Geographically distributed teams are becoming a norm in the software world. The main driving factors include pressure to reduce project costs, lack of available skilled resources onsite, Visa limitations and the lure of round the clock work cycle etc.

For this article, we will consider US to be the onsite location and English as the primary language where majority of work is being done.

Geo distributed teams can take multiple forms including near shore teams, offshore teams or a mix of them.

Near Shore Team Management:

Near shore teams are based in a different country but similar time zone. For projects being run out of US, teams supporting from Canada, Mexico or Columbia will be near shore teams. The biggest advantage of near shore teams is that most of their workday coincides with the onsite team. They can join in and participate in most of the meetings and decision making and overall project coordination is easier. Depending upon the location, there may or may not be language issues but in general vendor companies make sure that at least some team members on have good language skills through which rest of the offshore members can also communicate.

TPMs can run SCRUM or other meetings at a time when near shore team members can join. Having a Kanban board (JIRA, TFS or similar technologies) that can be screen shared makes it like running in person SCRUMS or meetings.

Most TPMs contribute to budget management in partnership with Engineering Manager. For projects based in US, if you are picking resources from Canada then they would be similar in cost as opposed to teams based out of Mexico or Columbia where the $$$ difference is more significant. We will cover some more challenges applicable to both near shore and offshore teams in the next section.

Offshore Team Management:

The biggest challenges in managing Geo-distributed teams come from offshore teams located in countries like Ukraine, China, Canada, India, Malaysia, Philippines, Brazil, Thailand etc. These challenges include: Language/Cultural Differences, Time Zone Differences, Work Ethic differences etc. Below are some practical tips to smoothen this process:

  • Visit Offshore Team

  • Give Offshore Employees Same Standing as Onsite Employees

  • Assign Onsite Coordinator(s) with Offshore

  • Sensitivity to Time Zone Difference

  • Invest in On-boarding, Documentation and Process

  • Transition from Email to Instant Messaging Tools

  • Highlight Offshore Team Achievements

  • Share Blame for Failures

  • Give Offshore Team Space

  • Cultural Sensitivity

  • Onsite Visit Aspirations

  • Offshore Resource Churn

  • Balance Vendor Company Pools

  • Prepare for Budget Cuts

  • Prepare for Eventuality

Visit Offshore Team: Permitting project budget, goals etc. visiting the offshore team is a great icebreaker and helps in striking good rapport between the team members. If budget doesn’t permit whole team travel, you can leverage multiple video conferencing options to achieve the same objective.

Give Offshore Employees Same Standing as Onsite Employees: Many times, offshore teams are given second hand treatment. This may involve giving them lower impact work, keeping them out of innovative/creative projects, giving them sustain/maintenance activities, not involving them in decision making etc. Once a team has been formed, there should be no difference between Full time, Part time, Contractor, Onsite or Offshore resource.

Assign Onsite Coordinator(s) with Offshore: Depending on the project, it may be easier/more productive to assign offshore/onsite coordinator(s). Many times, coordinator(s) belong to the offshore company and handle the coordination well. If onsite resource is given this additional responsibility it may impact his/her own individual productivity as coordination activities will take some time off the calendar. This can be a good trade-off in appropriate situation.

Sensitivity to Time Zone Difference: Depending on the time zone difference and project needs, keep the meetings to a minimum and follow productive meeting guidelines. You may want to ask offshore team if they prefer early morning or evening/night sync with onsite. As an example, mostly offshore teams based out of India prefer an evening/night sync as compared to morning sync in their local time.

Invest in On-boarding, Documentation and Process: While a smooth onboarding process, documentation and process are important for any project, they become critical when an offshore component is added. Due to limited interaction between onsite and offshore employees, documentation is a key source of information and progress for all team members.

Transition from Email to IM tools: Moving most of your work interactions from email to IM tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams makes coordination very smooth and enhances productivity. Tracking work over Slack is way more convenient than tracking and managing email threads.

Highlight Offshore Team Achievements: Many times, offshore team achievements are not equally highlighted within the bigger team/to the leadership. This is a missed opportunity on multiple fronts.

Share Blame for Failures: Just because offshore team is not on the table, they should not become part of the Menu. Unless the project is fully offshore, any failure needs to be objectively analyzed and blame shared across onsite and offshore.

Give Offshore Team Space: Offshore teams have their own work culture and dynamics and unless it impacts project goals, its fine to give them leeway to work according to their norms (e.g. business hours, WFH options etc.)

Cultural Sensitivity: Knowing about cultural norms, local customs, holidays etc. helps in better planning, management and overall team morale.

Onsite Visit Aspirations: Many offshore team members have onsite visit aspirations for career enhancement reasons. If you can align project needs with these aspirations, then resource and IP retention becomes easier.

Offshore Resource Churn: Many offshore countries have higher growth rates and opportunities resulting in more employee churn. You may want to negotiate that any training/on-boarding of new resources is Vendor company responsibility.

Balance Vendor Company Pools: It is good to have a healthy mix of vendor companies to choose resources from. It is not advisable to put all your eggs in one basket (have one or too few vendor companies to choose from) or have 20 vendors companies vying for 1 headcount vacancy.

Prepare for Budget Cuts: In case of budget cuts, vendors/offshore teams may take bigger portion of the brunt. It is good to be ready with the list of members who you may prefer to retain if budget cuts materialize.

Prepare for Eventuality: Many times, leadership makes decisions to shunt out a vendor company entirely, prepare for this scenario by not putting all your eggs in one basket.

In this era of globalization, geographically distributed teams are only going to increase despite many political pressures to the contrary. This is because it makes business sense. New opportunities arise as higher growth rates shift towards emerging economies. Good practices around managing Geo distributed teams is a critical skill which will help you thrive in this new world!