I'm all about doing things on the cheap; quickly and efficiently. There are many complex and online tools and services out there that provide great (and expensive) platforms for collaboration. Sometimes, things can be simpler and just as effective.
In order to communicate effectively, you're going to need the proper kit, but what does that mean? This post hopes to point you in the right direction. What tools you'll need and how you might use them to better advantage, all based on real-world experience. It might make you smile too.
Jira
Yes, there are alternatives, but Atlassian's workhorse has become the industry standard for large scale development. Sorry, Rally, but you really never made it. Jira's (fairly) predictable nature means that there's probably a way to do it (for any definition of "it") either already as part of the tool or as a plug in. Learn the features; thank me later. Cloud licencing is more expensive, but less of a headache than the local version.
Chat
Sure, you can use email but that's so last decade. Share your thoughts in a public workspace and never have to remember that attachment again! Public chat tools can be a little scary at first, as your views are suddenly known to everyone with the right permissions, so keep it professional and make sure you use a tool that allows secure 1:1 chats as well as group think. Teams isn't bad; Slack is better.
Videoconferencing
A Microsoft study from 2010 found that there are orders of magnitude difference of effective communication in paper vs email vs chat vs audio conference vs video conference, so get in front of that camera and shine! Sure, audio conferences are more hangover-friendly, but you can't see the expression of the person speaking (or those behind them) without video, so you lose a lot of information about things such as whether they mean what they're saying, whether they're really interested or whether the expensive "get everyone in a room" meeting is really cost effective. Skype works; Teams works; Zoom is better.
Audio conferencing
"But how am I supposed to video conference and screen-share with our bandwidth?!" I hear you cry. Pay for more bandwidth, but in the meantime get on a call. Tools such as Teams are good for talking over a shared app or desktop. Enjoy your conference call bingo session as you're not sure whether the other side can hear you or not though. Did I mention video conferencing? You can see if they're having trouble or not, immediately. Just sayin'
Screen sharing and collaborative editing
Effective remote / global working relies on common understanding of content. Using collaboration tools that let you see and edit that content as a group from a number of locations simultaneously is marvellous (until that idiot in the other office edits your document using spaces instead of tabs again - hate that guy!). Don't be afraid to hand over ownership of a document to allow a reviewer to show you exactly which part they'd like to change. A stream of "this bit?" "no, before that" "this bit then?" "no after that" is always fun, but document-battleships wears thin after a while.
Meeting rooms
Why does no one ever design a building with enough meeting rooms? Is there some secret cabal of office space renting companies controlling our working lives? Conducting meetings in an open plan office is always sub-optimal. Get a room, people!
Put stuff on the wall. More importantly, take stuff off the wall once you're done. Decorating is not your strength. Use vertical space elaborately during meetings, then photograph it and take it off the wall. Save the photos centrally so that everyone can access them. If you don't have the luxury of long-term meeting room use, stick sheets of cheap plain recyclable wallpaper up first then stick stuff to / write on the paper. If you need to change rooms, simply remove the wallpaper and carry it to the next room.
White boards
If you can, use whiteboards on wheels so that they can be moved from the office space into meeting rooms and back again. I recommend one reasonably large, double-sided whiteboard per team. Label each whiteboard with the team name so that they remain with the team. In an open-plan office with limited meeting room space these are a godsend. No one is allowed to write "do not remove" or "please leave" on any whiteboard - take a photo and spend two minutes redrawing / rewriting the content at the start of the next meeting in which you need it. You'll find that having to lay the content out again actually helps your thought process.
Wall space
If you have walls or windows, use them. Let each team set an archive policy before anything goes up though. Wall space fills up fast and "just in case we need it again" does not pay for the lack of creative opportunity. One tip: don't put company-sensitive stuff up on an external window.
Pens
In this digital age, always make sure that you have something to write with.
Whiteboard pens are like socks - blink and they're gone. The one that's left is the one with the damaged nib or that has run dry. Throw it out if you can't use it and save yourself the disappointment later.
Larger nibs make the writing more visible from a distance (like, say the other side of the room), so don't be afraid to use felt tips.
Post-Its
Post-Its (real ones, not the cheap variety that dry up and fall off overnight) are essentials of modern business life if for no other reason than to edit that process modelling mistake you made yesterday.
Forgot a step in your process model? Shuffle stuff along. Want a decision box? Turn a square Post-It through 45 degrees and you get a diamond. 5cm square stickies work well to limit the content you can put on them. Use colours to mean things and you add an extra dimension to your annotation.
One extra tip: when using Post-Its, always take a photo of your wall before going home. I once returned to the office the next day to find that since some had fallen off the wall, the cleaner had neatly stacked the entire wall contents and left them on the meeting room table.
Wiki
You're going to need somewhere to store all those photos, sketches and other documents you've produced, even in "document-light" Agile. Make sure it's accessible and searchable.
If you're using Jira, consider Confluence as they link reasonably well together, but other collaboration tools you have might work just as well.
