Johannesburg, 18 Jul 2012
In the competitive global business environment, companies don't always have the luxury of hosting their full development teams in one location, or even in one country or one continent. In fact, as businesses adapt to globalisation, it's often the case that they have to make use of skills that are dispersed over multiple locations.
While this may be a reality one has to accept, research has shown that it can take as much as 2.5 times longer to complete a project with geographically dispersed development teams than it would if all the people were centrally located. This is unacceptable to development companies competing on a global stage, with no lack of competitors.
Moreover, there is no such thing as a simple development project, says Jenny Retief, director of Innosys, a subsidiary of BBD. There are always challenges and unexpected twists and turns that need to be dealt with immediately. A geographically dispersed team makes these challenges all the more difficult to handle.
To be able to find and retain the best developers, Innosys had to find a way to allow its teams, located in South Africa and Europe, the freedom the individuals need to maximise creativity and problem-solving, while still producing reliable software in a cost-effective and timeous manner.
Retief says IT communications systems provide the basis for keeping all lines of communications open. However, while e-mail and instant messaging (IM) systems keep an open flow of information, it is not enough as electronic communications can be misinterpreted.
Often a message that is not answered on time may make the sender feel as if he/she has been ignored, and that the issue raised is not being taken seriously. In reality, it may simply be that the recipient is dealing with the issue before replying, but the sender has no way of knowing this. This is called the ambiguity of silence; nobody knows what others are doing when hidden behind IM or e-mail.
Innosys also added videoconferencing to its communications arsenal, to allow people to see each other, recognise facial expressions and use whiteboard technology to explain certain concepts.
This is a great benefit as so much more is communicated non-verbally than people realise, adds Retief. The problem is, there can still be misunderstandings among different cultures.
For example, a project manager in South Africa may believe his team understands everything and knows what is expected of them because they all nodded in agreement with him and didn't ask questions. In reality, their culture may prevent them from disagreeing with someone in a senior position.
The manner in which Innosys overcomes this problem is by developing a shared context among its developers, no matter where they are. This is accomplished by ensuring that developers get together regularly in South Africa to get to know each other and understand how the company works. The onboarding process for new developers often includes bringing them to South Africa to introduce them to the way Innosys works.
Processes are important too. However, it's a case of having enough processes in place to ensure everyone works to a common goal, but not too many processes that will stifle the creativity or the individualism of the highly skilled people we hire, explains Retief. We also get to know the people and can assign them to the teams and projects they can maximise their learning in as well as the returns to the company.
As with any large project, the quality of leadership involved plays a crucial role in its success. Developing leaders with the right technical and people skills to manage developers, some of which they might not see at all during a project, is critical to a successful outcome.
Managing dispersed teams is a challenge in any business. Innosys has overcome this challenge and is able to meet the cost and quality demands of its global customers by creating an environment that allows for creativity and individuality, but does so within a context that optimally serves the needs of the developers, the goals of the company and ultimately the requirements of the customer.
Share