Onboarding
A good start: The first days at a new job are very important for your software developers, especially if they are going to work remotely. A proper onboarding process will help you lay the groundwork for future productive work. Since the engineers and developers are physically not sitting together, it is very important that regular contact via Skype, Webex, mail, phone or chat is established. For all team-meetings we advise to use Skype or Webex. Planning and agreeing in the way of working will prevent future misunderstanding. Also a good ‘get to know’ of the team and their roles is important. It’s important for each member to know who is doing what and what responsibilities come with that role.

Project approach
First of all, make sure to choose the right project approach and toolset. In this regard, Agile project management (namely, Scrum) is one of the most popular approaches to conduct the software development process in remote teams. It can be successfully used regardless of distances and time differences.

Communication
The Agile process relies heavily on regular communication between the client and the development team. In this regard, we recommend using dedicated project management and cooperation tools like Trello, Atlassian JIRA, Redmine, Target Process, Skype, Slack, Google Hangouts, and Hipchat etc. Determine what kind of tools you want to use, or let us advice in them. Since there are limited time differences, there are many ways to set up a transparent and efficient cooperation between your on-site employees and offshore development team. Establishing communication channels between your on-site team and your developers are crucial for long-term cooperation, and you need to maintain this connection throughout your project.

Bring your remote team in
When needed our team can support you also locally, although some cost advantages will be lost due to travelling and extra expenses. Macedonian citizens do not need a Visa to travel to the Netherlands so no long Visa arrangements are necessary. The advantage of bringing them over for a short term is that it helps in building a team and establishes good connections with the developers. On the other hand, it is always a good idea to invite your developers to work on-site, at least in the early stages (onboarding) to immerse them into the project and kickstart the development process.

We are there to help
Of course we will assist in setting up the communication and cooperation to your needs. Your local account responsible will always be in contact with you and he will help where needed. If necessary he can step in to solve possible issues. You can also choose to hire the project leader or the Scrum master with us. He will make, with your input, most of the arrangements and lead the team and scrum cycles.