For what it is worth, I decided not to begin by asking all the questions.
IMHO, knowing the questions to ask are just as important as the answers.
I first started with the premise that this maybe a means by which we all
will need to work...someday. I setup a group of people to experiment.
Whenever these people need to be home, we encouraged them to be at home
but do their work from there, logged into our net. It worked ok for a few
months, nothing exciting. Then one of our staff had a son who had to have
an operation. Things didn't go well and she needed to be at home for two
weeks, an unscheduled time away. We notified all the clients she was
handling that we were going to take the opportunity to have a long term
experiment with the "virtual office." Nothing we have ever sent out from
our company in twenty years has received the response as we got from that
notice. Our customers were eager to work with us and encouraged us along
that path.
By working for an extended period from home, we learned to re-think some
of our communication processes. Where tasks can not be completed by one
person but go through a 'work in process' sorta thing, communications
became far more critical as an umbrella over the task. Since the workers
were not physically close, this became a rather interesting challenge.
Subsequently, we have found several more opportunities to do the same
thing. Each time we do it, we learn more questions to ask. Those at home
have revelations about workflow. They are becoming more conscious about
the process.
With several experiments behind us, we are going to plan these events. I
do not intend much monitoring for control purposes. I try to provide the
staff with data concerning their productivity. I believe that I will not
change in that regard. If they can do in two hours what they do in eight
now, so what. Over time, we will size that right in the right way. I
encourage the experiment to learn, first. Then find the questions that
need solving. I surmise, most of the questions will whirl around the
communications issues.
-- Good luck Tom Burke Poway, California toburke@cts.com