I’ve heard this question before from other Project Managers. They can’t imagine being able to stay on top of everything if they are not in the same room (let alone the same country) as their team.

I’ve had the opportunity to work for many different styles of companies – traditional, brick-and-mortar companies where everyone comes into the office, companies where some people are distributed, and companies where everyone is distributed.

Some people are distributed:

I have worked for a few companies where some people are distributed – at one company, we had a remote QA team; at another company, I was the only remote employee.

The first situation worked quite well, where most of my team was under the same roof, and we only outsourced testing. We were able to get afresh set of eyes on all of our work, and maintained communication via chat tools.

The second situation didn’t work very well; I was the only person in Canada when all the other employees were in the US (I was in the same city as my clients). I had a really hard time communicating with my team, and I had a really hard time attending meetings as they were not set up with the proper audio-visual equipment needed to include someone remote into meetings. I wouldn’t recommend attempting to be a project manager of a team where everyone but you is in a room together; it feels very isolating and takes the control away from the PM.

I imagine this could work in some situations when the entire team is very committed to including those who are distributed and maintaining a team environment despite the distance.

Everyone is distributed:

I have been working for fully distributed companies for about 2 years now; one really small company where it was only me, clients, 1-2 engineers, and the president; another, where there are about 150 employees working on enterprise-size clients. I have to say, I have really loved working for fully-distributed companies.

Everyone needs to be more accountable for their work, since no one is looking over their shoulder; people are required to communicate more, and are expected to step up. There are very few weak links in remote work, as they will fall through the cracks.

Being 1 minute late to a meeting is considered late! When I worked in a 3-floor office, meetings would run long, people would have to walkup 2 floors, and would show up 15 minutes late to a 30 minute meeting. At remote work, people pop into and out of meetings so quickly that if you are going to be 1-2 minutes late for a meeting, they send a message to let you know.

We all know that as a PM our #1 job is communicating; well, working for a fully-distributed company, it can sometimes feel like communication is our ONLY job. It was an adjustment coming to a large company and feeling like I spent 90% of my time communicating about decisions rather than making them. Over time, you adjust your techniques and adapt to the situation, so you know when is the proper time to communicate / document, vs.just proceeding with the decision and moving on to the next step.

Fully distributed project management definitely isn’t for everyone, but I’ve absolutely loved it.