XP looks incompatible with remote
You can find a lot of info about Agile in the previous posts but in short, it’s a flexible approach that emphasizes the importance of rapid iteration, collaboration, and customer satisfaction.
XP is a great companion of Agile, the other side of the “Agility Software Development” coin: XP is a set of principles and practices that aim to improve the quality and efficiency of software development. It emphasizes the importance of face-to-face communication, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Some key points of Agile and XP might seem incompatible with remote work:
- Agile Manifesto says that gives more value to “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools” and to “Customer collaboration over contract negotiation” - meaning that collaboration and communication among the team and between the team and the customers is fundamental
- Agile Principles also state that “Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project” and that “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation”
- Finally, XP's first Primary Practice is “Sit together” - People should work in an open space big enough for the whole team
Each of those points might seem against remote work according to the interpretation of some:
- collaboration and communication must be achieved by working in person in the same place
- in order to work together, developers and business people must be in the same physical place
- a face-to-face conversation is necessarily in person
- “sit together” explicitly means being in the same place
But I disagree.
How to remote?
In the first place, we can totally reverse the point of view:
- thanks to technology, collaboration, and communication can be achieved without problems from remote teams - think of tools like Slack, Zoom, Miro, etc
- people, today, can work together simply via the internet, with the same tool written above
- a Zoom call is definitely a face-to-face conversation - no mandatory need for that conversation to be in person
- thanks to those tools, we can “sit together” sharing a digital workspace instead of a physical one- this still means we have a workspace shared by all the team members
But I want to do more, and highlight a couple of other things.
First of all, Kent Beck itself, in the second edition of “Extreme Programming: explained”, admits that remote work is totally compatible - even if he suggests being ready to meet in person if the need comes out: Beck emphasizes that the key to success with XP in a remote work environment is effective communication, and while face-to-face communication is certainly valuable, remote teams can still achieve high levels of collaboration and productivity if they are intentional about communication and use the right tools and processes.
In particular, remote teams should prioritize frequent and structured communication, such as daily stand-up meetings and regular video calls. He also emphasizes the importance of asynchronous communication tools, such as email and chat, which can help teams stay connected and collaborate effectively even across time zones.
Of course, there may be times when it is beneficial or even necessary to meet in person, but the overall success of XP in a remote work environment depends on the team's ability to establish a strong culture of collaboration and communication, regardless of physical distance.
Tool tip for async communications: Loom can help you improving remote team communications through async video messaging.
We also have to remember that the Manifesto says that “We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it” - we must always remember that Agile Manifesto and XP are mostly values and principles to follow and we always have to put them in the context - we can do anything we can imagine that don’t break those values and principles.
At the heart of the Agile Manifesto is the belief that the best way to develop software is through practical experience and iteration. In other words, we should prioritize learning by doing rather than relying solely on theory or documentation. This is why XP emphasizes practices like pair programming, continuous integration, and test-driven development, all of which are designed to facilitate ongoing learning and improvement.
Tool tip: for remote retrospective, you can use tools like Parabol if you want more guidance or rely on Miro for more freedom - in both cases, you could collect the topics before the retro itself, in an async way!
Finally, in the Manifesto we can also find a principle stating that “Agile processes promote sustainable development” - while this is typically referred to having a sustainable pace (software development is a marathon, not a rush) we can very easily think to sustainability in a larger way.
Remote work can offer a number of potential sustainability benefits. For example, eliminating commuting time can reduce stress, save money, and reduce environmental impact. Additionally, remote work can provide individuals with more flexibility to manage their work-life balance, which can lead to greater job satisfaction and reduced burnout.
However, it's important to recognize that remote work can also introduce new challenges that may impact sustainability. For example, working from home can blur the lines between work and personal life, potentially leading to overwork and burnout. It can also be difficult to establish clear boundaries and maintain effective communication and collaboration when team members are physically dispersed.
Be sure as a leader, coach, or company manager to start initiatives to help people working remotely to be happy and take care of their health.
Tool tip: Gather.town can be a great tool for building ad digital working environment, with gamification elements, to give remote teams a digital place to call “office”.
Go Deeper
Here are some resources you can check if you want to go deeper and learn more about Agile and XP principles and values applied in a remote working environment.
Books
- eXtreme Programming: Explained - The book about XP has a small section about the remote work context
- Leadership Paradigms for Remote Agile Development - This book acts as a concise, practical guide on how to lead successful agile projects in a remote environment
Online
- 6 Best Practices for Remote Work by Agile Software Development Teams - by Gartner blog
- Think globally, code locally: the secret to distributed teams - by Atlassian blog
- Remote Working in an Agile Team - by agilebusiness.org blog