Working remotely meaning software#

But GitLab is quite unique in the for-profit sector in how extensively it relies on this third path not only for its coding but for how the organization itself functions.

Working remotely meaning software#

Software development organizations often opt for this solution and tend to rely extensively on shared repositories and document authoring tools, with systems for coordinating contributions (e.g., continuous integration and version control tools). It can occur either synchronously (where, for instance, two people might work on the same Google doc during the same time period), or asynchronously (when people make clear hand-offs of the document, and do not work on it when the other is). Our earlier research on offshoring of software development showed that drawing on tacit coordination mechanisms, such as a shared understanding of work norms and context, allows for coordination without direct communication.Ĭoordination in this case happens through the observation of the action of other employees and being able to predict what they will do and need based on shared norms. Yet this approach of “seeing the face” is the one that people seem to default to when forced to work remotely, as our survey of remote working practices in the immediate aftermath of lockdowns around the world has revealed.

The time lag in the interaction between two or more individuals is almost zero when they are co-located, and, although the content of the conversation may be the same in both face-to-face and in virtual environments, the technology may not be fully able to convey soft social and background contextual cues - how easy is it to sense other people’s reactions in a group zoom meeting?Īll this implies that simply attempting to replicate online (through video or voice chat) what happened naturally in co-located settings is unlikely to be a winning or complete strategy. But this approach has its limits in development and innovation related activities, where the interdependencies between components of work are not always easy to see ahead of time.įor this kind of complex work, co-location with ongoing communication is often a better approach because it offers two virtues: synchronicity and media richness. This is why distributed work can be so effective for call centers and in patents evaluation. The most natural way to distribute work across locations is to make it modular and independent, so that there is little need for direct coordination - workers can be effectively without knowing how their colleagues are progressing. That sounds good, but a workforce staggered in both time and space presents unique coordination challenges with wide-ranging organizational implications. The idea is that because it’s always “9 to 5” somewhere on the planet, work can continue around the clock, increasing aggregate productivity. The “git” way of working uses tools that let employees work on ongoing projects wherever they are in the world and at their preferred time. The challenge for GitLabįrom its foundation in 2014, GitLab has maintained an all-remote staff that now comprises more than 1,300 employees spread across over 65 countries. Since before the pandemic we’ve been studying the remote work practices of the tech company GitLab to explore what it might look like if companies to break their employees’ chronological chains as well as their ties to the physical workplace. So how effective really is working from home if everyone is still working to the clock? Is it possible to ditch the clock? The message is that working from home is fine and can even be very efficient - as long as people join video calls along with everyone else all through the day.īut employees often struggle with the “workday” when working from home, because many have to deal with the competing requests coming from their family, also housebound. As if to compensate for this distancing and keep the workplace alive in a virtual sense, employers have also encouraged people to stick closely to the conventional workday. The Covid-19 crisis has distanced people from the workplace, and employers have generally, if sometimes reluctantly, accepted that people can work effectively from home.