Now, it comes down to management setting strict guidelines and enforcing them.
What good is it to pay for Jira accounts when nobody uses them? Or what good is it to have Github and everybody ends up hosting their own private repos?
That is definitely a management mandate, and logistically, it's a lot easier to manage a group if they are all in the same place.
I'd say the tech has been there a lot longer than you think, I've known people who've worked in distributed teams 20 years ago. Yes, the tech was a little different, but it was still good enough.
I absolutely agree with you though that the culture of making sure everything is done using those tools is the important part. You essentially have to give up most of the benefits you might get from some members being colocated and do everything as though you were all at separate sites.
> I'd say the tech has been there a lot longer than you think, I've known people who've worked in distributed teams 20 years ago. Yes, the tech was a little different, but it was still good enough.
E-mail, chat system, telephone, version control system, remote access were indeed there and are still enough for most use cases.
What was missing or not very good or reliable? Video chat and screen sharing, perhaps? I dislike the first, I find it almost doesn't bring anything positive compared to the phone but has drawbacks. And the latter makes me seasick.
Then maybe we are not on the same page. I would assume company is already using one or another project tracking tool or distributed source control. I can't think of companies that are not doing this as being relevant.
No, we are not on the same page. The point is not that you're using a project tracking tool or distributed source control.
Btw, Google/Facebook do not use distributed source control, and they are quite relevant.
The point is the communication tools. If you are not accustomed to jumping on chat with somebody with the same comfort as walking over and tapping their shoulder, it doesn't matter if you pay for VC software licenses.
If you talk to somebody in person, and then decide something and act on it, without looping the entire team in on the decision, then remote employees are going to feel like outsiders, even if you are paying money for email software.
The technology is there, it wasn't ten years ago.
Now, it comes down to management setting strict guidelines and enforcing them.
What good is it to pay for Jira accounts when nobody uses them? Or what good is it to have Github and everybody ends up hosting their own private repos?
That is definitely a management mandate, and logistically, it's a lot easier to manage a group if they are all in the same place.