We’re many weeks into the COVID-19 crisis and, I don’t know about you, but things still feel chaotic to me. Part of it is trying to work from home while also homeschooling a 6-year old and 9-year old. Part of it is trying to keep up with all the recommendations and requirements from our public health officials. The big reason things feel chaotic to me, though, is all the uncertainty.

In recent weeks, the coronavirus pandemic has forced millions of people around the world to suddenly work from home. For many, remote work had been an occasional experience; for others, it was altogether unfamiliar. Now, working from home is the “new normal” for many of us, at least for the short-term. If you are new to remote working, it can feel challenging to adjust as you find a new rhythm for connecting with others and managing the workday.

Project management is continuously evolving – among the other things toward a more efficient team and client collaboration. Considering the importance of communication in managing a project – it makes perfect sense. If we start from a development point of view, the software can be quickly perfected to assist you as a powerful tool. But to achieve a high level of productivity, there must be a team that will utilize those tools.

Let’s face it: agile methodologies weren’t exactly created for remote teams. Early agile teams were overwhelmingly co-located in offices, mostly because video conferencing, chat, and other technology that makes remote work possible were laughably primitive and clunky at that time. These days, with so many people working remotely, gathering your team in the same room isn’t realistic. That doesn’t mean remote retrospectives are impossible, however.

Business owners like to focus on providing the best product or service for the clients. Keeping track of expense accounts, chasing invoices, and making sure the paperwork is all there come tax time is the last thing on their mind. Larger companies can usually afford to have a specialist on staff that can keep track of these financial processes, but that will be a luxury for most.

Is it week 6 or 8 of telework now? I can't keep up, and it's probably not worth counting anymore. By now, all agencies have a majority of their employees working remotely and adjusting to the new normal; and we, at Splunk, are as well. In a way — like our CIO, Steve McMahon, puts it — we did have an early start.

[This article was written in the wonderful age before coronavirus.] A week ago I spilled a full glass of water all over my computer. Horrified, I mopped up my laptop, turned it upside down, and let it dry in the sun. By some miracle, it still worked. But when morning came the next day, it was totally fried. As I waited for my IT manager to configure my new laptop, I turned to my phone to scroll emails and my work apps.

Mattermost shipped with Spanish in version 2.0 on February 16, 2016. The effort was largely completed by our first translations contributor, Elias Nahum. The very next month, Mattermost shipped with Brazilian Portuguese, soon followed by French, Japanese, and more. Today, Mattermost ships in 16 languages, and 26 other languages are in progress. In total, hundreds of contributors have translated more than 700,000 words. 700,000 words. Wow! I am amazed by what our localization community has achieved.