subject: 3 Tips When Communicating With Offshore Programmers [print this page] With a lot of people starting to hire offshore programmers as a way to keep costs down, a lot more horror stories are coming out about outsourcing that went wrong.
Although it is always the offshore employee that get's the blame, I have found that the majority of the time it just comes back to a simple lack of communication.
We are so used to communicating with local employees, who's native language is English, that we expect our offshore programmers to understand everything that we say. However this simply doesn't work!
Having spent a lot of time outsourcing jobs overseas I have found a few simple communication techniques that will definitely limit confusion and lead to a dramatically improved flow of communication.
1. Keep It Simple
Don't try to impress your offshore programmer with your technical 'mumbo jumbo'. They are sure not to understand and will most likely end up doing something completely different to what you had just asked.
I personally trying to limit the words that I use and a great tool for doing this is the use of bullet points. It separates different thoughts and makes it easier to understand.
2. Reference Examples
One of the easiest ways to explain something is to link to a reference.
For example, which of the following statements would end up with the best result?
- I would like a standing ebook cover design
- I would like a standing ebook cover design similar to (insert link to reference here)
3. Use Images To Communicate Changes
Microsoft Paint quickly becomes one of your best friends when outsourcing jobs overseas. It allows you to easily communicate changes by taking a screen shot of the work and using the pen tool to highlight areas and the text tool to leave comments.
I use this method a lot in conjunction with the first two tips all the time. In fact, just recently I had an ebook cover designed and was sent a proof by the designer and I needed to convey my changes back to him. I don't know about you, but trying to convey creative changes in text can something get a little messy even with local staff - so I used Paint to make some ugly looking changes (because I am not a designer), but my offshore worker was able to easily understand what needed to be done and it resulted in an ebook cover that was exactly what I was looking for.
So if you are having problems communicating with your offshore programmers, don't blame them. Instead, stop and look at the way you are communicating with them and see if you can use a few of these simple tips to stop the mistakes and make outsourcing jobs overseas a simple process.
