The remote approach is an increasingly common trend in software development. This goes for mobile app development project management as well, where wider, cost-efficient managing opportunities appear due to the remote means employed all-around during the project cycle.
Remote Team Specifics
Gathering up a virtual team of experts that interact online and work on a certain project remotely is a convenient, budget-saving way of doing business many companies out there prefer to use. This approach brings felt advantages both for contractors (project owners) and their employees. And remote app development management is already among the primary methods companies choose for building either mobile or desktop solutions.
Advantages of gathering a virtual team
- First of all, you get to employ different experts that may suit your requirements best individually in terms of professional traits, experience, and motivation to work with a certain project. The need to consider their physical location and how far it is from your company office becomes obsolete.
- Secondly, you get to save the budget - there is no necessity to create a physical office, organize working spaces neither for app development project management specialists nor for anyone else involved. For employees, this means that they wouldn't have to waste money on transit or rent a place that’s closer to the office, etc.
- Last but not least, you can save lots of time while being able to lead the work 24/7. This is possible, for instance, when different workers are situated in different time zones. Without certain geolocation they are required to go to regularly, they can stay flexible and work when they see fit.
Risks that come with virtual teams
App development management in terms of virtual teams can have its downsides as compared to workplace-attached teams, however. Numerous experts can be difficult to manage separately and then there’s also a question of sufficient communication between workers.
A particular risk for a contractor is the possibility of employing a non-competent or irresponsible specialist and not being able to timely spot his/her mistakes or task delays which can affect the whole project in the long run. Your mobile app development risk management should imply the involvement of as many control and reporting channels as possible.
Remote Team Project Management Specifics
Project management for app development remotely becomes easier for a contractor due to the availability of many tech means of tracking the employees’ activity and adjusting communication with them. Although, app development management at its highest, truest level of practicality and efficiency requires one to also understand human psychology to a certain extent.
The important moment in productive app development management is maintaining two-way communication with an employee during every stage of work. And dialogues between a project manager and worker tete-a-tete are as important as collective discussions with the team. The best thing for connection in terms of mobile app development project management is a trusty messenger (where you can create work-focused chats subdivided by certain groups of workers). The simplest, readily available option here is to manage apps developers via Facebook - everybody is usually on this social platform.
At the same time, your fair efforts in productive app development management shouldn’t make employees paranoid due to constant monitoring and barrages of small corrections - this might create psychological barriers in the artistic, intellectual work. It’s always better to talk everything through and agree on the way employees report their progress to you. For that purpose, there are also both Android and Apple developer manage apps like Basecamp and mobile version of Trello.
And don’t forget about informal communication (especially, when there are cultural differences between certain team members). Discussing miscellaneous topics in chats and things like that are also important. By the way, integrated with Facebook, developer manage apps can be boosted in usefulness.
Remote Team Project Management Tips/Checklist
Proper mobile app development risk management requires one to think through beforehand what risks can be caused by irresponsibility and lack of competency among freelance employees. Thus, you can minimize such risks by discussing them with a certain employment candidate before you start actually cooperating with him/her. Be sure to talk over the following moments:
- Which tasks exactly a specialist is about to take up - the more details there are in a tech reference, the easier you make the whole thing for a candidate.
- In which form they will be required to report on the work done. For instance, project management for mobile app development is made more efficient when a team gets to use tools that allow multiple user access and real-time, simultaneous editing.
- How a candidate is to be connected with - is he/she required to be available in a certain messenger (which you can use for convenient fleet management for app development) or is he/she will have to be online only on certain days, at a certain time, and will it be simple messaging or voice and video communication as well?
- During which hours of the day he/she will need to work and will this time period be regulated? As an alternative, only the fact of task completion according to a set deadline may matter during work.
The more details you discuss initially, the fewer risks both your company and a freelance worker will potentially face in the future.
With that being said, be attentive, always approach work organization with utter responsibility, and take care.
