Even if the remote web development teams don’t come to the office, the products they build still need to be delivered on time and to meet the required high-quality standards. Sharing ideas, suggestions and collaborating is always important in a company, but they become crucial for a remote team.
Companies can now have an overview of what each team does and its results with the help of multiple tools. However, managing remote development teams can be difficult. Hiring the best developers doesn’t necessarily mean selecting the candidates with the best work experience. There are many other challenges associated with selecting the most appropriate candidates. Although the number of freelance developers has increased, it’s difficult to find, test, and select the right candidates. Will they have great work experience, as well as soft skills, will they be able to fit within the company’s culture? Finding the answer to these questions, as well as many do’s and don’ts on how to hire a freelance developer simplify the recruiting process and help companies select the most suitable candidates.
Coordinating web developers across different time zones can be difficult, but it doesn’t mean there are no solutions. To be able to efficiently coordinate across different time zones, there are tools that can help the team collaborate, communicate, be productive and avoid common mistakes. Below, there are several tools that fall under the following categories: collaboration, communication, and productivity.
Communication tools
Remote work means colleagues cannot have a face to face discussion, so they need another way to make sure they are on the same page. Sending emails can be time-consuming, especially if several people are having a conversation. Therefore, tools that provide easier, faster, or ongoing communications are essential.
One of the most popular and useful tools for collaboration is Slack. It’s the tool for real-time communication and messaging and is being used as a faster and more effective alternative to email, especially when it comes to more informal communication. It provides various integrations such as Google Calendar, Zoom, Asana and many more apps, and provides archiving features.
Zoom is also another very well-known tool for communication among remote development teams. The reason why Zoom is used by the most important companies in the world is very simple: the tool provides incredible sound and image quality even on the free plan.
BlueJeans is a videoconferencing platform that could be helpful for remote developers. It offers a smooth meeting experience that connects people on any device. It features multiple seamless integrations such as Microsoft Teams, Slack, Skype for Business and Facebook Workplace. BlueJeans is device agnostic, so developers can join meeting in less than six seconds through a mobile app, desktop app, or directly in the browser without downloading.
Collaboration tools
Beyond finding and hiring experienced remote developers, it’s crucial to choose those candidates who understand and value collaboration. Developers can stay on track and collaborate in real-time with the help of the following tools:
Trello features a visual layout and can be accessed from any device or browser. What is also great about it is that all changes sync in real-time and team members can see the progress of their projects instantly. Due dates, attachments, comments, labels can be added and more functionality integrations like Dropbox, Github, Google Drive, and Slack are also included.
Zeplin is a platform ensuring that both designers and developers are on the same page. They can work together to build and make the final design tweaks before production. Annotations, replies on the design, one-click conversion measurements, as well as exporting code snippets are available.
Type Anything helps developer teams create and test typography combinations. It generates code for web projects and enables exploring and testing combinations before including them into the final design. For example, with the help of it, developers can edit the texts on the screen to see the content in the fonts they selected, can adjust line heights, letter spacing, font size, and many other important details.
Productivity tools
To be able to keep and maximize productivity, remote development teams need specific tools for that in order to work as if they were in the same office or building.
Freeter is the tool that helps remote teams manage all their work and task lists from one place. Developers use many apps and they also have many tasks on their list in a single day. Unfortunately, they waste time by just opening and closing apps or going back from one to-do list to another.
This tool was built by a freelance developer who had the same problems while he was working. With the help of it, users can gather checklists, links, files, use dashboards to better organize their work, all in one place. Apps such as JIRA, Trello, Basecamp, and Asana can also be connected to Freeter.
I Done This shows progress reports and offers daily check-ins, which is great for monitoring what has been done or what is getting done right now. I Done This provides a high-level overview of the entire remote development team and also the company’s progress.
Asana is a management and workflow management tool that enables users to check the status of their projects through a visual and easy to use dashboard. With the help of it, projects can be managed easily and developers can stay more focused on their daily tasks.
Remote web development teams offer access to world-class talent and experience and give companies the opportunity to scale up based on their needs. These teams will need a set of tools to support well-structured communication, collaboration, productivity, and thus, build high-quality products. The above tools bridge the distance between a company and its remote developers and help monitor the team’s performance, create a stronger relationship with every member of the team and ensure that all developers understand the strategy and their role.