Offshore development teams can be highly effective and an important asset to your organization. However, like so many team structures - lack of strong over-sight and communications can cause harm to the relationship, giving outsourcing a bad name.
The critical element of success is to establish a strong open communication between the on and offshore teams. Set expectations early and monitor progress on a very frequent basis. Leverage technology - other than email - to create a well documented environment.
Employing enterprise/social technology tools such as Twiki.net collaboration tools, or Jive Software's enterprise social business tools may help bridge both timezone and language issues - while maintaining a unified playbook.
In a blog article found on trybpo.com - we think that their oversight strategy is somewhat heavy handed, with agent screen monitors. With screen monitoring and video cameras in the agents offshore office, we feel there is an established lack of trust... from the get go. For work that may be highly sensitive or require high levels of security, perhaps these steps should be considered.
The bottom line from our experience with offshore IT development is that team members have a strong desire to be highly productive and produce high-end quality work. And like any team, they want to feel part of the organization, trusted and ... counted on.
Use communications and technology to ensure that your offshore team is in the game and playing on your side - for your win!
