Guidance for offshore testing squad - Cultural and Communication problems
 
 
Introduction
 
Use training on communication or work ethics to open doors to understanding and communication. As a very practical exercise you can approach learning to work together with less stress by doing an exercise. It is important you do this exercise during training for both the US and offshore teams. In this exercise you brainstorm the facts that get in the way of excellent work conditions. Promise to bring these problem and solution items back to the counterpart teams.
 
 
Cultural problems

1. The US team is always in a rush and telling us to go faster but we cannot make mistakes. 
 
 
2. They forget to tell us things that happen and we get frustrated when we do things wrong and they want us to work late to fix their forgetting. 
 
 
3. We are so constrained by the test cases they sent us we feel bored. 
 
 
4. They are always adding things to the project even at the end. It is a problem that they are so unorganized. 
 
 
5. We ask questions and often hear nothing at all back from them. 
 
 
Contact problem
 
1. They don't always tell the truth about what is going on. They tell us what we want to hear. 
 
 
2. Women managing men can be difficult in their culture. We have a few women test leads. 
 
 
 
3. There are so many questions I cannot get my own work done anymore and am e-mailing them late into my evening. 
 
 
4. They drop whatever they are doing at noon and go for lunch. Whether in the middle of a meeting or a time sensitive process- it is lunchtime. 
 
 
5. They don't work as fast as we do.
 
Conclusion
 
The point is that each team learns how to communicate about these things, works with each other, and helps each other over hurdles. The point is not that one group drops their cultural imprint on the other group and says "we are right, you are wrong." We cannot change cultures overnight, just as they cannot change us overnight. We need to be aware of difficult areas, since they are inevitable. This more difficult training will decrease stress, improve communication, provide greater work efficiency and have happier teams and greater project success. How these items get dealt with will vary depending on team dynamics, company culture and the culture you are dealing with, among other things.