Outstaffing blog

How to manage IT teams on remote efficiently: Front End & Back End teams, QA and DevOps

Regardless of whether you are the manager of the company or its founder, it is in everyone's best interest that the newly hired team of developers is effectively managed.

After all, management, as well as quality hiring, is the key to the success of the project. Hiring proven and qualified IT specialists is the task of the recruiting team, in the case of using outstaffing services, it is a matter of a couple of days. Management of IT specialists is a long-term work on oneself and on the team.

Management becomes extremely important when your team works remotely, and you don’t have an option to control everyone from an office. Remote IT workers may seem harder to control, but in reality, the online ecosystem provides us with many tools, which make remote management easier and it is offline.

Today we will consider effective management tips for the main IT specializations: front end teams, back end teams, QAs, DevOps, and full stack specialists.

Front end teams on remote

Don’t be afraid to use additional tools for working communication


Using the right tools can do wonders when working with a remote front end team. Instruments like Trello, Slack, and Zoom add value and virtually structure workflows. Here we review some of them:

Trello


The easiest and free project management software to operate remote teams. Trello allows you to create different boards for various projects and manage your team’s tasks using lists and cards. You can also comment on others boards, assign cards, which work as task information, to team members, and collaborate through those instruments. 



GitHub


One of the best tools on the market to introduce to your front end development team. The best part is, they might already be familiar with it!

GitHub is used by more than 50 million developers worldwide. This free code hosting platform is great for collaboration and version control with your team. GitHub allows you to host application code and manage your projects all within one platform.



Anherce Standards

It is crucial to have an agreed structure for the API endpoint. A constantly changing API is a nightmare for the front-end team. It is also important to ensure that the API is correct. The deeper the front-end team needs to navigate through the API, the more bugs and errors they get.

Hopefully the client has already defined standards for their endpoints. As with code, it's important that the endpoints are easily transferable to the client. This means they should look and feel like any other endpoint to the client. If the client does not follow a particular standard, it may be useful to follow a default standard such as JSON API or JSend.

Back-end teams


Similarly to the front-end developers, finding an experienced back-end developer, whether he needs to be a python backend coder or a javascript user, is no problem when hiring through an outstaffing company.

Our company for example has a great database of specialists with all the needed skills to perform perfectly while working on the back-end project as python backend developers or C3 developers. Managing them is still your responsibility. Let’s dive into the strategies: 

Do not micromanage


Many managers find it difficult to shirk their responsibilities, especially if they themselves come from a programming background. Instead of focusing on communicating the issues and goals of the project, they find solutions to those problems and provide implementation details so that all that's left for the developer to do is write the code they're told. This isn’t a good strategy in managing remote workers.

After all, solving problems is what programmers have been doing for years, so it makes no sense to take that out of the equation and turn programmers into robots!




Dev team’s core responsibility is to find a creative solution to the issue, no matter whether they specialize in android dev, C# development, Python back-end, or IOS development.

Request testing


Backend code is very easy to test. There’s no visual component, so tests can only focus on functionality. Testing should serve as a health check for the project and a living document of its usability. Other developers should be able to move quickly through tests and understand the purpose of a particular task.

Scope of testing


There are many tools to cover testing. Be sure to use one tool which will provide the client an understanding of what’s been built and allows engineers to update testing. Remember to use software consulting where needed, as all this material will be used by mobile development teams to create working software.

QA team management 


Frequently evaluate your outstaffed team




If you hire a remote QA service, you should evaluate their performance at least once a month to make sure their work is done properly and you get your money's worth. Investigate inefficient processes or unnecessary actions that increase costs and make adjustments on both sides if necessary. 

QA team performance indicators


There are many performance measurement techniques you can use to analyze your QA team. However, quality indicators can be misleading or not reflect the whole picture, so it's important to look at the numbers subjectively. While this list is not perfect, the metrics below can give you a general idea of ​​your team's performance level.

  • Number of bugs found per release;
  • Number of bugs found in staging vs. production;
  • The severity of bugs found in production;
  • Number of bugs sent back for clarification.

What about the DevOps team? 


1. Invest in the right tools


Most DevOps teams are working full-or part-time remotely. Working remotely requires careful execution and specialized techniques compared to co-located teams. Get in use of tech tools, such as G-Suite, Google Jamboards, Slack, and virtual whiteboards – all of these instruments make workflow more productive and pleasant. 



2.  Excessive communication





When working and managing a remote team, you will face a lack of face-to-face communication. Adequate communication will help avoid misunderstanding and ensure the needed level of communication. This is especially important when working with software testers, engineer DevOps, and dev team overall.

Conclusion


A significant part of the successful  management depends on correctly hired developers. Our company allows you to hire verified IT specialists quickly thanks to an extensive database of developers in search of work, and a professional team of recruiters who will find the necessary person within 48 hours.

One of the advantages of managing outstaffing workers is that an ineffective person can be immediately replaced, and the team can be reduced or expanded according to existing needs.

Book a DEMO and hire needed specialists within a few days!