Tweet

How to Effectively Manage Remote Workteams

Written by: Daryl James

Article Overview: As an outsourcing company, we work with offshore workteams as a matter of course. The two most pressing challenges we continually face are those of managing and measuring the outsourcing performance of our remote workteam, and facilitating communication between local co-workers and the remote workteam as they collaborate on projects. With most local workteams, outsourcing managers can set a series of milestones and checkpoints, and manage to those deliverables. However, when outsourcing to a remote workteam, this approach becomes problematic due to the distance and lack of regular workteam visibility. Here are a few of the things we believe are keys to successfully maximizing outsourcing workteam relationships:

How to Effectively Manage Remote Workteams

As an outsourcing company, we work with offshore workteams as a matter of course. The two most pressing challenges we continually face are those of managing and measuring the outsourcing performance of our remote workteam, and facilitating communication between local co-workers and the remote workteam as they collaborate on projects.

With most local workteams, outsourcing managers can set a series of milestones and checkpoints, and manage to those deliverables. However, when outsourcing to a remote workteam, this approach becomes problematic due to the distance and lack of regular workteam visibility.

While many software development shops maintain a staff of programmers/QA onsite to review all code checked in and all bugs reported by the remote workteam, the reality is that many small companies who wish to try offshore outsourcing do not have the necessary programming expertise onsite.

Here are a few of the things we believe are keys to successfully maximizing outsourcing workteam relationships:

Communication:
First and foremost is communication. If you are not constantly in the loop with the offshore workteam to which you are outsourcing, you are out of the loop. With a workteam 8k-10k miles away, being out of the loop is bad for business.

At our company, we utilize several modes of communication (email, IM chat, Skype Voice and IM Chat conference). Specifically, we keep a Skype chat conference open and active during the hours we share with the offshore QA team to which we are outsourcing as an open line of communication.

It is amazing how freely information started to flow once we started this practice. We can now easily review the chat of the previous 2-3 hours and identify any issues and if/how they were resolved. Our workteams use Skype voice chat several hours per day (in fact, there have been active Skype voice calls lasting several hours).

Assigning Tasks:
Having clearly defined tasks is also key when outsourcing to and managing remote workteams. We assign tasks via Bugzilla for writing/updating automated testing scripts, regression testing, and back-end api testing. These tasks are then broken down to the component level and assigned to individual QA Engineers on our remote workteam. Once an outsourcing task is complete, it is marked as resolved, and checked into SVN (as applicable).

Metrics:
We have also determined that the standard metrics of test case writing, defect reporting and management (as well as the updating of the automated testing scripts) offer us a good place to start.

We track metrics such as:
* Defects logged per hour of testing
* Test Cases written/modified per week
* Ratio of valid vs. invalid dDefects

Using these metrics not only gives us a look into the quantity, but also the quality of the workteam to which we are outsourcing (through auditing defects and test cases).

We also keep track of test case files by requiring them to be checked into SVN by the individual members of the remote workteam. This allows us to track file progress from revision to revision. It also gives us the ability to do forensic work if we think we missed a very obvious bug or a feature was added that was not covered in a test case.

Inclusion:
We include outsourcing representatives from our remote offshore workteams in our local Engineering meetings. This gives them the chance to interact with the team, make suggestions, and participate in the decision-making process. This has the effect of making them a real part of the workteam, which is evident in the way they respond to the outsourcing project at hand.

Conclusion:
While these are just a few of the best practices we've discovered, there is one underlying theme. Visibility breeds accountability, while letting the professionals on a remote workteam know that you, the outsourcing manager are not just interested in getting your project done, but also in helping each of your workteam members to be more successful.

Related Articles
  Integrating Your Virtual Freelance Staff with Your In-House Team
  10 Activities for Local-Remote Workteam Building
  Streamline Your Accounting: Remote Deposit Capture
  Saving Time and Money with Remote Agents
  How do I lead and manage a virtual or remote sales team?

Article Tags: bugs, checkpoints, co workers, communication email, deliverables, matter of course, milestones, modes of communication, necessary programming, offshore outsourcing, onsite, outsourcing company, programmers, programming expertise, qa team, software development, visibility, voice chat, workteam, workteams



Related Forum Posts
Re: The Best Method for Online Marketing - we must choose the most suitable one to use.. there are so many diffrent strategy here.. 1. Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy. 2. Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques. 3. Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively. 4. Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs. 5. Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant. 6. Build a responsive opt-in email list. 7. Publish articles or get listed in news stories. 8. Write and publish online press releases. 9. Facilitate and run contests and giveaways via your web site. 10. Blog and interact with your visitors.
Re: What exactly do you need to start a business - Hi phummy, I’m not sure what options you have in Nigeria or maybe you already know what you want to do but like any business, it’s all about supply and demand. Is there an interest in the product or service you are selling? Have you researched the market, perhaps approach other competitors to see what they have to offer, do you have any experience in the field. When you have researched your niche and decided what you want to do then it’s time for your business plan. Set your budget (very important) and stick to it, will you be working from home or an office and what equipment/stationary will you need. Manage your time effectively to concentrate on things that will push your business forward. Set realistic goal’s and stick to your plan. Coming to places like this forum are a godsend as you can save yourself time and grief by coming here and asking questions, good luck to you, Mal.
Why A Project Fails? - Hello Everyone As the size and complexity of ones business grows, so does their need to effectively manage projects. I have been thinking about the major reasons why a project can go wrong and my limited experience comes up with the following. 1 Leadership: A project manager with leadership skills and not just management skills. 2 Failure to (Foresee and) Plan 3 Failure to Manage: Ineffective change management control methods. Unclear decision making guidelines. 4 Talent: Finding, allocating and developing people 5 Scope: Setting an overly ambitious or amibigious project scope 6 Alignment: When projects are not prioritized in alignment with the business strategy, or project members personal objectives are not in tandem with that of the project / company 7 Lack of Candor: Communication Breakdowns I would be interested in knowing everyone's thoughts on this, especially on ways to overcome the above mentioned obstacles. Cheers!
Re: Best Internet Marketing Strategy - [quote="jennysmith14":2wxugq3d]Hello Friends.......... Best Internet Marketing Strategy are # Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy. # Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques. # Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively. # Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs. # Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant. # Build a responsive opt-in email list.[/quote:2wxugq3d] Hi Jenny, All good valid advice here to readers. The one thing I might add for clarification to readers is on point number 4 concerning "dominating" search results. I always like to clarify the importance of dominating for a variety of well researched keyword phrases that ideally target your ideal buying audience. Sometimes people misunderstand and think the objective is too dominate all top 10 spots for the same keyword. The reason this is not wise is that anyone successfully dominating all top 10 spots may actually be reported to Google Abuse because the purpose of a search engine is to display a variety of choices. Competitors can become quite upset with a company who is dominating all top 10 spots for the same phrase. I realize you know this already, but just thought I'd throw it in for anyone new to SEO. A better way to "dominate" is for a variety of very well researched phrases to pull in multiple audiences of readers. Great post Jenny. Thanks
Incentives for Gathering Data - Great question Kevin! How do you encourage and motivate others to give you the data and information you need to conduct market research? First of all, you need to know what kind of data you are hoping to collect, and how much time you really need a participant to give you? I'll outline this step in Step 2 Market Research coming soon. Many times I see people and companies offering prizes or gifts for taking the time out of your day. This is a great idea. Contests are another great way. With technology so accessible now, gone are the days of the long handwritten survey responses. Surveymonkey.com is just one resource where you can import your survey questions, email them out to a collected database and then get your report for analysis. If you have been in business a while, your own client base is a great first place to look for information. Take clients out for lunch, or host a cocktail session where you can speak with each person. depending on the level of personal data you need, be cautious to allow each person their privacy. We often tape our research interviews, but in order to get past the facade of information some people will give, we have a written contract that we sign with them that states that all their information will be added to the collective group, with no specific names mentioned. This signature commitment negates most peoples responses and we get real, honest feedback. And ultimately, we honour that. Its the arrangement we make with a client too. We wont abuse their clients or staff's confidentiality in us. So if you are hoping to gather information from a specific audience, find out as much as you can about them before planning your approach. if you only need 10 minutes of someone's time, perhaps the prize or incentive is valued differently than if you expect people to take 45 minutes. I once spent over an hour on the phone with a call centre on behalf of Walmart. I was told it was going to take no more than 30 minutes and I would receive 5 new DVD's for my time. NEedless to say, I'm still waiting for my DVD's and I will never entertain another research call from Walmart. Manage expectations. Treat people and their time with respect. And reward them with their efforts. Cheers!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

12 Principles to Spark Innovation

Setting Goals for your Home Based Business

What is Give Back Marketing?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.