for all your teams to be at least familiar with each other.

When a fresher or new employee joins the company, complete their onboarding processes including introducing them to different teams on audio chats or video group calls, so that they should never hesitate to reach the concerned team for their query.

If you feel that your company is using a mediocre team chat app, better for you to take responsibility, test the apps, and suggest the best team chat app like Troop Messenger to your company. It is better to upgrade your work standards using the best remote collaboration software or tools than jeopardize your work process with mediocre tools.

2. Team Coordination

Let your team do the errand jobs when it is required, as your employees will be busy with household responsibilities like taking care of dependent parents, children, and so on. Set the appropriate timeline with time tracking software for every activity. Accordingly, the team needs to be knowledgeable of goals, so that everyone will work towards the common goal of coordinating with each other.

3. Schedule Meetings

Schedule your business meetings with your team daily. Follow a standard time yet try to be available for your team anytime. Make a daily follow-up on work updates, try to know their queries, and give a solution with your experience, rather than letting them live with the issues. Preferably, make video calls, either group or on one, which will help them feel your presence.

4. Set the Expectations

One of the cons of being in remote work culture is that your team may be in a perception that the company’s management doubts their credibility, so it’s your responsibility to cheer them on. Acquaint your team on how important it is for your team to achieve the goals in such unfortunate times, and discuss the company’s positive perspective towards the team post achieving the goals.

Assign some extra work to your team and make them accountable for it, which will maintain the faith and relation with your team.

Don’t hesitate to create new ground rules considering their queries, which should be completely legit, and make sure that your team acknowledges them.

5. Software and Hardware Support

Many companies chose new tools throughout the pandemic period for their own best reasons, possibly owing to inadequate performance of their previous tools, or because any software tool inevitably upgrades, requiring your team to be trained on it to maintain a seamless workflow.

6. Work Updates

Track your teams’ work updates daily, it helps in learning the work status, with that said you can plan the work and assign the jobs & responsibilities to your team without getting into the compulsion of delivering the app abruptly.

Coordinate with other team leaders and have other teams share their work updates in emails or in group chats, which will help the team to not consume their productive time to know the work status from other teams.

7. Team Building Activities

Make sure your team doesn’t miss the fun in team building activities, just because you are persuaded to work remotely that shouldn’t become the reason for not motivating your team.

• Make a regular practice of appreciating one of your team members, based on their previous day's work, and encourage your team members to do the same,
• Celebrate their birthdays and achievements,
• Conduct some fun activities that can be done in a group video call.

Such activities can certainly increase team productivity.

8. Productive Tools

Be advised to provide the best tools for remote workers as emails, instant chat apps, audio, and video calls, task & project management tools, and other tools are commonly used by remote teams to collaborate from different geographical locations, which you certainly can’t afford to take a chance on. Make sure that your team is well-equipped with the tools and adequate connectivity.

Conclusion

Pre-pandemic many development teams worked remotely and successfully delivered flawless working mobile apps. Seeing the advantages of remote team work increasing productivity in such conditions with additional benefits like avoiding electricity bills, water charges, office rent, etc., few companies are envisioning to continue with the same culture post-pandemic. In point of fact, your team will be happy to balance their professional life and personal life. Hence it is not such a massive task to manage the remote team for app development.