I’m in a cab in Dallas, headed to Plano. It’s about 8pm CDT (9am China time)
I’m carrying on a conversation with the cab driver. He’s an interesting chap – as many are. Going to school for ‘science’ but doesn’t know what he wants to do yet. While there are pauses in the conversation, I’m catching up with my colleague, Vernon in our Global Delivery Center in Hangzhou, China. He’s just starting his day while mine is winding down. We’re just eMailing back and forth on a few topics out of the 20 or so that happen to be going on right now. No huge decisions to be made, just slight course corrections and affirmations.
This works so smoothly because we eMail, IM, talk, etc.. several times a week. Sometimes (like in the cab) I forget that he’s 8,000 miles away – literally half-way around the world. And it hits me right then and there how ‘cool’ that is. How easily it is to stay connected. And I think – there isn’t a wall between us, it’s more like a waist high hedge.
I spoke in a previous post about how far the technology has come, but my thoughts here were around how differently I (as a person) *operate* in today’s world. How I *think* differently. When I look at the clock, I immediately can do a translation to China time (and vice-verse when I’m there). I don’t see the time-zone difference as a hindrance anymore – it’s something I incorporate into my day. It’s actually created advantages in my personal schedule (I sometimes leave the office early to catch my son’s music class, get out mid-day for my run, drive my daughter to school) in exchange for the time I spend working the overlap hours. Sometimes when I’m up in the middle of the night, I might answer an email. My point is, I don’t think of it as an inconvenience. I’ve integrated it into my work-life balance.
So this started me thinking. What separates the multi-shore projects that run well with daily course corrections vs the projects that seem to struggle with ‘decision latency’. And the answer is glowing out of my BlackBerry, illuminating the cab around me. It’s because I’ve changed ‘Over the Wall’ into ‘Across the Hedge’. Problems don’t fester, issues get resolved, decision making can happen in smaller increments, and the whole process is more responsive.
It validates what we decided long ago. That an Agile approach, that encourages constant communication, is not only the way to go, but it far surpasses the ‘Over the Wall’ approach many offshore projects take.
I happened across an editorial blogger the other day who I’ll call ‘H.G. Wells’. I use that term affectionately because I felt I was in a time-machine back to the 80’s with regard to methodology. He was being told to do offshore to reduce costs, but wanted to make it clear that he wanted to follow a purely ‘Over the Wall’ approach. He didn’t want to break his 8-5pm schedule (his words, not mine). He felt that anyone ‘offshore’ should have to comply with a ‘US’ time zone. He wanted to package up requirements, eMail them off, and then not hear back from the offshore team until the system was implemented.
Don’t get me wrong. I understand the concept. I respect people’s ability to run their IT shop as they see fit and there are certainly situations where this process is a necessity (btw – this wasn’t one of them). But I also know how inefficient that model is going to be. I know what H.G. will miss out on. The transformation and growth that truly comes with working on a close-woven team operating openly and in step. Where there are only small course corrections to be made every day – instead of major disappointments and surprises.
In short – I know the value of just chatting with your neighbor every night, across the hedge.
