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Build a Successful

Global Training
Program

Michael Hackett

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Overview of the
Welcome
discussion

Today we’ll talk about how best • First, we’ll talk about the
to prepare yourself for training problem and training as the
offshore teams to do their job solution.
AND have less stress leading • Then, some of the important
managing offshore teams. facets of training and
considerations for the solution.
• Describe the necessary topics.
• Tips from the road: Setting
yourself up for success.
• Q&A

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Where are we now? A not-so Funny story

Some typical problems:


Sleepless in Silicon Valley
– We already offshored and need to fix “We keep passing the baton
headaches. between California and India, and
– We are about to offshore and want to that way we can cram a lot more
do it right. work into a 24-hour period,” said
– I have to work in my office till my Jeff Hawkey, vice president of
offshore teams comes in to make sure
they get started on the day’s priorities hardware engineering at
correctly and come home too late! PortalPlayer, who conducts
– My work week begins Sunday nite with evening meetings from the office or
the team’s Monday morning meeting. on his laptop at home. “A lot of
– My project team has no trust in the nights, I go home, tuck the kids into
Test Team! bed and then get on the conference
– I am constantly saying the same call.”
things over and over... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7781510/
– I spend too much time managing my
offshore team!

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Where are we now? Deeper Problems

The solution to these problems More serious than late nite


is not more late nite phone phone calls:
calls or trips away from home – spending all your time reviewing
or complaining about incorrect bugs,
status report! The solution is – endless questions…
better training! – not getting effective testing,
– not-the-whole-truth information,
– missed bugs,
– wasted time and money,
– failed projects!

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How can training help? Essential Training Areas

Extensive training for test teams: • Communication methods and


• Train the team to do their job! expectations
• Establish trust, • Your Test and Project Process
• Set guidelines and establish • Product
metrics to manage against, • Domain Knowledge
• Provides for good and effective • Product Technology
work, • “How to Test”
• Implement process and • Set-up English training where
communication infrastructure, necessary
• Remove questions about what • Cross-cultural and “Working
to do and when, with Americans”
…all, easier said than done.

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Before you buy the plane
By the Way
tickets…

– Different teams, various


countries will have different
needs. Get Started Planning
– India, China, Russia, Mexico, Communication and
Canada, Vietnam, Philippians- Your Test and Project Process
wherever, have different needs.

…btw, this work is not only for the


offshore teams. US teams need
training for working with offshore
teams as well.

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Before you buy the plane
Planning a Program
tickets…

There is preliminary work to do In this chapter we will cover:


before putting trainings together. – Communication, communication, and
more communication!
– Map the goals. What problems
– What is Micro-communication?
are you trying to solve?
– Building Trust
– Define the audience. Who are
– Who is your staff?
your testers?
– Unique issues with Testing/QA not
– What things do I need to be found in Development
aware of as I make plans? – Getting your own house in order: clean
– Fully define your process. up, organize and document your
process!
– What are the topics I need?
– Setting Expectations
– What is this “Tribal knowledge” thing?
– Reliance on Six Sigma, CMM, etc.

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Communication gives Communication gives
Visibility Visibility
Visibility into: How do you get visibility?
• What is happening, • Status Reports
• What is not getting done, • Daily Reports
• Progress and productivity, • Bug Tracking System
• Test Case Manager
• Problems, issues, roadblocks.
• Project Web Page
• Project Dashboard
…whatever you use!

Have this nailed down with easy


references.

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Visibility from Micro-
Micro-communication
communication
Aside from micromanagement
What is microcommunication? being bad practice, it is very
difficult to micromanage 8,000
miles away.
Microcommunication is total,
thorough, complete, open,
detailed communication that What are the options?
enables you to NOT micro- Microcommunication.
manage.

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Micro-communication Microcommunication

We want microcommunication Hint for success


not micromanagement. • Build a structure for reporting,
metrics, tools for sharing files,
tools for communicating- set up
How do we get it? the infrastructure and train on
- Provide infrastructure, training it.
and expectation on • The more avenues for
communication processes and communication the more
methods. chance of success: only IM
- Manage against poor, missed and daily status reports? No,
and wrong communication. add a test case manager,
blogs/discussion board
threads, etc.

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Communication Training builds Trust

IM communication- difficult to share Spending time with the remote


or archive, valuable, quick, use test team, you and others on
wisely! your team will open lines for
questions, informal
Email is impersonal and often communication, getting
nuanced and leaves much room for
answers, getting information,
misunderstanding.
sharing project experiences,
etc. All of this time needs to
begin building trust. Trust you
will be honest with them, trust
they can be honest with you.

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Unique Problems of
Training builds Trust
Offshored Testing
• Building trust is not typically a How do you hire people for your
major reason to train US teams. team at home?
• It is for offshore teams! What skills? What experience?
• Training gives you more confidence
work is getting executed the way
you intended as well as giving the How are people hired for the
offshore testing team more offshore teams?
confidence they are doing what you
want!
• Having trust in each other needs to
open the door for the delivery of
inevitable bad news.

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Who is your staff Who is your staff
offshore? offshore?
Who are your employees? What The various skill levels of the
experience do they have? home team and the offshore
QA/Testers? Domain experts? team may have you re-consider
Tech Support? what work to send and what
work to keep in the home office.!
Your offshore team will, more than
likely be different.
– May be more technically skilled Example:
than typical US team. – send automation
– Right out of college? – send low-level & API testing
– keep business process
Compare the two teams. Adjust – keep user scenario
your training.
–…

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Unique Problems of Unique Problems of
Offshored Testing Offshored Testing
Some problems you may face from the
team makeup that are unique to the Outsourced development has one
current offshore hotspots: reputation, outsourced testing
– Developers who do not want to do another. In many countries
QA/Test work testing is considered throw away
– Many hope to graduate to development work- only a vehicle to get the
– Testing is not valued in software
development. real development work. After one
– Technically trained people may not training session I conducted in
necessarily want to test. India, the Engineering Manager
– Developer testers may not want to told me “I never knew testing
criticize their future co-worker was a real job. I put my worst
developers.
staff on testing projects.”
These may be issues some of us face in
the US, but they are rare. They are
much, much more common- depending
on the country- offshore.
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Unique Problems of
Be a Better Test Lead!
Offshored Testing
What does this mean for your Having an offshore team will
training? increase your workload and
1- You may well be training a increase your management
much more technically oversight.
sophisticated or skilled group But! It will also make you a better
than your US team. test lead!
2- You may have to “teach” the • It forces you to be more organized,
value of testing. • Document more
3- You may have to sell testing as • Communicate better
a job! • Manage change better
• …

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Your Test and Project Your Test and Project
Process Process
Define the test and development Use tools to facilitate and increase
process to the extent you can visibility and information transfer:
– Set the process, train on the – SharePoint, eRoom, project
process and stick to it! page, blog…
– Provide templates – A must- some kind of document
– Show examples control, VSS, CM tool.
– Make a weekly meeting
schedule and stick to it.
– Use your tools
• Test case manager
• Bug tracker
•…

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Your Test and Project
Setting Expectation
Process
What Documents should the team Setting expectation combines
expect: communication, trust, and your
• MRDs
• PRDs
Test/Dev process
• Test plans
• Test Cases Expectations for:
• Etc.
– Weekly/daily production goals
– Make a checklist since this is often the
same from project to project. – Each day do xyz
– Train on How projects work, – On Mondays do this…
– What to do each week,
– What happens when you get a new
– By Friday afternoon do this…
build,
– What to do first,
– What to do if, back-up tasks
– Meetings schedule

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Setting Expectation Setting Expectation

for Process: – Why does a smoke test get done


– How many test cases per week first?
– How many bugs per week – Why do you have to close bugs
– What you should expect from us as soon as possible in a build
cycle?
– What we send you
– How often do you do a full
– When/how. regression suite and what does it
mean.

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Setting Expectation Be a Better Test Lead

– How will they know if they are A few special process topics:
doing a good job? • Change control
– Remember, in some countries, • Metrics
many of your employees may be • Status reporting
right out of school, it could be – Communicating status
– Status reports
their first job or first company
– Must be uniform and defined
setting. Let them know what you
expect.
– Setting expectations will provide
for more trust.

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Be a Better Test Lead Be a Better Test Lead

Change Control: Change Control:


– Talk about how your team • Importance of
manages change. • How to
– Describe the business • Communication of
environment for change.
– This is- in almost every case I There are very real probabilities
have seen- a totally new topic for here for problems ranging from
offshore teams. hurt feelings to missed bugs!
– Opinions developed here may Anticipate and train to minimize.
not be helpful.

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Be a Better Test Lead Tribal knowledge

Metrics and Measurement What is Tribal Knowledge?


– Let them know they will be – Learning by osmosis
measured. – Water cooler conversations

– Training: explain the


Encourage it!
measurements, what they mean
– Plan to facilitate it: build infrastructure,
and why you need them, how
joint participation at meetings, joint
are they used... document reviews, open and easy
– Remember: “What you measure phone lines, video conferences
will increase.” – Work to increase 1-on-1
– Whatever measurements or communication among team
members. Don’t be the only gate
metrics you choose, make sure through which information can pass.
you are gathering correct
information!

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ISO/Six Sigma/CMM ISO/Six Sigma/CMM
For a variety of cultural, educational
Great opportunity for failure here: and work experience reasons (the
mix depending on what country you
Don’t rely on their text book are talking about), getting your test
process for good work! team thinking out-of-the-box needs
creativity training. This is particularly
Has your Dev process been true when you are dealing with staff
audited to a certain CMM coming from a CMM mindset.
level? If yes, you may need to The type of tester training that
rely on their processes. happens overseas, if any, is usually
not test training but requirements
For the overwhelming majority of validation training following CMM
US companies, all this means procedures. These processes are
is paperwork and no higher not very common in the US yet are
quality! overseas. It is very often shocking
for offshore teams to hear many US
development teams, frankly, could
care less!
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Summary: Planning the Training the Offshore
Trainings Team

What you just learned:


– Train for communication- build Understanding
your processes and
infrastructure to focus on Your Product
microcommunication. Domain/Users
– Get your own house in order! Technologies
Train on it.
– Build trust, open doors.

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Training the Offshore
Most Important
Team

"A cookie store is a bad idea. What is your product?


Besides, the market research • Internal users? Consumer? B2B?
reports say America likes crispy • Competitors?
cookies, not soft and chewy • Who uses it?
cookies like you make." -- • What is the skill level of the users?
Response to Debbi Fields' idea • For example- accounting product:
of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies. users may be CPAs and data entry
people. What are their accounting
knowledge levels? Computer skill
levels? Why is this product
worthwhile?
• How do they use it?
• Sell your product. Get them excited!
• Don’t be boring here!

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Most Important Most Important

What technologies is your – For most test teams, having a


product built with/on? balance between testing from a
• Need to know the 3rd party business user’s perspective and
components? testing from a technical
• Java, c++? perspective is key.
• Session-based or cookie based – A good rule of thumb with
state?
offshore teams is “hire for
• Client or server side error
technical knowledge, train for
checking?
business knowledge”.
• …whatever.
– Plan and budget for extensive
Important for:
training on the product and
• Gray box testing
business domain. It will pay off!
• Leverage tech abilities of staff.

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Most Important Most Important

– From end-to-end user scenarios – Making credit card processing


to simple requirement validation, software in China where banking
I would not rely on either the consultants, McKinsey & Co.,
current test cases or a user estimate fewer than 1 per cent of
the country's population has a
manual as the sole learning tools credit card, and more than half of
for domain knowledge. those accounts are inactive, how
– Conduct a very interactive can you expect your test team to
training session about the users. test from a user’s perspective?
– Set up exercises with mock – If you are developing stock
users from a made-up office trading software in Russia, even
where different students will if one of your testers says they
have knowledge of stock trading
have different roles and tasks in in Russia, will that be useful for
using your product. US users or SEC compliance?

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How to Test How to Test

"If you have enough monkeys Knowledge of Testing and QA,


banging randomly on particularly of American-style
typewriters, they will eventually
testing is virtually unknown in the
type the works of William
Shakespeare." countries most popular for
offshoring.
Training the Offshore Team
How to Test If you only train the team to
execute your test case database,
count on large staff turnover and
missed bugs.

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Train to test not to Developer Testing and
validate Tester Testing
Validation- the easy work. Who are your testers?
– Good Developers don’t always
make good Testers
Testing- significantly harder.
– Good Testers don’t always make
Training to sniff out bugs, to good Developers
hunt for bugs is a skill-building
activity that needs planning,
materials, hands-on exercises,
teamwork, and monitoring.

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How to Test How to Test

How to test training needs to Will you rely on this team to do


include, depending on the team,
basics such as:
Gray-box testing?
• model-based testing,
• Attack-based Testing,
• equivalence class partitioning, • Error Guessing,
• forced error testing, • Defect Isolation.
• cause-effect graphing,
• writing user scenario, You will need to teach effective
• requirements-based testing. testing skills if you expect to
get effecting testing!
Give your team all the knowledge
they need, not only test your
product but to understand what
testing is about!

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How to Test What is a Bug?

To have an effective offshore test Tech issues


team you will have to do training on • What is a bug as a code issue is
a variety of more abstract topics: often different from a bug as a user
• Exploratory testing style- what it is, issue.
how to start, how to measure, when – consider this as you choose what
is it most effective, testing to send offshore
• Test case design style such as • How to test for buffer overflows
Soap Opera testing- what is it, how versus developing effective user
to write the test cases, scenarios require different training.
• Common approaches to breaking • Some developers have no interest
software, for example, James in the user experience and are
Whittaker’s “How to Break much more fascinated by the
Software.“ system level workings of the code.

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What is a Bug? Setting Expectation

What is customer satisfaction from a Expectation of what is a bug:


American reference point is very – Show an old version of your
different from understandings of product or another product, show
customer satisfaction in many the types of bugs – validation,
countries. data, error guessing, random,
– Give the team old product to test
You have 2 bridges to cross here. with known bugs. See how they
• Developer testers- what is a bug? do. Give them an hour with
• All testers- what is customer hints/no hints.
satisfaction?

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The Soft Skills English

“We are two countries separated by a


common language.”
Tough Training: Winston Churchill quote on the UK and US.
English
Political Issues English skill varies greatly!
• Ireland
Cross-Cultural • India
• China
• Russia
• Mexico
• Canada
• Philippians
• …wherever

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English English

Not much to say here- the Hint- you may want to make sure you
offshore team either has have some people on the team who
enough English skill to make were hired because, in addition to
other skills, they are excellent
the project a success or the English speakers. This is needed
offshore team has enough for writing bug reports, status
English skill to give you reports and ease of phone
constant headache. If it is the communication. They may also act
latter- you better set up an as lead or moderator of phone
English Training program! meetings.
Hint: Taught by American or Many companies try to hire nationals
who have lived in the US or another
Canadian- not Brit or Aussie! English-speaking country.

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The Possibilities are
Cross-Cultural
Endless!

• How to say “no” (the ability to say


“no” varies between cultures)
Cross-cultural training • How to question a person of
How to work with authority- for example, questioning
the domestic Test Lead may be
Americans looked upon as rude in some
cultures
• Speaking up to voice opinions and
suggestions on testing and process
• How to think “outside the box”
• Understanding group dynamics,
from how to do brainstorming, to
working with or without group
consensus.
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How to Work with
Cross-Cultural
Americans

Special and delicate training is Doing business with Americans is


probably not a new topic for your
needed in: offshore team.
– the importance of getting the whole These are usually long rooted, sensitive
story and not half truths, topics.
– the importance of building trust and When these differences are described,
trust being a two-way street. explained and reasoned through,
allaying personal fears and also
Do research on your offshore training US staff on working with their
offshore team, the “let’s meet halfway”
location. Do your homework, paradigm works well
anticipate problems, train to fix It also gives a performance guide to
them! refer and remind against.

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Example Training:
Cross-Cultural Glossary
“No Secrets”

Using Words like: Tackle the Hard Stuff


– Test – Problem (common): You don’t
– Validate want to get incomplete, wrong or
– Look at missed information because it
– Deadlines may be difficult for some team
– Drop-dead date member to deliver.
– Reliability – During training say: “Don’t hold
– Usability, back information, it only makes
can be very easily misunderstood things worse.”
or differently understood than – This is ineffective.
your intention. Be as clear as
possible- where needed, make a
glossary.

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Example: Training on “No Example: Training on “No
Secrets” Secrets”

Inability to give bad news: I built up images, examples,


– Especially true in certain games, fun, materials…
countries
– Especially true with outsourcing
– Inability to say “No”
– Inability to admit mistakes and
lose face

So…

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A word about Training
Did it work?
and Managing
No, not at first. Training on a defined process will
work…for some people.
What do you do when the process is
BUT! The test lead then managed not followed?
against it. Gave feedback,
Some people will not follow
immediately, showed what guidelines for any number of
should have happened instead. reasons.
In the end- it worked using My suggestion:
unconventional, targeted 1- do not retrain the group.
training. 2- manage/retrain only those who are
not following the process.
3- hope the team gossips (everyone
does).

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Training Your Domestic Training Your Domestic
Staff Staff
Training you home team should include:
The domestic team also needs – processes for working with offshore
training on soft skills and teams
process if the project is to be – the importance of sticking to internal
successful. A key training topic team processes
is better communication, – improving documentation
including: – build processes, including acceptance
testing and transfer
– how to conduct virtual meetings
– what to do when the offshore team hits
– status reporting blocking issues and the domestic team
– importance of kickoff meetings is unavailable
– using IM for trivial – what the offshore team can do during
communication. downtime
– how to improve communication
– provide for Tribal Knowledge transfer.

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Training Your Domestic Training Your Domestic
Staff Staff
Your home team must be aware of how Use of “He” and “She”/ “Him” and
their behavior will be interpreted by the “Her” as well as “it”, “that”, “them”
offshore team.

Americans in team meetings often make
jokes, political comments, and openly Train both teams to use nouns- not
criticize superiors or management. pronouns.
Depending on the country, this can be Jane will finish the test plan and send
looked upon as disrespectful and never
it out.
done. I have seen offshore test teams
lose respect for the US team based on She needs comments on it back by
conversations we may find trivial. Friday.
We need to be more aware of our own Instead say:
habits that may create project friction and
give training on preventing it where Jane needs comments back on the
possible. test plan by Friday.

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Cross-Cultural Example: Cross-Cultural Example:
Top 5 Issues Top 5 Issues

Soft skills example: Soft skills example:


• Use training on communication • In this exercise you brainstorm the
or work ethic to open doors to top 5 things that get in the way of
excellent work conditions.
understanding, trust and
communication. • After the brainstorm you then come
up with ideas about how to
• It is important you do this eliminate these issues.
exercise during training for • Promise to bring these problem and
both the US and offshore solution items back to the
teams. counterpart teams.
• Let the teams do the work of
developing the ideas of how to
train it!

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Cross-Cultural Example: Cross-Cultural Example:
Top 5 Issues Top 5 Issues
Offshore team in Country X Top 5 issues: US-based test team Top 5 issues
• The US team is always in a rush and • They drop whatever they are doing at
telling us to go faster but we cannot make noon and go for lunch. Whether in the
mistakes. middle of a meeting or a time sensitive
process- it is lunchtime.
• They forget to tell us things that happen • They don’t work as fast as we do.
and we get frustrated we do things wrong
• They are so many questions I cannot get
and want us to work late to fix their my own work done anymore and am
forgetting. emailing them late into my evening.
• We are so constrained by the test cases • They don’t always tell the truth about
they sent us to do we feel bored. what is going on. They tell us what we
• They are always adding things to the want to hear.
project even at the end. It is a problem • Women managing men can be difficult in
they are so unorganized. their culture. We have a few women test
leads.
• We ask questions and often hear nothing
at all back from them.

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Cross-Cultural Example:
Top 5 Issues What we just learned…

How these items get dealt with will vary


depending on team dynamics, company – English
culture and the culture you are dealing
with, among other things. – Cross cultural work
The point is not that one group drops their – Training the US team
cultural imprint on the other group and
says “we are right, you are wrong.”
The point is that each team learns how to
communicate about these things, works These may be the most
with each other, and helps each other
over hurdles. difficult or delicate- but
We cannot change other cultures overnight, are quite important to
just as they cannot change us overnight.
We need to be aware of difficult areas, reduce headaches!
since they are inevitable.
This more difficult training will decrease
stress, improve communication, provide
greater work efficiency and have happier
teams and greater project success.

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Set yourself up for Success Types of Learning

Spend time considering the most


Type of Trainings
effective method for training
The Training Material delivery
Exams • Face-to-face
• On-line
Turnover
• Video
Easier for you… • Reading
• Tribal
• Using it
• Don’t think you can send the test
case database and have anyone
learn from that or effectively test
from that.
• Video conferencing: not too
successful for interactive learning.

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Types of learning: Training Material

There must be some face-to-face. Face-to-face


• Q&A • Costly
• Get to know team
• Time-consuming
• Must break formality.
– Tell the truth easier
• Verbal and non-verbal training
– Better communication • Weight of importance
– Ask more and better questions • “Event” will foster more focus
• Definitely most effective.

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Training Material Training Material

• Must review your current


training with a fine tooth comb,
looking for words like fine tooth
comb.
• Don’t user your canned
trainings.
• Looking for:
– images,
– idioms,
– cultural references,
– assumed knowledge.

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Training Material Soap Opera Testing

Remove from material and your The Young and the Restless
delivery:
• “Low man on the totem pole”
• “Toe the line”
• “Hit a homerun”
• “dead in the water”
• “wishful thinking” All My Children
• “like a bat out of hell.”

… I have seen these phrases in


material or used during training
for offshore teams or with non-
native English speakers. Count
on misunderstanding!
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Soap Opera or Serial
Training Material
Testing
• Add more games
• Add more exercises
• Use classroom time prepare you for
the communication needs of your
team.
Kittie Party
Example:
• Think of test cases on the fly: put
people on the spot if that is what
your team needs.
• Brainstorm
Kkusum • Move around the room.
• Work in teams.
• Ask questions all around the room.

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Training Material Training Material

Exercises and Examples: • Time: if you can give your current


• Work in the bug database, material in, for example, two days
product and test case to a new US employee: do not
manager, expect you can give this training in
• Set up machines in 4 corners two days to an offshore team!
of the room. Break up into • Train in phases.
teams… • Brain Overload- too many terms,
• Work live. too much material.
– Send a glossary in advance
– Leave reference material.
– Post what you can to your
Sharepoint/eRoom, Project Portal.

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Exams Exams

Crucial! Note:
• Important addition to typical US
team trainings- give exams on • Writing exams is difficult.
material given (presented trainings, • Making them appropriate for
documents, tools). your material and as a gauge
• Teams pay more attention when of comprehension is important.
they know they will get tested.
• Exams push people to ask more • Test on tough topics.
questions • What is a passing grade?
• You will find out if you are Failing? What to do if fail?
understood!
• Also, who is a good tester or good • Make exams easy to grade.
at English You don’t want to spend your
• Most important: Who needs extra nites somewhere grading
help. exams.

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What you should expect Warning

• More technically savvy team • IP Loss


than US • Staff Turnover
• More eager • Too many trips
• Greatly differing English and
communication levels.
• Change material or plan on the
fly. (unplanned examples, local
examples, go slower…)

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IP Loss Staff

• For most teams, this is not a Staff Retention


problem. For some, it might. • Retention is a problem in most
offshoring areas.
• Check with the powers-that-be
• Use training as a method of
if there are any limitations to retaining staff.
what you can give your • Lay out a training program as
offshore team. a Knowledge or career path
• “Certify” your team in your
Body of Knowledge.
Staff Turnover
• How can you keep the staff
trained with turnover you are
certain will happen?

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Staff Retention Staff Turnover

Training programs on sexy topics You need to prepare for inevitable


staff turnover.
like: I hope your test team is not the
• Doing business with proving ground for the next
Americans, developer hires. If it is, count on
more training trips.
• English language,
• software development Begin a train-the-trainer program with
lifecycles and software your best test team members.
engineering best practices
• software QA and testing
This can have a very positive
effect on staff retention.

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Train-the-Trainer Train-the-Trainer

Pick the superstar/s in the group: • Pick a few topics to pass-off.


Get them extra training, more
documentation, PowerPoint • As you add staff incrementally,
presentations, reading material. you will not have to make
Connect specialist US-team contacts trips….
to specific offshore team members.
Have a bug database expert, a
customer expert, a test technology
expert, etc.
I recommend videotaping your
training sessions as a tool for train-
the-trainer.

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Re-cap Offshore Team Training

• Analyze your staff. Q&A


• Nail down your process and
use it!
• Focus on communication
infrastructure.
• Training on Product, Users,
Domain may be most
important.
• Train on How to Test
• Soft Skills are the most difficult
but will be the most rewarding!
• Build a program for further new
staff.

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LogiGear Corporation

Michael Hackett
michaelh@logigear.com
www.logigear.com

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