Distributed Teams need high bandwidth bidirectional communication to succeed, and the organization should provide these tools for collaboration. Luckily for us, Video Chat and Broadband are becoming more and more affordable so this is no longer an unrealistic goal.

With a decent Video Chat setup you can teleconference with teams around the world and pick up on body language that you’d otherwise miss using only the phone or chat.

So why is it that some Distributed Teams sit around a conference table while on Video Chat?

In short, they shouldn’t.

The Scrum Master needs to do everything in his power to ensure that the teams have an area to stand up for their Daily Scrum on Video Chat. Just because you are thousands of miles away, it does not mean that you can be lazy. If you lead your Daily Scrum sitting behind a desk using Video, it’ll be harder to keep team members from pontification. It’ll also become much more difficult to change the team’s behavior later on down the line.

So fellow Distributed Scrum Masters, please stand up when facilitating the Daily Scrum over Video. Encourage others to stand up if they are reluctant, and try your best to make those visual connections early. It’ll keep the team focused and you won’t start your day by dismissing one of the key aspects of your Scrum!

Tags: distributed teams