Throughout this project, my team and I have had to deal with various impediments. From personal emergencies to technical issues we have had to duck and weave through a sea of troubles. For the most part, we have been able to navigate through these waves of misfortune while making substantial progress. However, we are currently tackling an impediment that not only affects a single person but the entire team and their ability to work. In this blog, I will be explaining what this is and how my team is working around it.
Recently to the writing of this blog, COVID – 19 has been declared a global pandemic by the world health organization. Governments and private organizations around the world have begun to take extreme measures to stop its continued spread. The organization that my team has been contracted by is no different. They have extended our one week break to two, and we are to work remotely for three weeks after that. Furthermore, the housing of many members has been affected, and many are now spread out across the country. Some are even trapped overseas due to flight restrictions. With the office shut down, many do not have access to the necessary hardware/software required to complete their work. That being said, we are in a rather unique position. My team operates autonomously from our contractor, only meeting with them once a week to report and receive feedback. As such, it is up to us to determine how we would like to handle this time. While we would be reporting to our contractor remotely, we would have the freedom to meet face to face if we wanted too. Also, it has been left up to our digression on how we wish to alter our meeting schedule. When these announcements were first made we immediately contacted our contractor. We spoke with them as too what this would mean for our current sprint and our deliverables we had promised them. They, fortunately, agreed to extend our sprint by a week and delayed any deliverables by that time as well. Also, we discussed getting personal licenses for developers. Up until this point, we had been using hardware and software from their workspace. Because of this, many of us would struggle with working remotely due to the lack of available software. Our contractor is currently in communication with the organization’s shareholders to see if that would be possible. My team has decided to also operate remotely during this time. This decision was made based on the logistical issues and a desire to stop the virus’s spread. While my team is fortunate enough to have no members infected, we still felt that forgoing in-person meetings is the safest way to protect each of us. We all want to do our part to prevent the disease’s spread. All of our normal meetings will occur through video chat, including our sprint planning. Our ultimate goal is to maintain our safety while providing an environment where quality work can still be done. On an individual level, I have made an effort to stay in constant communication with my team. Previously I had silenced my phone during the night and in situations where I did not want to be disturbed. However, during this time, I have been committed to leaving my phone on at all times and promptly responding to communication. Many details are still vague, and I want to do my part to provide accurate information quickly when asked for it. Also, I have been doing my best to provide a clean personal workspace for myself. During this time, I have gone back to living with family and am currently working out of my old bedroom. This area was not designed to do focused work in and as such it would have been difficult to work without change. I have been taking time before work begins to organize my space and prepare it for work. I know what allows me to work efficiently, and by doing this now, I can produce more efficient work. On a final note, while many of the measures have provided various impediments and logistical issues, I am still personally in favor of them. The health and safety of those in the workplace supersede any logistical concerns. It is now up to us as a team and individuals to navigate around these impediments to continue to ensure a safe and productive workspace. This is the cardinal duty of anyone on a team and always will be regardless of any issue.