JT Smith

VM Brasseur will give a talk at YAPC::NA 2012 described as:

Hiring remote workers is great for filling those holes on the team…but if you don’t have the correct infrastructure in place you’re just setting yourself—and your remote team members—up for a world of hurt. This session will detail how our engineering department went remote and thrived because of it.

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A lot of engineering teams are considering going remote now. And why not? There are excellent people everywhere. Why limit yourself only to those who can come into the office?

Because you may not be able to support those remote workers, that’s why.

There’s a lot more to having a remote team than just hiring someone then flying him/her in to visit the mother ship a couple times a year. Without the correct infrastructure and processes in place, remote hiring will turn into an exercise in frustration for you (at the home office) and set the remote worker up for failure.

During this session we’ll discuss some of the preparations you should make before bringing remote staff on board. This will include:

* Communication channels

* Development methodologies and processes

* DOCUMENTATION

[From the YAPC::NA Blog.]