I work for a large software company (Novell), and I'm in Technical Product Marketing rather than engineering, so I don't think the teams I work with go as fast as those you describe.

However, I am what you might call an Extreme Remote Worker...

I was office-bound for Novell for six years, then home-based in the UK for 18 months before my wife's job (Diplomat) took us on a mandatory two-year tour in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Despite being seven hours ahead of Eastern time (eight in the Winter), having a high-latency 512kbps satellite internet connection, unreliable mobile phone network AND a different working week from the Western world (Saturday to Wednesday), I have been able to bring my job with me and my team is still delivering the value it did before, we hit our deadlines, we continue to improve quality.

How do we achieve this? Regular weekly conference calls, constant IM (GroupWise Instant Messenger), ad hoc phone calls via Skype whenever needed, and now we're starting to look at virtual meeting tools like Elluminate. I travel to the UK or a US office on average once per quarter and stay for three-four days.

It can be isolating but if you're the type of person who can keep the teams goals in mind and work under your own steam and initiative it can work very well.

Another benefit is the work/life balance I am able to achieve. I control my working hours fully, sometimes on a conference call at 10pm, sometimes sunbathing by the pool on a Monday morning. And I'm always able to attend events at my kids' school. This stuff is important!