“While I personally like Basecamp and feel it keeps us more organized, I know our programmers would like a more robust tool where they can do collaborative coding more easily. Any recommendations out there?”

We use Basecamp too. But for managing development use Trac – http://trac.edgewall.org/. Before the move to Basecamp we used eGroupware and Gforge.

Joe

We treat our staff in much the same way we treat our freelancers, giving them projects to complete with deadlines as appropriate. Our staff seem to produce more inspirational work, and the moral is always high, which we attribute to the freedom and trust bestowed upon them.

I’d like to think that the same would work for big companies, but I wonder if the trust element only works because of the close bonds that form between the workers in a small business.

Rex
7 Minutes with Rex Dixon (cyberears.com) – http://www.cyberears.com/index.php/Show/audio/157

Technically Speaking (blog) – http://rexdixon.wordpress.com

7 Minutes with Rex Dixon (clickcaster.com) – http://clickcaster.com/rex-dixon

Another thing that has proven to be a invaluable resource for our team (we are all remote as well) is leasing our own dedicated server for dev and staging purposes. This gives us a true customizable environment to work as we need.

Currently, we use email, IM, an internal feed of site processes so we can track events in real time, and Basecamp. We also try to do some face time once or twice a year. While I personally like Basecamp and feel it keeps us more organized, I know our programmers would like a more robust tool where they can do collaborative coding more easily. Any recommendations out there?

To communication we use (pretty much exclusively):

- telephone
- email
- the web (to show work in progress)

These tools are simple, tried, tested and true…and for a team of six, they manage the load effectively.

This is a very, very simple policy – but one that pays many dividends. Key to it is that it was true for anyone, not just for executives or “the boss” but any team member who had to travel. When I was in London training developers and new members of the team I was on, I could and did take some of them out for dinner one evening, the bonding over good food (i.e. using the expense account well) meant that later when I would IM about something we already had a rapport.

I’ve found that even as little as a single coffee together or even better a meal (best usually being lunches or dinners) helps cement bonds that can then persist and grow through emails, IM’s, conference calls and other collaboration tools – but that it is a very rare relationship – whether personal or business – that becomes a deep and in the case of business profitable one, without some face to face interaction at least once. (video conferences do help as do proxy relationships – i.e. not directly sharing a lunch/dinner but the existence of a third party with whom we both share strong bonds – family, past work together in person etc).

In the upcoming months I may have a set of consulting projects where I would be interfacing with US clients on behalf of teams geographically dispersed (mostly in this case in South America). I’m comfortable taking on this consulting engagement because I have a strong relationship with the founder of the company and trust him and the quality of his employees, as well I have had some in person interactions with his developers when they were here in the US. Not to mention that the fact that many of his developers have worked here on client projects gives me confidence that they will “get” US business and US market requirements.

But too I would be planning as soon as possible on a trip in person to meet with the teams, share meals, and get to know them at least once in person.

Shannon

While I’ve been itchy about full time work for a while, it was more the geographic constraints than it was commitment anxiety – I live abroad part of the year. That freaks many manager out, big time.

I am really psyched to see this model taking ground for full operations rather than only for contractors.