If this current Covid-19 pandemic has taught everyone – it’s that remote work is a feasible approach to delivering value. I’ve seen existing teams continue to work well together, and new hires being rapidly on-boarded and brought up to speed.
As Scrum Master, I have multiple daily standup sessions within a short space of time, so being able to stop and start Microsoft Teams meetings has been a real benefit, instead of needing to run/walk to the next team room.
However, there is a downside – that which is saved in efficiency is lost in intimacy.
It’s hard to read the pulse on team engagement during a standup (or any of the other Scrum ceremonies), which isn’t a problem when meeting together. Fortunately, there are certain signals that the team member isn’t paying attention (probably because they’re doing a deployment or working on a critical bug) such as when they struggle to find the ‘Unmute’ button when it’s their turn to share. I don’t tend to make a big deal of this – we are all learning and adjusting to a different way of life.
It’s also difficult (read ‘nearly impossible’) to discern what each individual’s state of mind is when viewing them through a webcam, although relying on their speech patterns and ‘how they share’ their feedback can also be indicative.
As an attempt to overcome this shortcoming, I’ve resorted to sending short “how’s it going?” chats in Teams and engaging with them as best as possible. I am quite sure I’ve missed some opportunities for quality conversations because I’ve not noticed the cue – but the desire for intentional communication is ever-present in my head.
In conclusion, my current thoughts are that remote work is a productive and feasible option for day-to-day work, however, for ceremonies like reviews, retrospectives and refinements, nothing beats a well-facilitated in-person session.
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