Remote teamwork anecdotes (was: Where can we find top-notch python developers?)

[Dan Sommers]

On Tue, 21 Mar 2006 00:08:02 GMT,
claird at lairds.us (Cameron Laird) wrote:

> Briefly, remote collaboration works for me.  I work on
> customer premises part of the year, and, while there are
> multipliers, my estimate is that they're far closer to
> one than four.  Sometimes they're less than one--I get
> rather impatient with a lot of small talk, and locating
> the approved meeting room, and waiting for approved
> equipment, and ...

> I like working with others, and sometimes indeed it's a
> huge gain.  Sometimes it's just noise.

"We" (myself and at least one former coworker at a huge,
multi-national, telecom company) noted that most software
developers need both:

Design meetings and similar almost have to be face to face.
I can't draw and explain something on a white board *and*
watch your reactions to it and to me over a telephone[1].
We also experienced failure modes during testing for which
logs and bug reports and whatnot just aren't sufficient,
but being in the same room as the person carrying out the
test and pointing things out as the test fails can identify
what's going on in seconds.

OTOH, once the design is set, leave me alone and let me
simulate it or code it, and maybe even get it past the first
round of testing and tweaking/fixing.  The last thing I want
now is someone micro-managing and/or interrupting my every
rinse, lather, repeat cycle.

Regards,
Dan

[1]  Last time I had the opportunity, which was back in 2001
or so, video conferences and "smart boards" didn't function
as advertised.  Color me skeptical.

-- 
Dan Sommers
<http://www.tombstonezero.net/dan/>
"I wish people would die in alphabetical order." -- My wife, the genealogist