Showing posts with label offshore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label offshore. Show all posts

The distance- how close are you?


I came across this new term while doing the research on offshore project management= Perceived Distance.

A study by B. Aubert from his paper Information Technology and Distance-Induced Effort to Manage Offshore Activities talks about how “Perceived Distance” is considered the most imp influence when analyzing the effect of “distances” in the much hyped domain of IT Outsourcing.

It is obviously the space that parties in business feel amongst themselves. It might or might not be related to the real geographical distance between them. It has also been proved that sometimes inspite of the distance (location); some parties have had relative notion of “perceived distance” mush lesser than what reality was.

And it’s true. I had clients (in New York) whom I worked for from India and with the passing months the “perceived distance” decreased as the understanding and communication became much clearer. However the path to the decreased distance had some work put behind it.

Here’s how you can do as well:

  • There’s a person behind the job title- with today’s technology it’s much easy to know about the other person. Social networking sites especially Linkedin will always give you a little background. 
  • Understanding the business- know your role in the business side of things. How what you are doing will affect the bottom-line is an important consideration. This increases the chance to a better conversation and the fact that both parties (onsite and offsite) are emotionally involved in the delivery. 
  • Are they right or left brained- Graphics or numbers? See what they like and present your reports accordingly.
  • Why do they want from you?- Is there a gap and where is it? If you are aware of an issue and yet haven’t been able to pin point it- ask.
  • Are they micro managers- Do they like to know your every move? If they do, send reports as often as you can or simply call them up and give updated. This is more of a trust issues and will gradually lessen as they understand you more. They are simply trying to keep a tab on the cost.
  • What can you do to earn the trust-This is the most important of all. Learning what you can do to earn their trust can allow you to sleep better at night. Listen between the lines in meetings or read their emails carefully, you will find what you need. Provide the required, listen well, ask questions, don’t assume and you will be allright.


By the way, I did meet my client finally in New York in a coffee shop 1.5 years later and we are still in touch, though I have changed jobs and she is not my client any longer.

So, here are some updates in the PM world:


The Project Manager- Does your location matter?

Anything you can do, I can do it better and cheaper.

The goal has been to save 30 percent of the salary cost. Hence outsourced.

Forrester says jobs moving off US shores will rise to 472, 632 by 2012. 

However, they key work never travels and most authors say it has to do with the quality of resources. Like understanding business as a whole can be the requirement of jobs in US , however when it comes to the offshore crew- it’s all about maintaining the hierarchy, not questioning your boss because he is always right (I think women encourage more questions than men), keeping your head down and just get your piece of work done, you can talk about ideas but they are rarely taken action upon unless of course the same idea comes from onsite- then it’s considered brilliant.

For example most IT companies (especially the big names) in India, screen potential candidates based on their grades (a certain percentage to qualify) and even the slightest of gap in your resume is considered grave enough reason to take the candidate off the potential job interview.

So, No you can’t absolutely take the time to travel the world, can’t start your own business (a big NO in resumes), and cannot freelance because which means you are not putting your entire self to work. You should not be a risk taker, an entrepreneurial spirit or question decisions – everything that is encouraged in the States. And yet, you are expected to work for clients and gel well with them, when clearly the work culture and mode of hiring is way different than their offshore counterparts.

So, who is to blame?

I know there are lots of project managers in US, who don’t want to hire offshore resources just because of the culture difference - it’s not about baseball scores, it’s a bigger issue of not having a real conversation. the inability to communicate and the fact that risks are not communicated. No wants to be the bearer of bad news for the fear of the local management. So, the option is always cover up and save your job.

The offshore industry is drilled with its inherent culture from day one so strongly that is becomes more natural with time. You stop seeing it as a weird trait really. If you want to keep your job, you learn to shed your individualism.

So, more than often you will have employees complaining of long hours, boring jobs and rarely a scope to learn more. Most of them trying to look for better opportunities go for an MBA, Masters in US or move with jobsto US and never come back. The same resource then happily becomes individuals- the person they are and strong contributors to their teams (where they are heard).  

I have spent hours over it, read researches done on offshore teams (still doing it) and have always wondered why is that the all project management jobs in India comes with a backlog of list of languages you have to know (more the merrier), more than 10 years of experience and in most cases is aligned for resources who have climbed the ladder from being a junior developer to a project manager over the years.

In the hiring process I think lays the answer; it’s all about being billable. One person perhaps has to do the work for more than one resource and having multiple skills is a simple way to keep the cost down. Plus, the skilled strategist or the thinker is employed onsite and the offshore office team is created really to get the work done. 

If the price wasn’t cheap enough, jobs wouldn’t come as well, right? Unless, the industry is a game changer and thinker in its own way.

So, there’s a huge difference in being a project manager based on where you are.....a project manager in US is way different from the project manager in India- agree? So, how should you train? How will you know the skills you need to acquire? 

So, while you think on this and comment here (would love to hear from you)or on twitter , here's a special discount offered when you take a Prince 2 course here. All you have to do is use the code for a 10% discount "steppingintopmgift"