How Do You Maintain Long-Distance Projects? 52
overseer asks: "Recently, I've been working with an increasing number of overseas workers. Regardless of where they are located, or how well they are trained, the common problem that we have is communication across timezones. In a typical 9-6:30 day, none of my working hours overlaps with those of my coworkers in Europe and Asia. If I come in early, or stay late, I can call one or the other but the truth of the matter is that most of my communication is done through email, and results in (at best) a 15 hour turnaround time for even the smallest question. This is OK for large, slow moving projects, but when we are working on 'Now' problems, or doing detail work, it makes it very hard to communicate. It also makes casual communication or constructive feedback next to impossible. Several of my coworkers have adapted by working extended hours, or by taking their work home with them -- this is something that I'd like to avoid. What methods have Slashdot readers found/created to get around the problem of working in multiple timezones?"
Accountability (Score:1, Insightful)
Step #1 (Score:5, Insightful)
-Rick
Re:Step #1 (Score:2)
Re:Step #1 (Score:2)
-Rick
Re:Step #1 (Score:2)
Re:Step #1 (Score:2)
Thanks for the laugh.
Re:Step #1 (Score:2)
-Rick j/k
Re:Step #1 (Score:3, Insightful)
Not only that, but programmers in general need to improve the way they communicate with end-users on in-house development. Outsourcing even next door makes communication worse. One thing I've been trying to improve on myself over the past few years is talking to the users a
Be the glue! (Score:4, Insightful)
Of additional merit is that traffic from at 5:30 a.m. is a tiny fraction of 7:30. And that getting off at 3:00(ish) means the gym at my apartments is empty and all the daytime places (banks, Post Office, and specialty shops) are all open and uncrowded.
It's worth the effort to shift, and the quiet time in the morning at work is tremendously productive.
My Solution: (Score:4, Funny)
a matter of time, flexibility, and relationships (Score:5, Interesting)
Most of my work with them can be handled via e-mail. So, before I go to ged, I check my work email and respond to issues in Asia so they don't have to wait a day to get a response. I'm not an early bird, but I try to do the same in the morning before leaving for work.
My boss knows I deal with things this way and realizes that I may be stuck at home dealing with a Europe-issue and will be late into the office, or that I might have been up late for the same reason. So everyone's fairly flexible about these things.
Of course, I don't mind taking my work home. I find that even if I'm going to bed, the people in foreign offices are more relaxed when they get an immediate response to a problem e-mail, even if I'm just saying, "got your message and I'll take care of it first thing in my morning".
Also, I got xearth for windows and put it on my computer in the Mercatur view, with labels set on our foreign offices. It helps me "feel" for when people are in their days.
Re:you're disposable (Score:2)
A global corp has to have an HQ somewhere, and my company's happens to be on the west coast.
Yes, of course, I'm disposable. But the funny thing is that I strive for that. I'm working on projects to make my job redundant. It currently takes too much manual work and I'm working to have a database solution implemented that will cut out about 50% of what I do. I like th
Not that I have any experience doing this (Score:2, Informative)
Don't know if you have that kind of power to change the working hours in the day, but for a short period of time, I think it would work pretty well.
Relocate... (Score:3, Interesting)
Seriously, a 15-hour latency seems like it would cost more than paying someone a first-world wage to be in the same timezone as you. The option I propose is 'consolidate locations'. If you've got one of those tight budgets, you could even ship yourself off to India. It'd be cheaper to live there, so you could even take a voluntary pay cut!
Re:Relocate... (Score:2, Insightful)
Speaking as an American consultant who is in Bangalore trying to save an at-risk project, I think that's the way to go.
Email and phone lines are ridiculously low bandwidth compared with being in the same room eight hours a day. To make good software, you need the developers in the same place as the people who know what needs to get made. I don't care
Permanent midnights (Score:1, Insightful)
Then, figure out which mor
Re:Permanent midnights (Score:2)
This problem is not always caused by out-sourcing, but yes, globalization is there.
I work for a global corporation, and as I mentioned earlier in this discussion, I help coordinate efforts on an ongoing project with groups in Asia and Europe. Those people aren't there because of out-sourcing, but
Dream on (Score:1)
1. you deal with an outsourced project where the time shift makes things difficult
2. you aren't willing to make sacrifices to accomodate those odd hours
3. you think slashdot has a magic solution
I think the best thing for you is to find a job with less responsibilities, because clearly you're incapable of dealing with the ones you're currently entrusted to. If you have a "Now!" problem that requires fast solutions, maybe you could stay up late and deal with the problem yourself.
It's really quite simple (Score:5, Funny)
Re:247365 (Score:2)
Offset your time (Score:3, Insightful)
A lot of industries do this. Take for example stock brokers on the west coast. They have to be in their office when the stock markets open on the east coast. So, they tend to be in by 5am and out by 1pm. They don't work longer hours because of it, but just modify their work day. Now, you shouldn't have to do this everyday you could do one or two days a week, while someone else does the other days. That way someone can pass off information and no one is working excessive hours.
Re:Offset your time (Score:2)
Tell them to welcome their new American overlord (Score:2)
use instant messaging (Score:1)
Alternative Sleeping Patterns (Score:2)
Depends on your project and people. (Score:1)
Quick Postmortem: Communication delays weren't the problem, substandard employees were.
However, I was on call while in Japan. Everyone had my mobile number (And a local number that Skype forwarded to my Japanese mobile. Cheapskates) and my mobile email. Unless I was too drunk or preoccupied, I could answer questions on a moments notice. I even got up for those 4am (Japan time)
Change shifts? (Score:2)
That or invent time travel.
6 hour time difference here (Score:2)
Really, there is a large period of time where we overlap. He is available from when I wake up until about 6PM my time. Not so bad.
As for how we communicate effe
Re:6 hour time difference here (Score:2)
Obvious Answer (Score:2)
Than I guess when you're working on "now" problems, you or them will just have to shift your work hours ariund a bit? I'm not trying to be a smart ass, but honestly, you almost answer your own question. The little time tricks of sci-fi don't work in the real world, If you want to talk to these people with less than a 15 hour "turn-around" you or they will have to
Hire Me? (Score:2)
1. I am a night person, coding best between the hours of 12AM and 8AM.
2. I have a good friend in the US who I hardly get to talk to because of the shitty hours that I do work and the time difference.
3. I'd be willing to take over your job and work odd hours to better utilise my time...
Crackberry, #1 Real-Time Collaboration (Score:2)
Due to its addictive nature of staying on top of things, this handheld is frequently known as "Crackberry" as in "Crack-head."
I strongly suggest you consider one for your long-distance enterprise as being able to stay on top of things 24/7.
Blackberry [blackberry.com], tools of the geek gods.
Brief Face to Face (Score:2)
What I've found to be helpful is to schedule a few face-to-face meetings with the people you're working with. While the details will certainly vary depending on a number of
another idea (Score:1)
One other thing I wanted to tell to all the other people giving comments here. He never mentioned that the people in other timezones are working on the same project. Maybe they are a sales team in an other country giving feedback about the product. Just because he is working with people from other timezones doesn't mean their jobs got outsourced.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:1)
Eastern Standard Tribe (Score:2)
Re:Follow up from Poster (Score:2)
Except now instead of worrying about misinterpretation from incomplete documentation, you now have to worry about misinterpretation from an actual mass language barrier.
My philosophy so far with a new offsite aspect is that I'll be damned if I'm going to micromanage them. They have their own teams, and they will have their own leads, and they are going to write their ow
Dust off your Best Practices... (Score:2)
I just finished a 2-year contract where I was located in Los Angeles, another guy was in Colorado, and the rest of the team was in London. I have two observations:
1: When in this geographical configuration (I know some L.A.-based bankers whose days start at 5am for the same reasons.) it's just a matter of fact that you are going to have to become more of a morning person. Starting the work day at 9am sounds unrealistic. (Now if truly there's a large contingent of co-workers in Asia, I'll buy that exceptio
One answer: handoffs (Score:2)
As the morning-shift engineer in Boston approaches the end of his day, he calls the afternoon-shift engineer in San Francisco, breifs him up to date on progress he's made, and sends him his test harness.
When the San Franciscan gets ready to quit, he hands off to his collegue in Bangladore, and when the torpedoman gets ready to go to bed, he hands off to Grenoble.
My Boston collagues eventualy wakes up
No one knows... (Score:2)
I know higher management never wants to hear it but projects fair well with offshoring if you either offshore the whole thing (and US management gets out of the way) or if the US based te
Bugzilla (Score:2)
When someone strolls into the office they can just hop on their favorite saved query and see exactly where the project is.
Plus you have a record of the whole design process and nobody is left out of that important mail.
Split Day (Score:1)