在我和Alex决定创建Quarter Spiral之前，我们两个人都投入了许多时间于BioWare作为制作人领导着各自的团队。在旧金山的工作室中，他领导了一个平台技术团队而我领导者游戏团队。尽管我们都有作为设计师的创造性背景（他是负责图像而我负责游戏），但是我们都希望学着去享受这个过程。作为一名团队领导者，我放下了游戏设计文件并将过程作为我达到质量与控制的工具。

所以当我和Alex在第一天开始讨论我们的产品愿景时，我们打开了Pivotal Tracker（游戏邦注：一款简单的项目管理工具）并在待办事项列表中写下了一些故事。在Quarter Spiral的第一个工作日，3名联合创始人为了达成计划使用Skype进行交谈。在第二天结束前，我和Alex已经举行了一次广告会议去回顾我们所拼凑在一起的过程，并开始修改某些不满意的内容。

skype(from xue51)

从一开始Quarter Spiral便成为了一支虚拟团队。因为虚拟是保持较低烧钱率，并确保我们能在跨越加利福尼亚西海岸与德国北端如此远的距离时能够凝聚在一起而有效地工作。同样地，完全专注于过程对于确保我们的团队始终了解我们所创造的作品来说非常关键。基于这种方式，我们得出了一些保持我们的虚拟团队足够强大的技巧。

面向所有人的scrum

我们喜欢scrum。这是传递产品，保持软件开发的敏捷度，并对团队成员负责的一种有效方法。但它主要用于编程环境中。在我们的团队里，我们在用户故事（驱动业务价值）的框架中明确了所有人的每周目标。尽管我做的许多工作可以被描写为业务开发，策略或用户开发，但所有的这些都可以被当成用户故事。例如，我通过写这篇文章便能够挣得1个点数。

通过浏览scrum环境中的所有故事，团队中的每名成员都能够遵守纪律并对游戏的交付负责。我不能只是花很长时间与具有可能性，但却没有交付价值的领导者开会。我必须每天参与软件开发过程，而我们的Rails开发者则必须参与业务开发过程。

使用hangout

最初我们会使用Skype坚持每日的站立式会议。但在听到来自瑞典ngmoco的Senta Jakobsen在欧洲GDC上的谈话后，我们立即转向使用谷歌Hangouts进行视频会谈。

群音频就像是电话会议一样。这是一种非正式的做法。总是很容易出现某个人突然离开的情况。并且会让你的团队觉得未融入其中。而做出较小的改变，即使用视频交谈则会创造出完全不同的效果，就像是停留在艺电中的软件团队以及初创企业联合创始人的交流之间的感觉。

冲突解决

冲突总是会发生。这是不可避免的情况。当它们发生时，将会对任何办公室环境造成威胁—-特别是对于虚拟团队来说（因为只能通过即时通讯或电子邮件进行处理）。所以语调和神韵什么的便不再重要。比起基于当前的心理状态的理解，这种方式很容易造成误解。

解决冲突的最快速且最有效的方法便是直接与其他人对话，最理想的情况便是能够看到对方。如果你不同意某些人，使用Hangout与对方进行交谈，而不是只是通过Hipchat。

专注于价值

scrum的核心原则便是你的活动应该专注于检验业务价值。这在没有薪水也没有收益的初创企业早期阶段非常重要。每个团队成员都应该基于业务价值去做出正确的决定。技术债务和重构如果不是特别重要的话可以往后推迟。不一定需要为了服务去编写设计规格。

我们很容易因为懒惰而删掉scrum过程中的某些部分。而你的团队不能略过的一部分便是在每次sprint的最后去证实价值。每个团队成员需要对在每一周交付可行的结果负起责任。

回顾你的过程

回顾产品很容易，因为产品并不是一个人。每周着眼于产品并指出哪些内容可行而哪些不可行也很容易。

但是要想回顾一个过程却非常困难，因为你真正需要回顾的是人们及其他们的行为。如果你并未拥有一个强大的信任基础或者你所面对的是那种会回避冲突的人，你便很难告诉其他团队成员他们未能符合你的期望或他们致力于错误的任务中。

除了每周呈现价值外，我们还进行了sprint回顾。有时候这真的很短，就像“任何人在上周遇到哪些问题？没有？真的没有？非常好，让我们计划下一次的sprint。但有时候我们会相应地提出问题并修改我们的过程。

最好的一种方法便是主动承认。如果你知道自己并未真正交付上一次的sprint，那么你最好在回顾中主动承认，而不是期待着别人不会注意到。

了解烧钱率

我们总是很难去讨论钱财问题，特别是在一支较小的虚拟团队中。关于钱的问题总是被当成是较为私密的问题，特别是当出现“商人”和“制作人”的划分时。隐藏关于钱的重要信息将造成灾难性的的影响，特别是只在濒临破产时才将其提出。

在联合创始人组成的团队中，你们应该每个月开会去讨论钱的问题。至少每个成员应该了解你们的烧钱率（即每个月花了多少钱）以及溢出率（即基于预期烧钱率还剩多少时间会用完所有钱）。

将钱问题透明化将能够阻止灾难性问题的出现。例如，如果团队清楚自己拥有3个月的时间便会用光所有钱，他们便能够更好地讨论如何削减薪资，削减承包商，或者利用个人自由职业。团队成员可能会为了共享利益而提出牺牲个人的建议。

对于团队的财政责任保持开放且诚实的态度真的很关键。任何团队成员都不该去怀疑自己在下个月是不是还能拥有一份稳定的工作。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

6 process tips for virtual teams

Before Alex and I decided to start Quarter Spiral, we both spent a significant amount of time as Producers leading teams at BioWare. In the San Francisco studio, he led the platform technology team and I ran the game team. Although we both have creative backgrounds as designers (he graphics, me games) we both learned to love process. As a team leader, I put down the game design document and picked up the process as my tool of quality and control.

So the very first day Alex and I met to discuss our product vision, we opened up Pivotal Tracker and wrote stories in a backlog. The first full time day for Quarter Spiral, the three co-founders met on Skype for sprint planning. Before the second day was over, Alex and I had already held an ad hoc meeting to review the process we cobbled together; dissatisfied with some kludginess we began to make changes.

Quarter Spiral has been a virtual team from day one. Being virtual is key to keeping our burn rate low and working cohesively while spanning from the west coast of California to the northern tip of Germany. As such, a strong focus on process has been key to keeping our team humming as we build product. Along the way, we’ve picked up some tips and tricks that keep our virtual team strong.

Scrum for everyone

We love scrum. It is an effective way to ship product, keep software development agile and hold team members accountable. But it is largely used in the context of programming. On our team we capture everyone’s weekly goals in the framework of user stories that drive business value. Although much of the work I do could best be described as business development, strategy or customer development, all of it is captured as user stories. For instance, I am earning 1 point by writing this post.

By viewing all stories within the context of scrum, each member of the team is involved in work outside of his discipline and held accountable for delivery. I can’t just take long coffee meetings with possible leads without delivering value. I am involved daily in the software development process just as our Rails developer is involved in the business development process.

Love the hangout

Initially, we did our daily stand ups as pure audio calls using Skype. After attending an outstanding talk from ngmoco Sweden’s Senta Jakobsen at GDC Europe, we immediately switched to doing video calls using Google Hangouts.

Group audio feel like conference calls. It’s informal. It’s easy to check out. It’s easy to feel disconnected from your team. A small change, but using video chat was the difference between feeling like another software team at EA and feeling like a scrappy band of startup co-founders.

Conflict resolution

Conflicts will happen. It is inevitable. When they do, a danger in any office environment – particularly a virtual one – is to address them over im or email. Tone of voice and nuance are gone. Instead the reader interprets based on his current mental state and can easily misread statements dramatically.

The quickest, cleanest way to resolve a conflict is to speak with the other person, and ideally to see them. If you disagree with someone, dial them up on Hangouts instead of DMing them on Hipchat.

Focus on value

A core tenet of scrum is that your activities should be focused on proving business value. This is especially critical in an early stage startup with no paychecks and no revenue. Each team member should be focused on making the right decisions based on the business value he can prove to his team. Technical debt and refactors can wait if they are not truly critical. Design specs don’t have to be written up for services that can’t be worked on for weeks or months.

It is easy to cut out parts of the scrum process either on purpose or through laziness. The part that your team cannot afford to skip is the demonstration of value at the end of each sprint. Each team member needs to be held accountable for delivering tangible results each precious week of your virtual team’s life.

Review your process

It is easy to review a product, because a product is not a person. It is easy to look at a product each week and point out what is and is not good enough.

It is harder to review a process, because what you are truly reviewing are people and their behaviors. If you do not have a strong foundation of trust or are the type of person who shies away from conflict, it can be hard to tell your only other team member that they are falling short of your expectations or they are working on the wrong tasks.

In addition to a show of value each week, we do a sprint retrospective. Sometimes these are incredibly short “Anyone have any issues from last week? No? No? Good, let’s plan our next sprint.” But sometimes we bring up issues and modify our process accordingly.

One of the best things to do is call yourself out. If you know you didn’t quite deliver last sprint, it makes a strong statement to call yourself out in a review instead of hoping that no one noticed.

Know your burn

It can be hard to talk about money matters, especially on a small, virtual team. Issues around money are typically viewed as private, especially if there are domain splits between “business guy” and a “product guy” or similar. Keeping critical information around money hidden can be disastrous, especially if money matters only come up on the brink of bankruptcy.

Among a team of co-founders, you should meet monthly to discuss money. At minimum, each member should know your burn rate (money spent each month) and runway (months solvent at anticipated burn rate).

Being transparent about money matters can help prevent disaster. For instance, if it is clear to the team that you have 3 months of runway left, it is more natural to discuss cutting salary (if you are taking any) cutting contractors (if you are paying any) or taking individual freelance work (if it is an option). Team members may suggest personal sacrifices for the sake of the shared good.

Openness and honesty around a virtual team’s financial responsibilities is key. No team member should have to guess whether or not they will have a job next month.(source:famousaspect)