Offshore Outsourcing with Scrum

Alexey Krivitsky SCRUMguides

metaphors, advices and ideas on developing offshore software teams.

@alexeykri krivitsky@scrumguides.com

www.scrumoffshore.net agileee edition

I am from Ukraine. “Ukraine is a developing country”.

Ukraine is a software developing country.

Few weeks back I visited Berlin - A SYMBOLIC PLACE OF FREEDOM.

When we’re talking about offshoring - THE WALL IS THERE.

DISCLAIMER

THINGS IN THIS PRESENTATION MAY APPEAR OBVIOUS TO YOU.

EVEN QUITE OBVIOUS.

STILL, I KEEP OBSERVING OFFSHORE TEAMS AND PROJECTS THAT SUFFER

FROM OBVIOUS DISASTERS. WITH OBVIOUS CAUSES.

BUT, ‘OBVIOUS’ DOESN’T NATURALY MEAN ‘CONSIOUS’.

MY GOAL IS TO HELP MAKE OBVIOUS THINGS CONSIOUS.

THE BRICKS IN THE WALL

¡ Cultural differences

¡ Time zone shifts

¡ Cultural differences

¡ Time zone shifts

¡ Invalid assumptions e.g.: you can start with 50 people hired altogether e.g.: offshore team will be implementing designs defined onshore

¡ Wrong expectations e.g.: offshore teams will quickly outperform onshore e.g.: onshore process will not change

THE BRICKS IN THE WALL

outsourcing transfer of work to an external contractor

nearshoring to a neighboring country

team extension employees of another company are integrated into onshore team

TERMINOLOGY

offshoring to another country

distributed development all teams have equal level of authority

subcontracting client-customer rel.

Offshoring involves shifting work to a foreign, distant organization in order to reduce production costs.

wikipedia.org/wiki/Nearshoring

1.  Minimize operational expenses – do cheaper

2.  Satisfy hiring needs – insource skills

3.  Avoid legal issues of lay-offs – less headache

MAIN DRIVERS OF OFFSHORING

COST OPTIMIZATION STRATEGIES SHORT-TERM

¡ cut expenses

¡ do more with less staff

¡ maximize savings

¡ build repeatable process

LONG-TERM

¡ invest in growth

¡ do better with more skilled staff

¡ minimize turnover

¡ teach, delegate and mentor

BUT SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS …

¡ don’t know how to express themselves

¡ don’t know how to take responsibility

¡ are willing to take all the risks

… ARE LIKE KIDS

KIDS AT WORK

DIFFERENT STRATEGIES YOUR FRIENDS’ CHILDREN

¡  you want to make sure they do no harm

¡  turnover not controllable

¡  someone will take care of them

¡  don’t listen to you and don’t care

YOUR CHILDREN

¡  you want to make them grow into good people

¡  zero turnover

¡  you’re responsible for your kids

¡ will support you when you’re retired

RESPONSIBILITY PROCESS (responsibility is a process)

¡ Responsibility

¡ Quit

¡ Obligation

¡ Shame

¡ Justify

¡ Lay blame

¡ Denial

www.christopheravery.com/responsibility-process

MAIN DRIVERS OF OFFSHORING

1.  Minimize operational expenses – do cheaper

2.  Satisfy hiring needs – insource skills

AS THE MAIN DRIVER MIGHT LEAD TO SUBOPTIMIZATIONS

AS THE MAIN DRIVER SHOULD LEAD TO RESPECT AND GROWTH

TAKE-AWAYS OF PART ONE

“developers are like kids” “not caring about children is irresponsible “cost optimization as the main driver is not good”

DATING MODEL

dating

just married

long married

long long married

moving out

having the first kid

owning a house

planning more kids

divorce or die the same day

EVENTS

STAGES

DATING MODEL

dating

just married

long married

long long married

STAGES

IMAGINE A COUPLE

dating with 3 kids

never lived together

just bough a house moving out

1. STAFF IT UP

2. START IT UP

4. SCALE IT UP

3. SPEED IT UP

THE FOUR STAGES of team development

THE FOUR STAGES

1. STAFF IT UP

2. START IT UP

4. SCALE IT UP

3. SPEED IT UP

build as your team start shoreless

set up flow keep respecting individuals

of team development

TAKE-AWAYS OF PART TWO

“there steps in relationship development” “building offshore teams is like building a family” “going to fast might lead to a collapse”

APPENDIX

(the most valuable part)

1. STAFF IT UP build your

team

1. STAFF IT UP

don’t outsource hiring

first hire a leader

hire as a group disregard the age

hire people you like

advices

build your team

2. START IT UP

start shoreless

2. START IT UP

advices

invest in dev. infrastructure

start shoreless

leverage past experience of newcomers

do first sprints shoreless

consider doing scrum

attend trainings altogether

warm up with weekly setup sprints

embrace new process

make a step back in solution design

engage team in solution design

integrate your architect

3. SPEED IT UP

all you need is

flow

3. SPEED IT UP

all you need is

flow

advices

organize ambassador program separate daily scrums

from status calls

express equality and trust

run regular grooming sessions invest in

communication infrastructure

shift solution design offshore

use skype group chats

distribute product ownership

buy good webcams and use them

4. SCALE IT UP

keep respecting individuals

4. SCALE IT UP

keep respecting individuals

advices

stay with the same offshore vendor – invest

in the team

visualize high-level management with

kanbans

build feature teams

extend PO team to offshore

build team pages and portrait galleries

4. SCALE IT UP

keep respecting individuals

advices

stay with the same offshore vendor – invest

in the team

visualize high-level management with

kanbans

build feature teams

extend PO team to offshore

join www.scrumoffshore.net to help collaborate and elaborate these ideas.

thank you!

this work is not finished. and never will be. by design.

Alexey Krivitsky @alexeykri www.scrumoffshore.net