Project Management with Remote Resources

I am often asked about my experiences with project management in remote resource contexts. In this article, I provide a brief overview of the experiences I have had at this level. In all of these projects, I played a major role in project management. In all cases, clients are located in Quebec or North America. I have identified three different models:

• Geographically dispersed resources: Consultants working on the project are all remote, located in different locations (at their home, at their office, or in delivery centers). They can be in North America or just about anywhere in the world. The project manager is obviously located in some location too!
• Mixed model: The consultants are divided into two teams, one completely relocated and one in Quebec. The project manager is located in Quebec.
• Offshore model: Finally, the last model is at one end of the spectrum: all resources are remote, and the project manager is as well. The delivery is made for a local company. The clients (business lines) are therefore here. Local resources are limited.

For each of these models, I will present the main characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages, as well as the key success factors.

Geographically Dispersed Resources

I found this model in the software development industry, as well as in certain IT departments of companies. It's an organic model, we assemble teams by getting expertise where it is. The resources in question do not necessarily work full-time on the project. It is not uncommon for resources to work in different time zones. The clear advantage of this model is that with a well-developed advisor network, you can easily build new teams and the time to set them up is relatively quick. The team disappears as soon as the project is finished, and each continues his journey on his own. The disadvantage is that under certain circumstances, team chemistry can take some time to set up. The two main success factors of this model are clearly defined responsibilities (so a clear work plan for all), as well as the establishment of communication channels between team members (daily scrum, permanent electronic channel such as Skype).

Mixed Model

In the mixed model, there is a local team managed by an on-site project manager. For reasons of expertise or additional delivery capacity, the team is completed with another team, located overseas. The project management activities of the relocated team are the responsibility of the project manager. Such a delivery model can be risky and drain a lot of effort. Its main advantage is obviously that it can add great velocity to the project as you can often find many available resources in relocated countries. Delivery costs can also decrease significantly considering the low cost (between 20 and 33% from here). The main disadvantage of such a model is the appearance of "two solitudes". The manager will divide his time between the two teams and if he has difficulty finding the right balance of time to share between the two teams, it will result in two teams who, each on their side, find that we do not take care of them enough. The main success factor of such a model will be the level of experience of the project manager who will have to deal with the challenges of managing a local team and a relocated team. The use of detailed timesheets will allow him to closely follow the progress of all resources.

Offshore Model

The offshore model presents an entirely remote team. The project manager is also remote, with his team. The two main advantages of this model are increased velocity and lower delivery costs. The fact that the teams work on two quite different time zones can have its advantage: for example, the client can carry out acceptance tests while the project team sleeps and the latter can make corrections while the other team sleeps. The disadvantage of this model is that it clearly does not suit contexts where needs are unclear and poorly defined. A client who "changes his mind" constantly can lead these projects into a dangerous spiral... You must also modify the working hours to have a few working hours in common during the day. Finally, the project management effort is higher (in hours) given the coordination role played by local resources. Undoubtedly, this model can succeed if we manage to have strong local resources to play the role of "transmission belt" between the client and the relocated team. It is important that this local team has no decision-making power in the project. Its role should be limited to coordination and the realization of deliverables is entirely done by the relocated team. This article was written by the founder of Brome Conseil, Simon Chamberland. Working in the field of information technology since 1995, he has two decades of experience in information technology and management. Note that this article was first published on the Brome Conseil firm's blog.