TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE REMOTE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT DURING GEOPOLITICAL INSTABILITIES

When the U.S. and the European Governments have just started predicting post-pandemic recovery, the Russian Federation initiated a new inflationary slump in the global economy. Weakened by the 2020-2021 Covid pandemic, EU and US companies were already losing money and used governmental support. However, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, their condition worsened.

Contents:

• How on Earth does Ukrainian IT continue to grow?
• Work from anywhere
• Top 5 challenges for remote IT work during geopolitical instabilities
• What are the workarounds?
• Recommendations for working remotely
• Is it safe to outsource to Ukraine in 2022?
• Keep safe – and calm

According to estimates from the European Investment Bank, loans are going to become more expensive and the risks of poverty in 2023 are going to be much higher than expected. The economic situation in Eastern Europe, particularly Ukraine, is obviously more devastating.

Image source: Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

 

There’s only one sphere of Ukrainian business that hasn’t reduced and even shows some growth – IT services export. This rise is possible thanks to the selfless work of Ukrainian outsourcing and outstaffing companies that continuously deliver projects, communicate, and generally function at the same pace as they used to.

How on Earth does Ukrainian IT continue to grow?

To understand how UA companies, outsourcing and product-oriented, cope with the tremendous challenges of 2022, let’s look at the inner workings of the adaptation process. We have compiled both general insights from the country’s IT sphere and the particular experience at MWDN – which is, in many ways, representative of the nationwide trends.

Work from anywhere

To begin with, a remote format is not a new thing for many developers both within and outside Ukraine. According to statistics captured long enough before the current emergency, as many as 86% of IT specialists work remotely. About ⅓ of these work full-time in this way. In some companies, entire R&D teams have been working remotely with members scattered around the globe.

In Ukraine, IT professionals comprised about 24% of the bulk of the population working remotely nationwide. 

In our case, about 10% of MWDN specialists were already working remotely in 2019, and the new experience of the pandemic stay-at-home mode of work has taught us how to maintain high productivity and efficiency even if we don’t come to the office. 

Top 5 challenges for remote IT work during geopolitical instabilities

What are the most challenging issues to face when you work in times and regions of high political instability? By obtaining this drastic experience ourselves, we can highlight five major challenges:

Relocation issues

Most employees, especially those with kids, will do everything possible to leave the disaster area. This will require maximum assistance from the company, starting from organizing safe evacuation from the affected zone, providing places for living and working, helping with the documents, and sending necessary hardware to the new place of living of key specialists.

Risk to people’s lives and the company’s assets

Not everyone can leave the affected area even if they have all the support from the employer. As well as not all office equipment and hardware can be promptly evacuated to safer places. People’s life and well-being are the most precious things, however, unfortunately, in times of danger and instability, they are under constant threat.

Always remind your employees to keep as safe as possible. But let them also understand that an employer has certain obligations to its clients, thus, the work has to be done whenever it is possible.

Lack of communication

After 2020-2021 remote work due to the pandemic, we don’t feel like live communication is that essential for efficient collaboration. However, keeping each other informed about current tasks is still crucial both for developers and managers. 

Missile strikes on civil infrastructure, though, can lead to blackouts and power shortages in many cities. Employees working from affected regions can use power stations (like Ecoflow), diesel power generators, high-voltage batteries for energy supply, and Starlinks for internet connection. However, obviously, constant discrepancies in centralized energy supply and connection, affect efficient communication and prompt solution of urgent tasks.

Hardware issues

You need to provide your employees with working tools. Monitor screens, CPUs, laptops, computer peripherals, etc. This might be a hard task in both situations – when your employee relocated to another country or when they stayed in the disaster area. 

Psychological issues and fast burnout

Both employees who moved to safer places and those who stayed in the most dangerous areas can face anxiety, panic attacks, depression, burnout, and other psychological problems. The most caring approach to this situation is to offer your employees compensation for therapeutic and psychological sessions and try to keep in touch with everyone.

What are the workarounds?

All of the above are extremely hard challenges for everyone – employees, IT companies, and their clients. However, Ukrainian businesses try to cope with them in different ways.

There are also other important instruments that help Ukrainian companies maintain the high efficiency of their remote workers. 

Common tools

These solutions (mostly cloud-based) include ones to register and measure performance, exchange data, and documents, as well as to provide quick communication. 

Communication:

• Microsoft Teams (part of Office 365, in a way like Skype, provides for scheduling online meetings with/without video, as well as file exchange)
• Slack (an immensely popular option these days)
• Zoom (reported to tackle bad Internet connections)
• Skype (of course)
• Gsuite / Google Hangouts

Time management, performance tracking:

• JIRA (also allows for file exchange and task assignment, as well as logging work)
• Wrike
• Trello (basically an online Kanban board)
• Time doctor

No one uses all of these at the same time, of course. We at MWDN, for example, use Slack for companywide communication, while separate teams and projects have their own sets of tools that suit their inner purposes.

Schedule

Although IT companies in Ukraine do have standard working hours (9 to 6, GMT+2 in our case), a flexible schedule has always been an industry-specific feature. Especially today, with possible blackouts throughout the day. 

Software development is tied to many factors, including time zones and dynamic changes, as well as closely collaborating with the customer. Adjusting the schedule for some (at specific conditions) is a totally valid practice that definitely has its benefits.

HR and management involvement

It is the responsibility of all managers, not just human resources, to take a minute and imagine what it may look like for other team members to work remotely, from a new city or even a new country. This implies altering the methods and tactics of organizing processes, as well as providing very clear communication that doesn’t disrupt work.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WORKING REMOTELY

How to be at the top of productivity while working in remote mode? There have been countless suggestions over the past years; here are some that we at MWDN have tested and found effective.

#1 Better documented code

Documenting the code is, strictly speaking, an essential practice, quarantine, blackouts, other disasters or not – and recommended by those with experience. Now is the time to use GitHub and JIRA, as well as other software development tools, to the 100% of their possibilities.

#2 Find the sphere where you can help the country and stay productive

It might be emotionally hard to work on some FinTech application when your country is at war, but we all should do what we can do best to support both our Army and our economy. Most MWDN employees are busy with some kind of volunteering activity. Some search, find, and send clothes, tools, and other equipment to Ukraine; others help weave camouflage nets; some people donate 10% and more of their income to support the Army.

We encourage our team members to do whatever they can to keep calm and emotionally healthy. As the company, we at MWDN do our best to support the Ukrainian economy and our employees.

#3 Communication should be as organized as possible

There might be a need to document the results of all the meetings, including syncs, retrospectives, and planning calls in text form so that all the employees who had no possibility to be present on the meeting could stay well-informed about the updates.

#4 Organize yourself in a simple and easy-to-follow way

Working from home can be efficient, but needs organization. It is important to observe the schedule, whatever it is (being available online is vital). Daily meetings and weekly reports become even more essential – both for tracking progress and staying on the same page with the rest of the team.

#5 Managers, extra foresight! Employees, predict your managers!

An easily overlooked point is that when a request is first handed, not enough information is transmitted. Maybe there’s something more to do than initially told, maybe a clarification will be required, or once a task is in progress, you will need some extra information to complete it. It is a good habit to ask yourself “Is this information enough? Will I have to ask/tell anything else about it?” If you can predict such things, go ahead and clarify at the very first moment. This will allow for reducing the amount of unnecessary messaging – and distractions.

#6 Hardware and information security

You may not notice what equipment you really need to work on until you’re working from another city. In terms of both efficiency and information security, the best course of action is for the company to organize that all the equipment should be safely transported to the home offices. Additional guidance/reminder about security is also a good idea.

#7 Set realistic KPIs

Setting goals, benchmarks, and KPIs is not only a manager’s job. In the remote work situation, defining what a productive day/hour means for yourself is a good idea. Not just because this will help increase your efficiency, but also because it is more satisfying. A very common mistake is to stay in a suspended state all day long – neither working nor relaxing and without any feeling you’ve done anything right at the end. Solving this is very simple – set benchmarks for yourself!

Managers should be very careful about this, too – but in a different sense, since unrealistic goals will only produce more stress and lower quality.

#8 Extra rules? Make them as clear as possible

Almost inevitably, dramatic changes in work produce new rules. It is easy to scoff at the regulations – especially if they seem over the top, like having to turn on the webcam at all meetings or report your progress every day at certain hours. What is necessary here is clarity. Why is that? Under what circumstances does this or that rule hold? This should be talked over to preserve trust within the team.

IS IT SAFE TO OUTSOURCE TO UKRAINE IN 2022?

Ukraine is a recognized IT outsourcing destination and even in 2022 has a large pool of software development talents. According to official data, the country exported IT services worth $5.5 billion over the past nine months – there is even a rise compared to the same period of the previous year.

Image source: OpenDataBot.ua 

 

Naturally, no one wants to risk this success – and Ukrainian software providers are among the enterprises that do the most to ensure the safety of their employees and maintain their high performance at the same time.

We can’t ignore the facts – in the current situation, achieving these goals is harder than ever. 

Here is what MWDN does to stay an efficient partner for our clients:

• We help our employees with relocation to safer places.
• We’re about to open new offices in Warsaw and Budapest.
• We focus on hiring developers from Europe, Israel, and other parts of the English-speaking world.
• For our employees who have stayed in Ukraine, we book places in coworking spaces that are fitted with power generators and Starlinks.

Image: MWDN coworking space in Kyiv

KEEP SAFE – AND CALM

What can each of us do in the current situation? Panic is definitely the least helpful option. Besides staying safe, the most reasonable thing is to keep doing what we are best at.

Coding. Creating software that makes people’s lives better – and is becoming even more important. Self-educating and trying new technologies. Being proactive and overcoming challenges.