In tough economic times, many web and internet agencies have greatly scaled back their web development staff, instead relying on contractors, part-time employees and third party companies, many of whom are overseas. In theory this sounds cost-effective and efficient, but in practice these companies are running into alot of trouble when it comes to quality control. Outsourcing or insourcing can save an organization and clients time and money. The problem arises when that company does invests in those assets. We have heard from countless clients who have “Offshored projects” to Moldova, Russia or India only to come back with horror stories of how the project was an utter failure and the technical skill was terrible. The problem is two fold. One, few American companies that choose to “offshore” projects truly take the time to get to know their new partners. Second, companies will often only parse out segments of a project, often the most undesirable or time consuming parts of a project. This can often demoralize the foreign team. As a result the U.S. or European based company does not see the teams best work and they leave disappointed in the experience. Global web teams can work effectively but companies should follow these three rules.
1. Respect and get to know your foreign based team, realize their strengths and weaknesses
2. Allow them to work on the entire project, not just a less desirable piece of it
3. Share the projects success or failure with the larger team so that they can grow and improve on future projects
Following these three simple guidelines can help ensure that projects run more smoothly and your global team works as a team and not as individual parts.
