There are often a variety of cultural issues when you outsource. Get to know a little bit about how things work in the country where you outsourced workers live.
Saying No or I don’t Know
If you ever happen to be in the orient and ask for directions, good luck. It’s not that people are bad at directions, you just don’t know if they actually know the answer or if they are just trying to be polite. In many cultures it is not polite to say no or I don’t know. Dealing with workers who are just trying to be polite can be a challenge. I used to deal with a lot of Chinese workers. We would have meetings to go over development and everyone would nod and agree on things. Unfortunately they were just being polite and really didn’t know what was requested. When in doubt, have workers explain the tasks back to you.
Male Female Interaction
Many cultures are significantly more male dominated than many western countries. Women in these countries are often very subservient to men they might interact with. As such, many female outsourced workers won’t question things, or communicate with you unless you initiate communications. It can be frustrating to find out that your worker will wait until you have a meeting with you to tell you there is a problem. I’ve also found that testers will stick to the scripts and not bother to mention things they found that are in addition to what was asked. It may be challenging for them, but try to get them to share any issues they might encounter and let you know about problems when they find them.
Flattery
They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. In western culture, this is often known as plagiarism. I used to deal with one programmer who cranked out code rather quickly. One day I finally decided to check his code and it was not original. He really liked the coding of this one developer and so he just hacked it. Needless to say we had to start over from scratch. Workers will frequently copy code or writings because they like them. Be sure to check any development you have done, and run writing through copyscape.
Island Time
If you have every been to the Caribbean you may be familiar with the concept of island time. Basically any concept you might have of deadlines is probably out the window. And no one really cares. It will all get done. It just might take a while. When you outsource know what work life is currently like. If deadlines are important, make sure that is in keeping with the culture you are outsourcing to. Otherwise, kick back and know that the work will be done at some point.
