When a company decides to go with outsourcing some or all of their software development, they now get to deal with the language barrier. This is something new to a team leader for a company who manages his/her current local team in one spoken/written language. Once you are dealing with a programmer or team leader in another country, it can reduce efficiency in regard to getting any project scope understood and the job started.

This happens because of heavy accents, fast talkers, inadequate translators on the call, poor translation software being used by the offshore people. This can lead to many misunderstandings and delays if not properly managed or monitored.

If you find a company with moderate to good English skills where you do not need translators, it is a real plus. Many people in American companies think that because there were so many British in India that the India based programmers have the best chance of understanding their English, this is not always true. The British speak, read and write Oxford English and in several ways it is different from American English. In addition, many of the Indian programmers have a heavy accent and speak fast.

Filipino offshore outsourcing companies are thought to have better English because of the American presence in the Philipines for so many years. However, management usually has the best English skills and the programmers commonly having the same quality as the Indians. This can be aggrevating but they all mean well so patience is needed in extra doses to get through this.

If you manage to have an offshore outsourcing company with programmers that have moderate to good English skills, plan to patiently work with them to grow their skills to fit your needs. It will usually pay off in the end. As well, be sure to take the time to adequatly explain all areas of your expectations clearly so that they fully understand. They usually want to get the job on time and to your expectaions. If you do not make sure to go through every part of what you want, you may be let down.

This is different than when you work with someone in the same language you speak, read and write because there is an expectation of automatic understanding of what has been given to them. It will take a while before you can realistically have this expectation from your offshore programmers.

In addition, it is crucial that if you are going to rely on these types of offshore business partners, that you know for sure that they fully understand what is in any agreements or contracts between you and them. I have seen problems before where you take their word that they understand and it seems like they understand, but somewhere in the project, there is a misunderstanding on their side.

Of course the misunderstanding stems from a line item in the agreement or contract with them that they didn’t really understand. This misunderstanding may mean a delay for the company and a loss for the offshore outsourcing company. This will result in further delays and a possible lack of trust between you both so be very sure that everything is understood before moving forward on projects with them.

It is very important that you clearly outline your quality requirements. In fact, it is good if you develop a test plan that is simplified to be checkboxes so that your offshore outsourcing company can give it to their QA people to follow it line by line, checking each item as passed or failed along with some brief comments if needed. Usually, the lower in the ranks of these companies you go, the less they are able to speak the language you speak sufficiently. As well, the lower in the ranks you go, the less ability for them to communicate with you through email or chat because they may not have access.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 6th, 2010 at 12:08 amand is filed under Products. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.