Reimagining Agile for Distributed and Remote Teams Distributed work is now inevitable, but conventional agile approaches are too "synchronous" for today's remote teams. Meetings, ceremonies, and rituals can become unsustainable when teams are scattered across the globe. The result: burnout, constant interruptions, a lack of deep work, poor work-life balance, greater frustration, and workplaces with poor diversity. In The Async-First Playbook, Thoughtworks Principal Product Manager Sumeet Gayathri Moghe provides tools and techniques to embed remote-native, asynchronous practices into traditional agile methods, making remote work more efficient, inclusive, thoughtful, and fun. Drawing on extensive experience leading distributed teams, Moghe addresses the "nuts and bolts" of specific practices and the crucial "softer" elements such as culture, mindset, and leadership. Short, practical chapters show how to adapt traditional agile techniques such as sprints and pair programming for the realities of today's distributed environments. Whatever your project, you'll learn how to create asynchronous environments that promote success, improve the workplace experience, and deliver better results. Discover why asynchronous collaboration is crucial to your project's success Learn the tools, skills, and protocols you need to get right in order to go "async-first" Map current agile techniques to async-first versions that better reflect today's realities Become a more supportive and effective leader of async-first teams Anticipate, navigate, and mitigate the pitfalls of async-first distributed work Bring it all together--walk through your async-first transition Access valuable resources, examples, and hands-on templates at the companion website "This playbook will empower you to lead and build differently. All that you need is an open mind and a belief that the status quo isn't worthy of defining the future." --From the Foreword by Darren Murph Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Martin Fowler xxi Foreword by Darren Murph xxiii Preface xxv Acknowledgments xxix About the Author xxxiii Part I: Adapting to the New Normal 1 Chapter 1: There's Got to Be a Better Way to Work 3 Work Deserves a New Look 5 A Better Work Environment for All of Us 11 Chapter 2: Foster a Mindset for Change 13 Four Simple Ideas 13 Go Far, Go Together 19 Ready for the First Steps 19 Part II: Prepare to Go Async-First 21 Chapter 3: The Tools You Need 23 With Tools, Less Is More 23 Tools Are Everything; Tools Are Nothing 27 Chapter 4: The Biggest Async-First Superpower 29 Writing Is a Practice; Documentation a Product 30 To Work Async-First, We Must Write 41 Chapter 5: Three More Async-First Superpowers 43 What an Async-First Superhero Looks Like 43 Personal Productivity Leads to Team Productivity 47 Chapter 6: Calm Things Down with Collaboration Protocols 49 Work Execution vs. Workflow 49 Fundamentals, Fundamentals, Fundamentals 56 Part III: The Practitioner's Guide 57 Chapter 7: Meetings as the Last Resort 59 Just. Too Many. Meetings. 59 Async-First, with Small Shifts 66 Chapter 8: The Value of Being Face to Face 69 From URL to IRL 69 So Much for Meetings 75 Chapter 9: Micro-Moves to Shift Left 77 Small Shifts, Easy Wins 77 Build Async-First Behavioral Cues 85 Chapter 10: Write a Team Handbook 87 Distributed Teams Need a Single Source of Truth 87 Aim for a Shared Reality 95 Chapter 11: Tame the "Instant" in Instant Messaging 97 Make Messaging Productive 97 Messaging: Just Not Instant 105 Chapter 12: Standup Meetings: An Easy Shift Left 107 Distributed Standups Can Be Painful 108 Standups = Conveyance/Strong Relationships 116 Chapter 13: Take Charge of Your Development Cycles 117 Sprint Ceremonies Can Hinder Async Work 117 The Key to Asynchrony Is a Strong Process 125 Chapter 14: Run Meaningful Retrospectives 127 Infrequent Retros Lead to Poor Team Health 127 Scrum for the 2020s 135 Chapter 15: Kickoffs and Desk Checks: Reduce Ritualized Interruptions 137 How to Maintain Quality with Fewer Meetings? 138 Make Your Feedback Loops "Remote Native" 145 Chapter 16: Questions to Reimagine Your Tech Huddles 147 The What and the Why 148 Not a Zero-Sum Game 153 Chapter 17: Pair Programming: The Elephant in the Room 155 A Polarizing Topic 155 If It's Fun for You, Pair by All Means 161 Chapter 18: Audit Trails from the Flow of Your Work 163 The "Just Ask" Pattern Breaks Down 163 Trails as the Most Frequent Form of Documentation 171 Chapter 19: Communicate Tech and Functional Design 173 An Agile Approach to Design 173 Simplify Communication Complexity 178 Chapter 20: Two Stable Pieces of Handbook Documentation 181 Being Agile About Documentation 181 Good Documents Reduce Guesswork 186 Chapter 21: Craft an Efficient Onboarding Process 189 Write Once, Run Many Times 189 Onboarding Efficiency = Team Efficiency 195 Part IV: Async-First Leadership 197 Chapter 22: The Async Leadership Mindset 199 The Tyranny of "The Way" 199 Make Time for the Essential Stuff 206 Chapter 23: Manage Your People with Care 209 Corrections in the Right Direction 209 Be the Bridge Between Your Team and Your Company's Culture 216 Chapter 24: Set Up Your Team for Success 217 Design for Success 217 Your Virtual Workplace Needs Configuring 227 Chapter 25: Farm Tacit Knowledge in Your Company 229 Beyond Handbooks: Into Communities 229 From Team Knowledge to Company Knowledge 238 Part V: Navigate the Pitfalls 241 Chapter 26: The Great Hybrid Kerfuffle 243 People's Preferences Are Heading Remote 243 Choice and Autonomy Are the Key Words 253 Chapter 27: The Async Island 255 Unpacking Organizational Inertia 255 While Being a Guerilla, Don't Forget Advocacy 265 Chapter 28: Toxicity in the Virtual Workplace 267 Toxicity Builds: One Benign Step at a Time 267 As a Leader, Stay Vigilant 271 Part VI: Bring It All Together 273 Chapter 29: The Async-First Starter Kit 275 Five Stages of Sensible Defaults 275 A Team Shift, Owned by the Team 285 Chapter 30: A Brave New World of Work 287 Another World of Work Is Possible 289 It's Time to Sign Off 295 Endnotes 297 Index 321