Offshore Software Development - Just Show Up!

Woody Allen said, "Showing up is 80% of life." And that is certainly true if you're working with offshore teams.

Several years ago I was talking to a leader who was having trouble with an offshore development team -- late, poor quality deliverables coupled with increasing tension and disagreement about the facts (e.g., what was the agreed date or the target KPI). After listening to the tale of woe, I asked him: "How often do you get out there?"

"I keep meaning to go," he told me. We chatted more. He also had a team in Denver and he got there about once a month "because meeting people face-face is so important" he emphasized.

So here is a basic, obvious fact. If you have a team in India, China, Argentina, or anywhere else, you need to visit... and quite frequently! I usually target quarterly visits and usually actually make the travel three times a year. It's difficult. You have to schedule around your holidays, their holidays, your personal schedule, your work schedule, and the key offshore team members schedule. Spouses & significant others hate it because these are long trips. Going to India for less than 10 days is really just jetlag hell, and if you're going to travel all that way, you may as well get a good deal of time with as many people as possible -- I usually schedule trips that are two weeks in duration (and warning: that means two weekends too).

If this sounds unreasonable, I have a suggestion for you: don't take a position that requires you to lead an offshore team! Don't take on a task and then impose limitations on yourself that prevent you from succeeding.

If you're a CEO and there's a software services company badgering you about how they take care of everything, don't believe them! To be successful, your technical leaders will need to visit... and quite frequently!*. You need to make sure they have the travel budget and, more importantly, the time set aside to do this.

* CEOs like repetition