I was invited by a Test Engineering Consultant and friend to attend a robot battle competition at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania. I had never been to such a competition so I didn’t know what to expect. What an amazing experience! I found myself in a lecture hall packed with students, not to mention …
Robot Battle Competition, Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania Read More »
In our experience, there are three key characteristics of highly effective software outsourcing providers: 1. Marketplace The provider is located in a region with availability of talent, cultural similarities (to its customers), strong communication skills (fluency in customer’s language), and a strong education system. Sometimes only two of these four criteria are available. But then …
3 Characteristics of highly effective software outsourcing partners Read More »
The first step in ensuring a successful high-performing virtual team is recognizing that virtual teams function differently than co-located teams. Eight months ago we launched a remote software development team for a client in Baltimore, MD. We invited two team members from Eastern Europe to attend a 1-week orientation. TeamFound was on-site for the first …
Team members are more willing to trust and cooperate with each other when they know what to expect from each other, especially in distributed teams where personal contact is limited. Each team member should understand his or her role and responsibilities, as well as those of his or her teammates. This is especially important between …
The importance of setting roles and expectations in distributed teams Read More »
Process is usually not a top-priority when a small team is co-located. Teams often get by with little to no process and no documented workflows. If co-located teams take-on virtual team members, and do not make the necessary effort to build process infrastructure, they will experience frustrations and loss of performance. Therefore, one of the …
Planning processes and workflows for a dispersed team Read More »
“What in the world am I doing here!” was my first thought as I woke up to the sounds of honking auto-rickshaws and motorcycles on the streets of Bangalore. That was 2007, when I setup my first software/BPO relationship with a small firm in Koramangala. The mission: develop a specialized data processing application & setup …
When implementing staff augmentation outsourcing, what are the key considerations in sizing your internal team? First some clarifications: By staff augmentation, I am referring to a long-term contracting relationship where the provider supplies labor and manages the environment, recruitment, training. I am not referring to outsourced developers working on-site, which may be a transitional phase …
Sizing internal development teams in Outsourcing Read More »
Brazilian, Romanian, and Ukrainian students scored top positions in the Microsoft sponsored Imagine Cup 2012 event held in Sydney, Australia earlier this month. The Imagine Cup event is a world-wide student event competition. Since 2003 358,000 students have participated representing 183 countries. The theme this year was “Imagine a world where technology helps solve the …
Brazil, Romania, and Ukraine score high in Imagine Cup 2012 Read More »
In the TechCrunch article With A Talent War In The Valley, Perhaps Romania Has The Answers, Maria Constantinescu makes some generalizations about the culture, technical skills, and value of Romanian developers. The article is worth reading for those talent mongers unfamiliar with Romania as an IT outsourcing destination. Taking a different angle on “The Valley”, …
I am pleased to announce the release of TeamFound’s new ebook: [ebook no longer available] We traveled to Romania numerous times, researched 100+ companies, and interviewed 20+ Romanian software providers. The result: 8 highly recommended IT/Software providers with extensive profiles in our new 62-page ebook. This ebook will reduce your risk and save you weeks …
