Two weeks ago we decided to address an ongoing issue in the IT community. The issue is with the remote agile teams. Many experts on the subject would say that the term “remote agile teams” is a bit contradictory, as the Agile Methodology was created for teams that share the same physical space. Therefore, can we make Agile work in the new normal? Yes, we can. By providing dedicated teams for our clients, commonly known as staff augmentation. We have more than ten years of experience in shaping remote agile teams. Furthermore, we asked our colleague Maja Dimitrovska, who is an important part of the Bookmark team, how she succeeds on a daily basis with the aforementioned issue. 

As mentioned, these are strange and challenging times to lead agile teams. Can you tell us your secret? How do you manage to keep track of everybody’s tasks on Bookmark?

We are often told to confront unexpected changes, that we need to be agile and resilient. This is most accurate, as we try to respond to the changes brought by the coronavirus pandemic. As our world turns upside down, most companies are reacting rather than responding. In times like these, business agility provides stability, a way to manage change and respond productively. 

Agile is a framework that approves professionals and companies through developing high performing teams. In an Agile environment, changes are welcome; the client is the epicenter of the work and development is aligned with business needs. Company owners need to work on “enabling the best in their employees, rather than commanding it from them”. Leaders should empower employees to be self-organized.  

Remote working entails many challenges, one of which is knowing how to always be connected with other colleagues on your team, how to maintain an overall team culture, morale and motivation, how to run engaging meetings, how to track and communicate progress within the team, how to exchange ideas and share experiences (good and bad) and, last but not least, how to help the team focus on priorities. By communicating a clear vision, encouraging frequent communication and providing clear boundaries, team members feel better connected and remain focused and productive.

No one said that leading remote agile teams was going to be easy, and just like many other leaders faced with the sudden change to virtual team environments, we are also reorganizing our activities and the way we work. Some of our activities during these challenging times are:

• Following the team’s principles
• Clear team delegation and prioritization of tasks
• Communication, communication, communication
• Daily standups with the team via collaboration tools, such as Slack or Zoom
• Random chats (one-on-one) and co-working tools (Trello, Jira)
• Short-term goals
• Ensuring qualitative results

Even though the working environment has changed, the quality and quantity of our deliverables have not. Frequently sharing our achievements with the team and further improving are our regular activities.

During this crisis, leaders need to learn new ways to care for their people. Connect with them to detect unforeseen issues, respect and value team skills, personal needs and differences, encourage them to do their work remotely with less supervision. This is the beginning of a new way of leading.

According to you, what are the benefits of using Trello for project management in an agile environment?

Task management is the core and soul of every project. First, we divide the project into smaller pieces, then decide what needs to get done and which team member to do it. Trello excels at task management and it is considered as one of the platforms that employees can learn the quickest. Tasks and projects are systematized by using a three-part hierarchy: Boards, Lists, and Cards. You can create and organize these elements in any way you want. By assigning cards to specific users, due dates and files. Trello is a fantastic Scrum and Agile solution. It’s easy to use and it works like a traditional whiteboard, in digital form. 

Boards: The flexibility of Trello boards is perfectly aligned with the Scrum framework; it gives you full visibility into project stages, roles, deadlines and assignments. After you sign up on Trello, you can create multiple boards within your personal or team workspace.

Lists: Boards contain lists, which are grouped tasks. You can choose to rename or reorder any of the lists to match your team’s current needs for the project you are working on.

Cards: The same goes for cards. You can also move the cards from one list to another with just one click. Each card may contain a description, a checklist with subtasks, additional attachments, assignees, due dates and labels. Furthermore, team members can discuss aspects of the task by commenting. Every new person added to one of the cards gets access to previous discussions.

Power-ups: You can use Trello’s power-ups to connect to the card applications like Slack, Github, Jira, Google Drive, and many more. There are many items on the list of power-ups, and this only guarantees that Trello is a tool that easily integrates into one’s workflow.

Notifications: You will never miss important developments from the tasks that you are included in; you will be updated regularly by receiving a notification.

These capabilities make Trello great in terms of flexibility and how intuitive it is to use. Trello is distinct from other tools, thanks to its simplicity. Trello project management makes a great tool, whether you need to organize a whole team’s work or just your activities.

What other project management software do you prefer?

Project management software tools have become widely popular in recent years; there are plenty of options to choose from. Some of those tools are free to use with limited features, while others with advanced copy have more functions. Some require payment after a few days of the trial period. Choosing which tool to use can be quite challenging and also engaging.

Whether you want to find a simple way to organize tasks or need a powerful, enterprise-grade system, there is a PM tool for everyone. The project management software helps project managers and teams to collaborate and meet goals on time while managing resources and costs. Functions may include task distribution, time tracking, budgeting, resource planning, team collaboration, and many more.

Choosing the right approach for managing a project is crucial for successful project delivery. The way that managers manage work is defined by techniques that you use, tools that they use, and project scope activities on which they are working.

The process of leading Agile teams can be challenging at times because there are countless moving parts and evolving processes to manage. However, it is especially difficult if you do not have the right software behind you. Project managers should choose a project management tool that best suits their management style. Choosing the right tool for managing the Agile development team has not always been an easy decision. Certain factors must be evaluated as you’re assessing/shopping for different tools:

• Agile Framework Preferences
• Collaboration Features
• Team Size
• Project Type
• Reporting
• Usability

Some of the best agile project management tools available on the market are Trello, Jira, Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Smart sheet, etc. I have worked with different project tools during the past years and I can say that when choosing the right tool, you need to make sure that the options that the toll provides are the best fit for your team and future project plans.

Currently, we are using Trello, but we are open and exploring possible solutions on the market. To organize and achieve better integration, alignment with other company teams, and cover future planned project activities, we are also considering starting using Jira. Jira is a platform that allows teams to handle issues throughout the life cycle of the problem. Jira can be tailored to fit different organizational structures and is highly customizable. Jira also works great for smaller teams, as well as larger ones. The reasons why we are considering to switch to Jira are the following main features:

• Transparency 
• Flexibility
• User Experience
• Commenting
• Cost management
• Categorization
• Custom Workflow
• Knowledge management
• Integrations

In the end, no matter which project management solution you are going for, agile tools are sure to improve the way you streamline your workflow and team productivity.

In the end, quick question (that provokes a long answer): Kanban or Scrum? Or maybe Scrumban?

Agile is an enormous umbrella term that covers several different approaches, two of which are Scrum and Kanban. Scrum and Kanban apply agile principles in their own way to empower effective delivery cycles. Scrumban is a term for a hybrid approach making use of both Scrum and Kanban principles.

Agile is all about experimentation. Scrum, Kanban or Scrumban are not competitors; they can be experiments every team should run to find their best fit. The goal of using an agile approach is to deliver more value for the business in the quickest way possible. I think it is always a good thing to experiment and implement new processes that will enhance the way the team works and how project activities are organized.

From my experience with managing teams, I would say that Scrum is great for any team that can work on incremental delivery: a product, reporting, hardware, etc. Out of the three methodologies, Scrum is probably the hardest to adopt and the most complex and strict methodology. Scrum sprints can set clear goals and deadlines, thus giving full-control to the project manager. The Scrum framework is appropriate for experienced teams working on a product or a project which is longer than a year.

Kanban gives more freedom at the start. It is the most simple and most comfortable to adopt the method. It uses a Kanban board on which it visualizes the work and the work process, ensuring that everyone in the team is on the same page. It also reveals who are the bottlenecks in the workflow without losing its flexibility in production. Kanban is a good fit for supporting and maintaining teams. I love Kanban’s way of thinking to stop starting and start finishing.

Our team is using Scrumban. It combines the benefits of both Scrum and Kanban methodologies by using Kanban’s visualization and Scrum’s systematization while not introducing extra complexity. Scrumban is flexible in production and functions pretty good in large projects. It allows teams to have the agility of Scrum and the simplicity of Kanban while requiring no role updates.

Scrumban is a good fit for smaller teams, startups and loyal teams bringing more efficiency and freedom, teams who manage projects and work alongside keeping the business operational. Like in the process of choosing the right tool to manage the project team activities, the same approach should be used for adopting new agile methods or implementing changes in current that are used. Research each agile method, rescan the processes and bottlenecks in the team activities and then decide what you will implement as a new process for the Team. Strategies need to be revised and will be a matter of change until the best fit for the team is defined.

Discover why many Canadian and USA companies prefer hiring remote teams from Serbia and Macedonia. Tell us your needs and we will help you build an agile remote team. Arrange a free consultation today and we will get you started.

The post Remote Agile Teams Management – Success Story appeared first on Cosmic Development.

As we are walking in the last quarter of the notorious 2020, we can state one thing for sure: Remote work and distributed teams are here to stay. However, companies can be skeptical about moving their agile processes online when it comes to working remotely. At first glance, why wouldn’t they be? Especially having in mind that Agile was initially intended for teams that are physically located together in the same workspace. Even according to the 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto: “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation“––the first agile teams were intended to work together physically.

Some challenges arise for distributed software teams:

• Synchronizing teams in different time zones
• Building rapport without face-to-face contact
• Collaboration between different cultures
• Coordinating stand-ups and meetings considering that team members are online at the same time for a limited amount of time

These are genuine problems, but they are far from unsolvable. With almost ten years of experience in staff augmentation and software development services, we can share some insights and strategies to help you narrow the gap between working on-premises and remotely.

Structure Your Teams

Think of your team from a software engineer’s point of view: quality software architecture needs modular design, so design your software accordingly. The same goes for building teams. Every team should be able to develop a single fraction of the project, and by that, successfully reduce the dependence between your teams in different time zones or locations. You will actually make teams autonomous parts of your project or company. When a project requires team members to take part from different locations, they can focus solely on their integration points and APIs.

Code reviews are considered as an important part of the development process for remote teams. Since your people are working at different times, sharing knowledge of the code between teams makes maintenance easier.

Building and Maintaining Rapport

Agile teams need to build solid rapport between team members. This brings trust, reduces misunderstanding, makes self-organization easier, and builds morale and motivation. Take time, as much as possible, to get to know everyone within your distributed teams. A personal touch is a must. Creating strong rapport will lead to smoother communication between teams, which in turn leads to better workflows.

After all, who said that face-to-face meetings have to be offline? Especially these days, when Zoom and Google Hangouts have become our new-normal offices, we encourage using them in order to minimize the gap between distributed agile teams. At Cosmic Development, we are avoiding strictly scheduled Hangouts meetings for intra-team communication. Instead, we strive to create a culture of using video chats even for spontaneous informal conversations and ad-hoc meetings. Needless to say, instant-messaging tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams are very helpful in solving small issues or in simply keeping in touch. 

To help address some remote communication challenges within the team, you need to stimulate team members to have one-on-one video sessions whenever possible. These should not be formal, but they still need to be focused on work and oriented around knowledge sharing in a casual way.

Structuring a United Development Culture

Here are the four simple rules our teams follow in order to make remote work easier:

1. Overcommunicate decisions and procedures
2. Minimize the onboarding friction
3. Clearly define terminology
4. Create reporting guidelines 

Now, let us discuss each of them more thoroughly:

1. Overcommunicate Decisions and Procedures

When members of a distributed agile team make decisions, they need to communicate those decisions thoroughly. That sounds a bit obvious, but it is very easy to forget. Important decisions are often made in informal conversations; they are brainstormed between individuals or discussed spontaneously on calls between individuals. In contrast to this, small decisions are often dismissed as unimportant, especially if we focus on another part of the conversation. 

When working in a remote culture, everything, even the minute details, need to be communicated until the whole team starts moving in the same flow.

It is easy to lose meaning or essential information if you announce important decisions via email. Everyone in your dispersed teams needs to understand the decisions, the reasons behind each decision, and how they will be implemented. Team members that are working on outdated information can lead to major setbacks, hitting a blockade, and then re-communicating the whole process costs the team more time than accuracy sharing information in the first place.

2. Minimize the Onboarding Friction

You can tame the “first-day-friction” by utilizing a good onboarding procedure. Remote team members should feel at home right off the bat, which helps build cohesion between team members of different cultures. 

3. Clearly Define Terminology

While working with remote teams, clear standards around simple terminology like “complete” and “done” help manage expectations and ease communication. A clear definition of task completion eliminates ambivalence in work. For example, when sending a release that involves work from multiple teams, make sure to make it clear what “complete” means in this particular context: (a) the code needs to be written, (b) pull request created, (c) code needs to be reviewed and tested, (d) and finally integrated into the main codebase.

4. Create Guidelines for Reporting

Distributing the development process means that not everyone is online and ready for work when problems come up. We recommend setting systems and guidelines for troubleshooting, but reports and issue tracking. You will not believe how much easier such systems and guidelines make it for anyone on the team to track down and resolve issues. Code reviews and automated tests should be part of this process as it enables the remote team to make changes and validate them so they will not have any unexpected side effects.

Maximize the Mutual Online Time

The golden hours for remote agile teams are when most of the team members are online at the same time. This is the perfect time for stand-ups, coordination meetings, or one-on-one calls.

For teams that work in different time zones, a stand-up meeting is an excellent opportunity to share their issues, obstacles, or decisions. Having the stand-ups via video calls makes it easy to coordinate and catch-up with the flow, so everyone is up and running as soon as the meeting is done.

Instruct the project manager to closely monitor the entire team’s engagement during the stand-up. If there is an undue tension, or communication is becoming unfocused and counter-productive, your team members will quickly disengage.

Stand-ups do not have to be strictly daily meetings. You can have them a few times per week and use the other days for informal communication. Thus, a stand-up does not have to be just a morning routine, but you can organize it at the most convenient time for everyone that forms part of your remote agile teams. 

We all need to adapt and learn how to work within remote teams, communicate efficiently, and grow a cohesive culture. Many large companies have successfully implemented distributed agile workflows long before the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing them to cut costs and work more efficiently. On the other hand, remote work is very easy to implement for small teams that have previously worked together in a common office. Such teams can significantly benefit from the advantages of working remotely.

Stay tuned for Part Two, where we will talk to Bookmark‘s Project Manager about her hands-on experience with managing a remote team.

Sources:

• agilemanifesto.org/
• agilealliance.org/resources/experience-reports/remotely-agile/
• blog.stormid.com/distributed-agile-working/

The post Remote Work and Agile Teams are Here to Stay appeared first on Cosmic Development.

“How to manage a business during the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19)?” is probably the most frequently asked question that company owners ask themselves these last few months. Coronavirus is the most recent disease that spread throughout the world in a fast and unpredictable way. And now, we are all aware that this situation will last for a longer period of time, or at least until scientists discover a cure. To slow down the spread of COVID-19, we need to stay home and isolate ourselves from other people. Therefore, we need to adjust to the idea of working online. Similarly, every company owner is encouraged to learn how to manage a business online, as long as this is possible. 

Many businesses are unable to ask their employees to finish their daily tasks from home, especially if they work in factories, transport, health workers, supermarkets, pharmacies, etc. However, those business managers who can let their workers work from home will not only take care of the health of their employees but will also keep their business running during the outbreak. Working remotely may be very challenging, both for the employees and for the business owners. Therefore, we decided to answer the five most frequent questions that company owners ask themselves in the period of Coronavirus. Read the answers to those questions if you want to discover how to manage a business during the Coronavirus outbreak.

Sources:

• upsidefoundation.ca
• coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
• covid19.dialogue.co/#/
• toronto.citynews.ca/2020/03/18/morneau-canada-money-coronavirus-covid/
• about.hockeystick.co/active-funders-canada
• facebook.com/business/boost/grant
• markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/canada-s-six-biggest-banks-take-decisive-action-to-help-customers-impacted-by-covid-19-1029006242
• techagainstcoronavirus.com/

The post How to Manage a Business During the Coronavirus Outbreak appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Work from home has been trending over the years, but with the pandemic situation of Coronavirus throughout the world, remote work has been considered not only as a trend but as a prevention measure as well. Nowadays, as the Coronavirus is spreading with the speed of light throughout the world, companies have started considering this option to let their employees work from home. Organizations that have no strict requirement for their employees to be physically present at their offices allow them to work from home during the situation at hand. It seems that companies that operate online count on working remotely as a solution that will help their businesses to keep running while taking care of the health safety of their employees. 

In the past few days, business owners of all types of companies (from small start-ups to big corporations) have sent their employees to work from home in order to prevent further spread of the Coronavirus. This measure is considered as a small victory in the war against the Coronavirus. Through the work-from-home option, employees will be less exposed to potential carriers of the virus and will be able to protect the society from further escalation of the situation. 

At the beginning of this week, some of the major companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple have announced that they are letting their employees work from home, due to the rapid spread of the Coronavirus. To those of you who are reading this article and are not fully aware of what Coronavirus exactly is, or how to protect yourselves from it, continue reading the following sections. Below, you will also discover advice on how to make working remotely more productive, and you will be able to find out which companies released free-to-use tools for online working during the period of Coronavirus.

What is Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronaviruses (CoV) that has not been identified in humans before, and that first appeared in December 2019 in Wuhan (China). Coronaviruses are already known to cause illnesses from a simple cold to more severe diseases like the ones from the past years: MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease that can be transmitted between animals and people. It is believed that the Coronavirus was transmitted from an animal onto a human being in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan (China).  

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO): “Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.” To prevent the infection from spreading, people must wash their hands regularly, cover their mouths and noses when sneezing or coughing, and they need to eat only thoroughly cooked meat and eggs. Furthermore, people are advised to avoid any contact with people who show symptoms of respiratory illness. 

Advice for Protection from the Coronavirus

Since the Coronavirus shows symptoms as a regular cold, people need to take precautionary measures in order to protect themselves from getting the virus. Below are given important advice from the WHO that people need to do and avoid the spread of the coronavirus:

Keep hands away from eyes, mouth, and nose – One of the most important advice is to avoid touching eyes, mouth and nose with hands because the hands can easily transfer the virus if they are contaminated. 

Wash hands regularly – People need to wash their hands frequently either with soap and water or with an alcohol-based hand rub, and therefore kill all possible viruses that are on their hands. 

Keep a social distance from others – When someone is coughing or sneezing, people need to make sure to maintain a social distance from them of at least one meter (three feet). This distance is preferable because the small liquid droplets in the sneeze or cough may contain the Coronavirus and can be breathed in, thus transferring the disease to another person.

Practice respiratory hygiene – This means that people should always cover their mouths and noses when coughing or sneezing either with tissues or with their bent elbows to avoid spreading the virus through their small liquid droplets.

Seek medical help – People who have a fever, a cough, or a breathing difficulty must seek medical attention. To do so, they need to follow the directions given by local authorities and call in advance so that the health care provider can direct them to the appropriate health facility that deals with Coronavirus.

To stay up to date with the latest development of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), follow the news published by the WHO or by local authorities in the country. Moreover, to discover more about the precautionary measures against the Coronavirus, click this link and find out about the protection against it, as instructed by the WHO.

Using Technology and Work from Home against the Coronavirus

Within the last few days, big corporations such as Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft have decided to allow their employees to work from home, due to the increased number of Coronavirus cases. Google decided to close its offices in China and canceled traveling to mainland China. They also sent employees from their Dublin office to work from home. Similarly, Amazon restricted traveling to and from China and required people who had to travel to stay at home and work remotely for a period of two weeks after the trip. They also told their employees in Seattle to work from home till the end of March. The same decision may soon apply to Amazon’s offices in New Jersey and New York. Moreover, Microsoft told its employees in China to work from home.

Furthermore, Apple restricted all trips to and from China and shut down all stores and offices there. Their CEO also allowed employees all over the world to work from home. Twitter sent all of its employees to work remotely and suspended all events and business trips. Facebook closed the offices in China and allowed its employees to work from home. Spotify also allowed its employees to work from home for two weeks.

In addition to the decisions for working remotely, big organizations decided to aid the remote work by offering free collaboration tools for online use. Google even announced that they offer their free tools Google Hangouts Meet, Google Drive, Google Suite to everyone in need. Microsoft also allowed free usage of its products Microsoft Teams and Skype. In addition to these basic tools of Google and Microsoft that many people use on a daily basis, other tech companies have also made their products available to employees who decided to work from home. Take a look at the list we offer below to discover the top ten free-to-use tools of our choice for working remotely:

Google Hangouts Meet – Video conferencing tool offered to schools and businesses to keep them connected in the time of Coronavirus.

Google Drive (and Google Suite) – Team collaboration platforms that allow coworkers to share and work on the same docs, spreadsheets, and presentation documents.

Microsoft Teams – Teamwork hub in Office 365 that keeps in one place the team’s chats, meetings, files, and apps.

Skype – Microsoft’s platform for video conferencing. 

Slack – Collaboration hub that offers communication and tools in one place for remote employees and helps them stay productive regardless of their work location.

Toggl – Time tracker that measures the time spent working on a particular task.

Zoom – Cloud platform for online video communication which has lifted the limit on its free version in China due to the Coronavirus.

Webex – Collaboration platform that has expanded its free offer in all countries where it is available.

Dropbox – Smart workspace that offers file storage and sharing options.

One Drive – Microsoft’s personal cloud storage.

To discover a list of other technologies that are made available during the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), click here and get a full list of all products that can be used when working remotely.

Tips for Better Management When Working Remotely

1. Create and follow a schedule of tasks for each day of the week.
2. Assemble meetings one after another without losing time in between.
3. Change the home-office environment every day, if possible, to avoid feeling suffocated by spending all days in one room.
4. Do not work while wearing pajamas!
5. Plan your work breaks ahead and take them regularly.
6. Get used to receiving audio and video calls from other team members in order to stay in contact with them at least once per day.
7. Work uninterruptedly with the “Do Not Disturb” option.
8. Find ways that will help you increase your productivity (listening to loud music, watching your favorite series during the break, or working out for 15 minutes in between meetings).

When working remotely, employees need to plan ahead and get well organized, because the line between working and procrastinating can be very thin. Here are some tricks that will help employees get their work from home done:

We all know that working remotely may have its own pros and cons, but in a situation like this one, the best thing we can do is put into practice all of these tips and try to implement this work-from-home policy. Cosmic Development is one of the companies that allowed its employees to work remotely during the period of Coronavirus. Let us all hope that these types of precautionary measures will help us in the war against Coronavirus and that soon we will become victorious and get back to our daily activities. Till then, follow the WHO’s advice and make sure you are smarter than the Coronavirus.

Sources:

• who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/events-as-they-happen
• who.int/health-topics/coronavirus
• who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public
• bbc.com/worklife/article/20200309-coronavirus-covid-19-advice-chinas-work-at-home-experiment
• techcrunch.com/2020/03/09/box-is-now-letting-all-staff-work-from-home-to-reduce-coronavirus-risk/
• cnbc.com/2020/03/06/the-coronavirus-could-actually-make-working-from-home-more-commonplace.html
• businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-chinese-wet-market-photos-2020-1
• businessinsider.com/coronavirus-apple-tim-cook-tells-office-workers-work-from-home-2020-3
• businessinsider.com/companies-asking-employees-to-work-from-home-due-to-coronavirus-2020
• edition.cnn.com/2020/03/10/tech/google-work-from-home-coronavirus/index.html
• npr.org/2020/03/09/812898220/laundry-between-emails-working-from-home-goes-viral-in-the-time-of-coronavirus
• buffer.com/state-of-remote-work-2019
• toptal.com/freelance/how-to-work-remotely-and-still-be-the-best
• techagainstcoronavirus.com/work
• skillcrush.com/blog/working-remotely-tips/
• vox.com/recode/2020/3/11/21173449/microsoft-google-zoom-slack-increased-demand-free-work-from-home-software
• crn.com/news/cloud/-free-microsoft-teams-google-hangouts-meet-are-coronavirus-remote-workarounds-cumulus-global?itc=refresh

The post Work from Home in the Time of Coronavirus appeared first on Cosmic Development.

The opportunity to work remotely is becoming more and more present in companies that do not need their workers to be present at their office desks in order to complete their tasks. Some companies, of course, are not able to give permission for working remotely, due to their need for workers being physically present at their job posts. However, employees who mostly work on their computers can easily get permission to work remotely, from a location that best suits their needs. 

With the development of information technology, employees get plenty of advantages in their jobs. For instance, they have opportunities to get their daily activities completed from another location, or from the comfort of their homes. Moreover, employees who are working remotely may be present at all meetings virtually over the Internet. 

Different companies are beginning to follow this trend and to change alongside with the development of IT technology. Cosmic Development is one of those IT companies that follow the trend of remote working and offer it to their employees in order to make them feel more comfortable while performing their daily work tasks and activities. No matter whether you are a software developer, a digital marketer, or a virtual assistant, feeling enjoyable at work is one of the advantages that come with remote work. Employees can choose a random location in the world, travel and work at the same time, without neglecting the required job activities. And all thanks to the new technologies and the existing option for remote work. However, working remotely can also have negative sides, regardless of the advantages it implies. Read below to discover the pros and cons of working remotely.

Pros:

1. Have Freedom and Flexibility
2. Acquire New Skills
3. Save Money and Time

Cons:

1. Be Physically Present
2. Miss Social Gatherings
3. Face Many Distractions

Pros

1. Have Freedom and Flexibility

One of the best advantages of working remotely is the opportunity to have freedom and flexibility. Having freedom while completing your job activities means to be able to choose your own working hours. That way, you will be able to choose the most appropriate time of the day to finish the daily tasks. In addition to freedom comes the flexibility of working remotely. Not many employers give their employees the flexibility to work from another location. Employees prefer and choose those companies that offer flexibility as part of their job requirements and perks. Being able to work from a remote location enables workers to organize their time and tasks according to their needs. Employees who have remote jobs can proudly say that they can choose different work locations on a worldwide level for each month thanks to the flexibility that their remote positions entail. 

2. Acquire New Skills

Working remotely is a positive circumstance that helps employees become better workers. Through remote work, employees become more independent workers and develop new skills. Some of those skills are also known as entrepreneurial skills because they encompass organizational and managerial skills. Just like entrepreneurs, remote workers need to know how to organize their time and daily activities, in order to get them finished on time. Without managerial skills, remote workers might get stuck in loads of work due to spending their time on procrastination. Time flies very fast when one is working alone and isolated, without feeling the pressure of work and the office atmosphere. Therefore, remote workers must acquire these new skill sets, if they want to become better at finishing their assignments on time.

3. Save Money and Time

Another advantage of working remotely is the ability to save money that otherwise you would spend when going to work at an office. For instance, holding a remote job will help you save money on transport. Traveling each day to an office may result in high transport expenses. Working remotely will save your money for transport and will help you avoid having such high expenses. Moreover, traveling to the office is also a time-consuming activity, especially when there is a big distance between your home and your work office. Remote working can help you save your time on traveling, just like it helps you save your money on transport. Working from home or from a remote location may result in lower expenses and no hours spent on a daily commute. 

Another aspect of the money-saving advantage of working remotely is the ability to work in comfortable clothes. This implies that you can choose to wear pajamas and sweats while working from a remote location. Wearing such clothes is impossible if you must work at an office. Therefore, working remotely can also help you save money on clothes.

Cons

1. Be Physically Present

One of the main disadvantages of working remotely is the disability to be physically present at an office in a working environment. A remote position means isolating yourself from other people and sitting alone in front of a computer. This may prove to be good for introverted employees who prefer their own company. However, it is bad when extroverted employees are working remotely and are unable to be present physically at their office. The physical presence gives employees a feeling like they are part of a team and that they belong somewhere. Being isolated when working remotely takes that feeling away from employees and they may feel alone and be avoided by other coworkers.

The remote work also prevents employees from being physically present at team meetings at the office. With the development of technology, nowadays employees may be present at meetings through Skype, Slack, etc. However, there is an enormous difference between being physically present at a meeting at the office and being included through online platforms only for several minutes. 

2. Miss Social Gatherings

In addition to the meetings, working remotely also prevents employees from being physically present at social gatherings organized by the company where they work. A disadvantage of holding a remote job is the disability to be present at social gatherings, such as after-work parties, coworkers’ birthday celebrations, holiday celebrations, etc. By missing such events, remote employees may begin feeling socially excluded from their teams, due to the inability to hang out with them outside of working hours. Social exclusion may prove to be a huge problem in long-term employment. Working remotely increases the risk of isolation and internal dissatisfaction due to the failure to be present at social gatherings. The desire to be part of such gatherings may cause the employee to leave the current job, even though there are many pros of working remotely.

3. Face Many Distractions

Another disadvantage of working remotely is the level of distractions that may occur in a remote location. When working from an office, the working environment does not allow employees to spend too much time on procrastination. Instead, they go to the office and begin working in the same instance. They spend 90 percent of their time on work because the atmosphere in the office subconsciously makes them work more. Working remotely, on the other hand, may prove to be less productive, due to the numerous distractions that may happen in the remote location where you work from. Working from home, for instance, may bring distractions and interruptions from other family members. Moreover, another remote working location may have another set of distractions, such as other employees, conversations, meetings, Internet problems, etc.

The employees are faced with many more pros and cons of remote working, depending on their personal preference for work location. In most cases, remote teams have more benefits from working from another location than working in a regular workplace. Remote workers believe that they are more productive when working in their desired environment. That way they can choose their locations and hold a balance between work and life. Moreover, employees who love traveling for months can work remotely from a different location each month and conquer new horizons while responding to their work assignments on time. Remote workers also save a lot of time which otherwise would have been used on the commute from home to the office. Furthermore, employees who are working remotely and their employers can get additional benefits in their communication skills. Are you a remote worker? If you have more pros or cons of remote working you would like to share, send us a comment.

Sources:

medium.com/remote-work/the-pros-and-cons-of-working-remotely-d526d7a34b0d

toggl.com/out-of-office-why-go-remote/

careercast.com/career-news/remote-work-pros-cons

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