Defining Work: Keep Things Simple

In a distributed environment it is important to keep things simple. Product definitions and Services need to be as simple and short as possible. Same goes for procedures and guidelines. Attempts to over define will lead to people spending a lot of time on work that does not bring value. It will also lead to stupid behavior.

Tools: International Conference Calling

While working with international teams, project managers in one country sometimes assume that team members in all countries will have the same level of communication infrastructure from their homes. That is normally not the case. For example if there is a conference call with a toll free [1-800] number in the US it won’t be toll free for an employee in Asia. That call will be charged at an international rate.

If the employee has to join the call from home, the employee may have to pay her phone bill and then get the expense reimbursed. This may discourage her from accepting such a meeting or even be part of a team that expects her to do so.

We face similar situations in our India offices and use a local conference calling service that all our team members use to join international conference calls from home. While this does not reduce the expense, it at least makes it convenient for the employee to join the call. It makes a big difference when a working parent can take than 7.30 p.m. call from home instead of staying in the office just because they don’t have toll free international calling facility at home.

This conference calling service lets every participant request for individual dial-in timings. For example, when I had to join a customer call from India at 5.00 a.m., I requested the service to dial me in at 4.50 a.m. The service we use is called Cyber Bazaar. It is now part of WebEx India.

Corporate Calling Cards are an expensive but useful option for international calling. Most big calling card companies [Such as AT&T] have toll free access numbers for most countries. Such cards enable you to join a conference [or make a call] from regular telephones even if such telephones do not have international dialing enabled.

People : Geography is more powerful than History

When managers face problems with holding team meetings or receiving deliverables from distributed teams they tend to say that it is due to the culture of the team on the other side. I hear them say "Oh! It is the culture of those teams that is stopping us from having a productive meeting or getting things done."

I believe otherwise. Managers and team members use culture as an excuse for poor planning and sloppy execution. Planning for distributed development is different from planning a project where all team members are in the same location. Some simple project management techniques will help.

1. Recognize the time zones in which teams are operating and plan meetings accordingly. Use an email system that allows you to plan for meetings across time zones. Several email systems including Microsoft Outlook and IBM Lotus Notes allow you to see everyone's calendars and plan meetings when it is convienient for everyone.

1a. Acknowledge the fact that people may be joining the meeting from their home offices and there could be background noices like babies crying or dogs barking. Such behaviour is not because of their culture. It is probably because it is 10.00 p.m. their time and they are home.

2. Understand the workday cycles of the distributed team. For example, a work request sent on Friday afternoon to Europe from the U.S. may not be viewed until Monday morning U.S. time by European team members. Same is the case with Philippines or India. If you get a response to your request only on Monday afternoon U.S. time, it is probably due to the time delay and not due to the culture in Europe or Asia.

3. Develop a simple work request protocol where your project clock starts ticking only when the receiver acknowledges the work request, not when the requestor sent the request. This protocol saved us a lot of trouble in executing work flows across the country and the globe. It might work for you even if you have different locations in the same city.

Tools : Spelling, Meaning and Pronunciation

When all communication happens through email, documents, chat and phone conversations, it is important to pay attention to spelling, meaning and pronunciation. This becomes more important when the collaboration is across cultures.

A free online resource that I find useful is Merriam-Webster Online. This online service provides online dictionary, thesauras and pronunciation services. I find it very useful especially when I have to find out how a word is pronounced.

My Journal on Distributed Development

For about 8 years, I have written a log about the challenges I face at work and solutions that worked for me. When I reviewed my Journal from my archives, I realized that there was information worth sharing with entrepreneurs running a company on shoestring budgets, managers who want to drive better collaboration and distributed team members who are face these challenges daily. I want to share practical information about tools, people behavior and team organization that will help distributed teams in day-to-day work.

I attend the Berkeley Columbia EMBA program now and run the collaboration site for my class of fellow managers. It has been a good learning experience helping my class with the collaboration. I plan to write about how the business schools of two universities [UC Berkeley and Columbia University, New York] enable collaboration among students and professors. As of 2005 they have a lot of challenges ahead of them.

There are three broad categories. Protocols, People and Tools. Most titles are self explanatory. If you are part of a distributed development operation or team, please add your thoughts and share your insight.