I just finished presenting in a webinar about outsourced software development titled Agile Development from Argentina: Lessons Learned from Nearshore Outsourcing. Watch a recording of the webinar here:
If you'd like to view the full webinar, it can be seen by clicking here
My summary of the webinar is that companies face these 5 challenges when looking to implement an Agile outsourcing strategy:
1. Language and cultural issues – for better or worse, English has become the “Lingua Americana” of international business. It is difficult for American companies to get their software developed by programmers who don’t speak English well. Perhaps more serious are the cultural issues that become a communication barrier even if English are understood. Here’s an example from the webinar:
Q: Do you understand this deadline is critical?”To an American that answer of “Yes.” means not only is the importance of the deadline understood, but ALSO that the respondent is making a commitment to meet the deadline. But in many Asian cultures, “Yes” in this context means, “Yes, that is a critical deadline” without a commitment to meet it.
A; “Yes.”
2. Time zone differences – many companies find it difficult to deal with a large time zone difference. It can be an advantage if your programming team works while you sleep and visa versa, but only if they know what to do. With so much of Agile software development being collaborative it means people have to be available to ask and answer questions. And that often means someone will be staying up late or getting up early (or both!) to make collaboration happen.
3. Domain experience – is often overlooked as a catalyst for efficient software development. I have personally spent time explaining the difference between a purchase order and a back order to Russian programmers (who were otherwise super smart!). The lack of credit cards in many third world cultures is a similar barrier to writing software to be used by banks (a story told in the webinar). And developing your dating website in India where marriages are arranged is probably not a good idea.
4. Being Awkward instead of Agile – it is very rare to have complete knowledge of what a new software application should do. Agile methods help by enabling the programmers to get started quickly on smaller chunks of functionality that can be developed in a few weeks. OK, fine. But are you ready for daily collaboration with the programmers to make an Agile process work? Is your outsourcing vendor trained on these methods and using good tools? Finding vendors who are truly Agile can be a challenge.
5. Cheap programmers don’t help – looking for cheap programmers and cost savings only just magnifies the impact of the other four challenges. Cheap programmers are juniors without training in Agile methods. They don’t have the maturity and experience to avoid these challenges.
Can you successfully outsource your Agile software development to Asia? Yes, of course and Accelerance has many partners in Asia that have put mechanisms in place to overcome these challenges. But in an attempt to overcome these challenges, many North American companies are looking at outsourcing to Latin America.
Here are two examples.
A recent client wanted to replace a process of emailing spreadsheets and Word documents around their company with a centralized web application so everyone could share a single copy of the information. They did little software development within their small IT group, and they had never outsourced before. They had a pretty good idea of what they wanted but did not have complete specifications. Collaborating with a Microsoft-certified partner, expert at Agile methods in Argentina was the best recommendation.
A large Silicon Valley company with their own programming operation in Asia decided to set up a different Agile programming team with an Accelerance partner in Costa Rica to get the benefit of real-time collaboration and closeness to the US.
Should you outsource your Agile software development to Latin America? Maybe. The point of this Runtime issue (and the webinar) is not to convince you to do so. However, it is an option and a trend.
You can see that Agile outsourcing is a practical option. Accelerance has partners around the world with Agile and Scrum expertise too.
Give us a call. We’ll help you sort out your Agile outsourcing options.
Until next time,
Steve Mezak, CEO
Steve@Accelerance.com
Accelerance, Inc.
Risk-Free Outsourcing
+1-877-99-ACCEL (877-992-2235) x101 Toll-Free
+1-650-472-3785 Global Calls + Fax
Or contact me at: http://www.Accelerance.com/contact.htm
Author of the new book -
Software without Borders: A Step-By-Step Guide to Outsourcing Your Software Development
www.accelerance.com/swb.htm
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