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August 2006 - Training for Offshore Testing Teams (Part 3 of 4)

Michael Hackett, VP of Business Operations, LogiGear Corporation

In Part 1 of this article series, Michael discussed the unique training needs for offshore software testing/QA teams. In Part 2 he discussed the training areas of process, product and domain knowledge, and testing techniques.

The Training Areas

English Training

If you happen to be in a country where excellent communication skills in English are hard to find (most places except India), training in English is critical. Make sure you have some people on the team who were hired because, in addition to their other skills, they are excellent English speakers. This is needed for writing bug reports, status reports and ease of phone communication. They may also act as the lead or moderator of phone meetings.

Cross-Cultural Differences and Working with the Domestic Team

Cross-cultural training for the offshore team is often skipped for a variety of reasons. It may be considered unimportant, too time consuming, too sensitive, not urgent, or it may be assumed that the offshore team already knows enough. Skipping this training is a big mistake! There are a variety of cultural issues that must be addressed in training ranging from definitions of customer satisfaction to understanding group dynamics.

The understanding of customer satisfaction for your domestic team is likely to be very different from the understanding of the offshore team. You have two bridges to cross here. First, you must train developers to test from a customer's perspective. Second, you must train them to understand the customer's expectations. You should train your offshore team on the purpose of and types of bugs found during usability testing. If usability and customer satisfaction are critical to project success, you may consider having the domestic team conduct these tests, or hire some usability testing services.

There are a wide variety of issues that, depending on your offshore team's cultural background, can sink a project. Special and delicate training is needed in:

  • The importance of getting the whole story and not half truths
  • The importance of building trust among all teams
  • How to say "no" (the ability to say "no" varies between cultures)
  • How to question a person of authority - for example, questioning the domestic test lead may be looked upon as rude in some cultures
  • Speaking up to voice opinions and suggestions on testing and process
  • How to think "outside the box"
  • Understanding group dynamics, from how to do brainstorming, to working with or without group consensus

Interestingly, on the topic of working with Americans, I have found, in every instance, teams are well acquainted with many of the differences between their work culture and that of Americans. These are usually deep-rooted, sensitive topics. In practice, a strategy of "meeting halfway" works well. It is important to note that this training is needed for both domestic and offshore teams. When all teams understand the cultural differences of their counterparts, personal fears can be allayed and the teams will work together more effectively.

Training Your Domestic Staff

The domestic team also needs training on soft skills and process if the project is to be successful. A key training topic is better communication, including:

  • How to conduct virtual meetings
  • Status reporting
  • Importance of kickoff meetings
  • Using instant messaging (IM) for standard communication

Training on process should include:

  • Processes for working with offshore teams
  • The importance of sticking to internal team processes
  • Improving documentation
  • Build processes, including acceptance testing and transfer
  • What to do when the offshore team hits blocking issues and the domestic team is unavailable
  • What the offshore team can do during downtime

When you have developed your list of cross-cultural rough spots, train the local team on ways to recognize and deal with them. Tackling these issues can be difficult and sensitive but very worthwhile.

The domestic team must be aware of how their behavior will be interpreted by the offshore team. In team meetings, Americans often make jokes, political comments, and openly criticize management. In some countries this will be viewed as disrespectful and always inappropriate. I have seen offshore test teams lose respect for the domestic team based on conversations we may find trivial. Training can make the domestic team more aware of their own behavior and how it is viewed by the offshore team, preventing friction and misunderstandings that can put the project at risk.

Top 5 Cultural & Communication Issues Use training on communication or work ethics to open doors to understanding and communication. As a very practical exercise you can approach learning to work together with less stress by doing an exercise I call "Top 5". It is important you do this exercise during training for both the US and offshore teams. In this exercise you brainstorm the top 5 things that get in the way of excellent work conditions. After the brainstorm you then come up with ideas about how to eliminate these issues. Promise to bring these problem and solution items back to the counterpart teams. An example Top 5 cross cultural problems exercise:
Offshore team in Country X Top 5 issues:
  1. The US team is always in a rush and telling us to go faster but we cannot make mistakes.
  2. They forget to tell us things that happen and we get frustrated when we do things wrong and they want us to work late to fix their forgetting.
  3. We are so constrained by the test cases they sent us we feel bored.
  4. They are always adding things to the project even at the end. It is a problem that they are so unorganized.
  5. We ask questions and often hear nothing at all back from them.
US-based test team Top 5 issues:
  1. They drop whatever they are doing at noon and go for lunch. Whether in the middle of a meeting or a time sensitive process- it is lunchtime.
  2. They don't work as fast as we do.
  3. There are so many questions I cannot get my own work done anymore and am e-mailing them late into my evening.
  4. They don't always tell the truth about what is going on. They tell us what we want to hear.
  5. Women managing men can be difficult in their culture. We have a few women test leads.
How these items get dealt with will vary depending on team dynamics, company culture and the culture you are dealing with, among other things. The point is not that one group drops their cultural imprint on the other group and says "we are right, you are wrong." The point is that each team learns how to communicate about these things, works with each other, and helps each other over hurdles. We cannot change cultures overnight, just as they cannot change us overnight. We need to be aware of difficult areas, since they are inevitable. This more difficult training will decrease stress, improve communication, provide greater work efficiency and have happier teams and greater project success.

In the fourth and final part of this article series, Michael discusses:.

  • Staff Retention and "Train the Trainer"
  • Training Material and Training Sessions
 
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