The COVID-19 crisis took over our world and changed the rules overnight, without fair warning. We have seen lockdowns imposed across the world and closure of workplaces, and more than 81 percent of the global workforce of 3.3 billion people have felt its impact. With Generation Z entering the workforce this year, it is estimated that there will be a 30% increase in demand for remote work by 2030. A majority of working professionals worldwide are preparing for a future in which virtual and real workspaces merge seamlessly.
As we enter this new kind of reality, experiencing huge shifts in our workplaces and homes, from working in the “boardroom to the living room”. Work from home (WFH) which used to be a privilege or a benefit for few has now become a necessity. Workspaces that once relied on face-to-face meetings are going entirely virtual, driven extensively by technology.
Remote Working has always been part of the global narrative in the modern world, especially among development teams, with vendors, developers, and clients located around the world. What's new is the overnight shift in workplaces and Work from home becoming a mandate across all teams in an enterprise. Looks like this situation is gonna stay and a lot many companies are stepping into this unfamiliar territory, one that entirely depends on remote teams collaborating seamlessly and delivering without delays.
This change in the way of working is not only about where we are working, but it is also about how we are working, and what channels and tools are we using to be efficient. From videoconferencing, to virtual whiteboarding to online chats, the pressure to stay productive has brought about large scale adoption of communication and collaboration applications.
Across industries, businesses are finding ways to continue serving customers without glitches, from mobile healthcare apps, online classes, digital supply chain management, banking chatbots, to voice commerce. For this to happen, the processes behind the scenes are also fast changing with enterprises relying on modern tools and approaches, from employee-facing technologies to cloud- based productivity tools.
With the sudden and abrupt move to remote working, we are having to reinvent entire workflows to ensure productivity. Teams are starting to emphasize the speed and efficiency of development workflow and what better way to do it than adopting the agile methodology.
An agile mindset offers the ability to understand how to work productively in different and evolving work environments. As the very first step, teams will have to break their silos and build bridges using innovative and connected technologies. They need to have “learning workers”, with diverse skill sets and an inclination to learn and be creative. In a broader sense, there also needs to be a shift in how organizations are perceived, as dynamic living organisms instead of machines, where the approach is organic and constantly evolving in response to the change in environment.
In spite of the uncertainties around us, an agile mindset can sometimes introduce a sense of cadence. With this cadence set, teams can establish their own rhythm, changes can be made faster and the desired working mode of ‘deconstructing to reconstruct' can be easily achieved. For remote development teams under increasing pressure to meet go-to-market targets and to release applications with speed, an agile mindset can be empowering to make quick decisions, respond faster, and ‘develop more with less’.
Once you have adopted the agile mindset, the next step is to understand the actual tools that can help you work remotely and stay productive.