Co-located and Distributed teams and Daily Standups

In our organization, all employees work together as a team to deliver their goals to fulfill the requirements of business and clients. There are many team structures and approaches to build a team and gather the employees to work. Organizations will follow different kinds of team structures to accomplish the work. Let us see what are the different kinds of teams in our work culture and how the employees work in that team.

What are Co-located Teams?

Co-located Teams indicate that all the team members are in the same location and do the same office work. It indicates that all the team members are physically located in the same environment to work. Some organization requires all employees to be physically located in the same environment to work. The reason might be maintaining a high level of security, employer and employee collaboration, efficient and effective communication, and so on. If an organization consists of a desktop work culture then we can find more co-located teams.

Advantages of Co-located Teams

1. Face to Face-to-face communication: Direct communication and collaboration with all team members. We can directly communicate with other departments in person which reduces the time of sending emails and communicating with them virtually.
2. In-person Meeting: Physically attending the meetings enhances the good discussion among employees.
3. Quick Work Progress: Work deliverables can be done quickly.
4. In-person Discussion: Direct discussion with our supervisor or team lead for any queries. All the critical discussions related to project and organization management can be done under one roof with a high level of security.
5. Collaboration: It brings good and strong bonds among employees. Direct in-person appreciation enhances the motivation level of employees.

Disadvantages of co-located Teams

1. Work From Office Culture: Work from anywhere and anytime can’t be implemented. Work from home option is not available for employees.
2. Virtual Meeting: Virtual gathering during any emergency becomes complex for them to handle.
3. Maintenance Cost: High maintenance is there for regular office visits. Employees need to shift their region to work in the office region.

Strategies for Effective Collaboration in Co-located Teams

1. Be Attentive: Always be on time to the office to interact with your colleagues to complete the tasks. Leave the office after the shift timings.
2. Attending Meeting on Time: Gather at the meeting hall on time which will create a good impact.
3. Attitude: It’s good to have a positive attitude towards our work, communication, and behavior.
4. Work Together: Always be seated with your teammates to work.

What are Distributed Teams?

From the term “distributed” itself, we can understand that the team members in the team are working from different locations, regions, or time zones. This type of team is called Distributed Team. The team doesn’t require their team members to be physically located in the same location to work. It emphasizes the culture of working from anywhere and anytime. This is what most of the agile team follows.

Advantages of Distributed Teams

1. Work From Anywhere: It allows employees to work from anywhere for their team which brings a comfortable environment.
2. Work Anytime: Employees can extend their work timing to work if they want.
3. Virtual Meeting: Don’t need to report for all meetings physically which saves a lot of time.
4. Low Maintenance: High cost and other maintenance of the office environment are saved as employees are not present physically.
5. Less Impact on the located theteammates Work Progress: In case of any natural disasters happening in one region, other region employees can work.

Disadvantages of Distributed Teams

1. Missing In-person collaboration: Face-to-face physical interaction with colleagues is missing frequently in distributed teams.
2. Unusual Shift Timings: Some employees won’t follow the proper shift timings.
3. Delay in passing Information: Here might be a delay in passing the information related to work or other personal stuff.
4. Less secured: High-level secured projects won’t follow the approach of distributed teams.

Strategies for Effective Collaboration in Distributed Teams

1. Be Attentive: Always be available online during shift timings. Time concern is important when your teammates are working from another region. Prioritize your tasks with your teammate accordingly.
2. Virtual Collaboration: Virtual engagement with your teammates should be good.
3. Update Availability: Always update your status in your team’s group if you are having any sudden emergency to leave.
4. Update Work Status: Update your task status in your team’s group and the team’s meeting.
5. Follow Proper Timing: Try to complete your conversation with the team within the allocated time slots. Join all the meetings on time without any delay.

Comparison between Co-located and Distributed Teams

Parameters	Co-located Team	Distributed Team
Work Environment	All team members are working in the same office environment.	Team members can work from any region.
Work From Home Availability	Working from home is not available all the time.	Work from home is available and permitted.
Shift Timings	Working from anywhere & anytime is not possible. There is a perfect shift timings should be followed.	Work from anywhere & anytime is possible. No proper strict shift timings.
Meeting	In-person meeting discussion is conducted.	A virtual meeting is conducted.
Relocation	Employees need to relocate to their office region.	Employees don’t need to relocate to their office region.
Projects and Team Modal	High-level Secured projects mostly approach the Co-located team model.	Some projects can only approach distributed team modal.

What are Daily Standups?

In today’s world, we are doing work from anywhere and anytime culture and we are working in an agile environment to deliver our work to the organization. In this case, we need several meetings or catch up with our teammates to discuss, share, and update about our daily work routine. We simply call that Daily Standups.

A Standup meeting is a small meeting that occurs all working day. It includes all teammates including the scrum master and product owner. Everyone on the team has to be updated about their task activities like what activities they did yesterday and what they are going to do today which includes the scrum master and product owner. Team members from various time zones can join the meeting by creating comfortable common timings for all team members.

Advantages of Daily Standups

1. Connecting Across Regions: It enables people from different regions or locations when the team includes employees from various regions. Brings connectivity among team members.
2. Knowing Important Updates: Important updates and other work-related activities can be discussed which provides good progress towards the team goal.
3. Knowing Individual Status: Depending on the individual update, other team members can understand whether a team member is facing any difficulties with the task or not.
4. Team Management: It increases good time management and team management. If all teammates are in the same office then they will have the meeting in person too.
5. Usage of Common Language: In different regions, people communicate in a common language. There are no cultural or regional differences.

Disadvantages of Daily Standups

1. Connectivity Issues: In the case of a virtual meeting, internet disconnectivity would be challenging.
2. Timing Issues: Meeting time would be challenging for some regional employees to join.
3. Meeting Mislead: Standup meetings would become a platform for arguments among team members.
4. Extended Meeting Time: The length of the meeting is a matter of concern sometimes.

Best Practices for Engaging Distributed Teams in Daily Standups

1. Plan Timing: The timing of the stand-up meeting should be good for all regional employees to join.
2. Be Attentive: Never late to daily standups.
3. Update briefly: Give your updates briefly with important notes.
4. Discuss clearly: Discuss the important points if anything is there to clarify.
5. Passing Information: In case of emergency, inform the team before starting the daily standups. So other team members won’t wait.
6. Hand over to another teammateteam for update: Once you are done with your updates, pass the turn to other teammates.
7. Work Environment: Keep yourself in a noise-free environment.
8. Usage of Common Language: Always use common language which should be understood by all teammates.

Conclusion

All the above-discussed teams and their benefits, disadvantages, and strategies are helpful for all employers and employees from any kind of organization to follow and achieve their team goals. You can follow the strategies mentioned above to effectively deliver your team goals. From the above discussion, you can easily predict what kind of model should be followed by specific projects and you can keep yourself ready for that team approach.