Phases of Training

Make sure you have some people on the team who were hired because, in addition to their other skills, they are excellent English speakers. This is needed for writing bug reports, status reports and ease of phone communication. If you happen to be in a country where excellent communication skills in English are hard to find (most places except India), training in English is vital. They can also act as the lead or moderator of phone meetings. And English is official language.

Working with the Domestic Team and Cross-Cultural dissimilarities

There are a variety of cultural issues that must be addressed in training ranging from definitions of customer satisfaction to understanding group dynamics. Cross-cultural training for the offshore team is often skipped for a variety of reasons. It may be considered unimportant, too time consuming, too sensitive, not urgent, or it may be assumed that the offshore team already knows enough. Skipping this training is a big mistake.

Understanding of customer satisfaction for your domestic team is different from the understanding of the offshore team. There are few things to be done in order to get the understanding of the customer.

1. Train developers to test from a customer's perspective.

2. Train them to understand the customer's expectations.

3. Train your offshore team on the purpose of and types of bugs found during usability testing. If usability and customer satisfaction are critical to project success, you may consider having the domestic team conduct these tests.

Special and delicate training is needed in understanding the offshore team's cultural background:

1. Learn how to question a person of authority - for example, questioning the domestic test lead may be looked upon as rude in some cultures.

2. Learn the importance of building trust among all teams.

3. Learn how to say "no" (the ability to say "no" varies between cultures).

4. Learn to think "outside the box".

5. Learn the importance of getting the whole story and not half truths.

6. Learn to Speak up to voice opinions and suggestions on testing and process.

7. Learn to understand group dynamics, from how to do brainstorming, to working with or without group consensus.

It is important to note that this training is needed for both domestic and offshore teams. When all teams understand the cultural differences of their counterparts, personal fears can be allayed and the teams will work together more effectively.

Domestic Staff coaching

Training on the domestic team is also needed on soft skills and process for the success of the project. Better communication is effective as well as:

1. Status reporting

2. Using instant messaging (IM) for standard communication

3. Importance of kickoff meetings

4. On conducting virtual meetings

Training process should comprise:

1. Processes for working with offshore teams.

2. The importance of sticking to internal team processes.

3. Improving documentation.

4. Build processes, including acceptance testing and transfer.

5. What to do when the offshore team hits blocking issues and the domestic team is unavailable.

6. What the offshore team can do during downtime.

Train the local team on ways to recognize and deal with them after you have developed your list of cross-cultural rough spots. Tackling these issues can be difficult and sensitive but very worthwhile.

Conclusion

In team meetings, Americans often make jokes, political comments, and openly criticize management. In some countries this will be viewed as disrespectful and always inappropriate. I have seen offshore test teams lose respect for the domestic team based on conversations we may find trivial. Training can make the domestic team more aware of their own behavior and how it is viewed by the offshore team, preventing friction and misunderstandings that can put the project at risk. The domestic team must be aware of how their behavior will be interpreted by the offshore team.