Mythical Cheap Labor - Managing Remote Complex Software

1. As a background, EE Times Mark LePedulus published an editorial "US engineers at a disadvantage" and Harry Gries recently posed questions and discussions about the topic of globalization of engineering and the impact on US engineers. So I wrote this blog post in reply to Harry to share my experience and advise to anyone in the position of being asked to globalize a complex software engineering project.

   Any large company like IBM, HP, Intel, Google must develop a global competency as it is the next stage of economic development and is the new competitive playing field. Smaller companies have more of a choice to make and have more risk involved, and in the short term there are ample US engineers available. Some companies like TI have a very large international team and have built to a successful organization. Others like Intel have had mixed success in India, yet great contributions in Israel. Google is developing Wave in Australia.

   For any new, breaking, time critical innovation it was always better to base in Silicon Valley as the physical presence at HQ and the experience level just moves at light speed. So, US based, Silicon Valley engineers have a huge advantage, and it’s not going away. Perhaps you need to move into a new domain, but there will be plenty of opportunities for valley engineering talent.

   In my role managing a complex, algorithmic software project I had a mixed experience along the lines of “Mythical Man Month”. On the positive side there is good talent, though young and inexperienced, after some training support and management care they can contribute meaningfully on core projects, on the negative side the high turnover rate reduced the efficiency.

   As with any resource be clear about the trade-offs. First off, what is your goal ? Is it ‘cost savings”, or “global talent pool”, “customer/market proximity”.

   For a “cost savings” goal, it’s a myth. In my experience there is not really an advantage, definitely not over the short term. Initially you will be training and putting an overhead on your US based team so you go deeply into the red for at least the first 2 years. Secondly be keenly aware that the cost differentials will narrow over time, the salary budget as a % increase will need to be larger to keep up with a higher salary inflation rate, also make sure this is agreed to by your management ahead of time.

   For “global talent pool”, it is a more realistic and strategic goal. The US is graduating a small percentage of the world engineer’s and with increasing limits on immigration the only way to access the larger pool is with remote sites. Tapping into this talent pool is an important fact for any larger firm as there are just not enough US engineers in boom times to fill out the ranks.

   For “customer proximity”, at least in Bangalore, there is a trend of many design companies basing teams there and then co-location with customer and AE’s helps support effective collaboration especially given the time differences. Not to mention the key Universities like IIT who are pumping out fresh engineers who you will want to hire. So for customer and/or market / government and university proximity it becomes a strategic differentiator. Quickly the same will be true in China.

   On the negative side the turnover rate in both India and China was much higher than US, and with the overhead that it puts on the US it may not yield an overall positive ROI. In complex software it takes at least 12 months to get productive and the most valuable talent has 2-3 years under their belt. If you invest and then you lose the engineer in the next 1-2 years then it’s not worth your while and you are only training engineers for your competition and exposing your IP. Your competition knows this and will eagerly setup shop next door and raid your talent.

   Also don’t fall for the myth that you can offload bug fixes and support as these cultures are ‘fad’ trendy and always want to work on the latest hot thing,( read “Crossing the Chasm”), so if you setup an overseas group this way you won’t get any quality or team stability.

   Leadership is a key aspect. Work to find a US based leader in your group, who has the cultural background, will travel several times a year and is motivated and excited about the challenge and opportunity, and has the relationships with their peer leaders in US so that trust and communication stays open. And be prepared to back them up with your ‘virtual’ presence at least quarterly, and physical presence at least annually.

   When considering a geography consider the cultural attributes and how to leverage them. India is an innovation and risk taking culture, so they will thrive with new ground breaking projects and won’t be bothering with pesky business feasibility questions. They are key assets for early prototyping yet may not have the architecture and quality emphasis. China has a strong culture of quality and you can hire engineers to perform SQA which you cannot find talent or interest for in the US.

Trust - The Cornerstone of Employee Engagement - Trust

Do you Trust your manager, and how does she earn your Trust ? During this difficult economy trust will be increasingly important to encourage risk taking and innovation as employee reports will be scared of losing their jobs.

The basic foundation of any human relationship such as between customer and supplier, or between peers, and in particular between manager/report is based on trust. Trust is the foundation of employee engagement and must be fostered and established before any meaningful engagement can take place.

A good essay on Trust outlines much of the essence of trust, and another article on trust views several dimensions to measure and view trust within. A key aspect in these articles is vulnerability. We are all in some ways vulnerable to others we work and do business with.

As a leader it is imperative to work to build an maintain trust from the outset, and further develop trust as the relationship develops. You will experience critical events where you can either gain or lose trust.

As a manager, key events and activities which you should pay special attention to are:

• Career goals, expectations, promotions, job performance ratings
• Responsibility feedback, positive and/or constructive corrective
  
• Peer and organizational conflict
• Rewards and recognition
• Salary compensation, bonus and stock options
• Decisions on projects and program funding, cancellation, redirection

On a daily basis there are many aspects in which you are being watched by your reports, your peers, customers and managers. You live in a fishbowl and you get watched. Here are key questions which you should ask yourself:

• Do you delegate responsibility and maintain accountability ? and do you give authority for decision making ?
• Do you give visibility to your reports to make presentations, publish their work, work with external groups ?
• Do you request detailed status, or high level status, what actions do you take with the status provided ?
  
• When there are problems and failures what is your reaction ?
• What there is success how do you assign the credit ?, how is success advertised to management ?
  
• When you report to management on schedule slips of execution issues how do you report the problem and cause ?
• Do you remember statements, and commitments you make ?
  
• Are you accountable to follow-through or explain and ask for accommodation when you cannot ?
  

As a manager who should try to find out whether your employee's trust you, here are some questions you can ask yourself:

• Do my reports openly share information and news which may increase their vulnerability to me ? (example: an issue in their personal or home life which may disrupt their work).
  
• Does my report go above and beyond without an explicit guarantee up front of return ? (this aspect is delayed reciprocity) ?
• What do my former reports say to their peers about me ?
• What is my reputation for being trustworthy and predictable ?
• Does my report give me constructive feedback ? is it genuine ?, if so what how do you respond when you get the feedback ?

Any report is vulnerable to their manager for ongoing employment, opportunities for development, promotion and career growth. Being vulnerable is scary and emotional for most report's. The best way to engage an employee is to build their trust, and remember your actions count more than your words.

And if you ever screw up and you regret it, show some vulnerability and own it, go back to your report and make amends.

So strive to be a truly empowered leader and go build a solid foundation of trust with your team members.

Counting Your Blessings

As a busy leader of a large organization it can be too easy to get caught in the rat race and take things very personal and overdue your comittment to the organization and product.

A true empowered leader keeps strong balance and perspective between their role as a leader of an organization and their role in their family and among their friends.

These days, I find myself amidst a career transition which came about a bit suddenly, yet somewhat eerily timely as my parents are both in failing health and my spouse is busy taping out a complex design and needs to work increasing hours. What a blessing it is to have an opportunity focusing on helping them in their time of need.

In the past week, I also received awful news that my friend and colleague passed away from complications of brain tumor surgery. Last year we lost another friend to complications of surgery. These events truly bring home that most of us are showered with blessings every day, our health and our families health.

When faced with challenges and issues we chose how to respond and react. For me, in this transition I have focussed on counting my blessings which are many. Each time a negative thought enters my mind I focused on the blessings I do have, which are many.

Often with my daughter, when she faces a new challenge and is frustrated I share with her that she has it better than many others. Recently she sent me a chain letter email which was full of pictures of challenged inviduals living in poverty and facing their lives stoicly. So it helps to always understand and reenforce in your own thoughts that if you have health and family you have a lot already.

So before you lapse into despair about the stock market losses or a job transition, first "Count Your Blessings".