How to Manage an Offshore Team with the Best Project Management Tools

Worried about failed offshoring experiences? Read these tips to make offshoring a rewarding experience.

It was a usual workday. James Hills, the president of the U.S.-based marketing firm MarketingHelpNet, opened his laptop to check his emails. No emails. His website didn’t exist either.

It took Hills a few moments to realize what had happened. His offshore web development vendors in the Philippines had simply shut it all down. Because of a dispute.

It’s a real-life story. Not fiction. Check the link.

Offshoring Horror Stories Do Exist

The James Hills case is extreme. It is certainly not the only one, though. There are several other horror stories easily available in the public domain. Of offshoring gone bad

So much so that Google readily offers you the keywords “outsourcing failure stories”. Check it for yourself if you must.

Do You Give Up Offshoring, Then?

That – we believe – is the other extreme. It is a typical knee-jerk reaction that throws the baby out with the bathwater. Cliches are cliches because they are true, you know.

If you respond rather than react, you will be able to retain the advantages of offshoring without suffering its cons.

Use these tools and enjoy a great offshoring experience.

Ways to Manage Offshore Teams with Best Project Management Tools

You need these sets of tools to reap the benefits of offshoring without having management nightmares:

• Project Management
• Team Management: 
• Communications Management
• Team Collaboration Tools
• Processes and Procedures

There are smart tools and techniques to effectively handle each of these areas. However, tools do not necessarily mean digital tools – some of them are human actions that you need to undertake.

1. Governance: Sign as Detailed A Contract as Possible

As we said, this is a technique that needs human action – not software. And, it is critical for efficiently managing your offshore project with a dedicated team. 

Think through your project needs as thoroughly as you can and put them down in the contract. Have discussions with your dedicated offshore team to check their understanding of the project needs. 

This pre-project-onset action is a necessary precondition of efficient project management with an offshore dedicated team. Ensure that your offshore partners are on the same plane as you in project understanding. 

2. Project Management: The Agile Approach

Project Management Institute’s 2017 Pulse of the Profession report mentions that 71% of their respondents use the Agile approach. In varied projects, not just software development. Respondents for this report consisted of 3234 project management professionals from Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Spread your project deliverables across the project timeline. That’s Agile in the simplest terms. This is an approach eminently suitable for offshore partnering. If anything has to fail, you’ll know it fast – that’s the core advantage.

3. Operations Management: Online Project Management Platforms

There are several highly popular ones: Jira, Proofhub, Slack, Trello, and so on. Choose the one that you and your offshoring partner feel most comfortable with. Create a project roadmap using the tool, focused on the Agile approach.

Here’s a glimpse into the user ratings of some of the best project management tools on a scoring scale of 1-10: 

Jira

Jira from Atlassian facilitates the application of the Agile approach. It helps in project task prioritization, identifying bottlenecks. It allows customizing workflows, which helps to add project milestones. Advanced reporting, search and filtering options, and advanced security options are some of the preferred features of this tool. 

• Total number of reviews: 120
• Reviewer profiles: 
  • 52 medium-size businesses
  • 21 small businesses
  • 47 enterprises
• Score 9-10: 64
• Score 7-8: 41
• Score 5-6: 13
• Score 3-4: 2
• Score 1-2: 0

Proofhub

Apart from project tracking and task management, Proofhub also enables chats, discussions, and collaboration for proofing. It facilitates time-tracking for each task even during multitasking. It can also generate custom reports in addition to default reports. 

• Total number of reviews: 9
• Reviewer profiles: 
  • 5 medium-size businesses
  • 3 small businesses
  • 1 enterprise
• Score 9-10: 6
• Score 7-8: 3
• Score 5-6: 1
• Score 3-4: 0
• Score 1-2: 0

Slack

Slack is mainly a messaging platform, which also allows the integration of third-party apps like Google Drive, ZenDesk, etc.  It allows both public and private messaging and archiving of documents. However, some users feel it works better as a communication platform in combination with a PM tool like Trello.

• Total number of reviews: 178
• Reviewer profiles: 
  • 73 medium-size businesses
  • 66 small businesses
  • 39 enterprise
• Score 9-10: 138
• Score 7-8: 38
• Score 5-6: 1
• Score 3-4: 0
• Score 1-2: 1

Trello

This one is an easy-to-use PM tool with a strong collaboration feature. However, it does not offer reporting and time-tracking features.

• Total number of reviews: 171
• Reviewer profiles: 
  • 65 medium-size businesses
  • 73 small businesses
  • 33 enterprise
• Score 9-10: 104
• Score 7-8: 57
• Score 5-6: 10
• Score 3-4: 0
• Score 1-2: 0

Whichever tool you choose, the important point is to stick to it. Make sure that all project communication gets reflected on this platform. 

Discourage your offshore project manager to pick up the intercom and issue an instruction to three other team members. Get them into the habit of issuing instructions on the one of the best project management tools.

4. The Dedicated Team Model

That is the approach you need to adopt for efficient and effective management of your offshored project. This is the next best thing to an in-house team. 

It might even be better actually. It combines the advantages of in-house and offshoring, minus the disadvantages of either.

Why The Dedicated Team Approach Works Best

• You have a team committed full-time to your project, under your monitoring and supervision. This is very different from an average offshore team on which you have little control. 

In the prevalent model, you will have little or no say on the team’s everyday functioning. Just the opposite is true with the dedicated team model.

• The team leader/ project manager cannot make arbitrary changes in the team structure without your prior approval.  

In the most prevalent offshoring model,  is possible that when you hire an agency, the proposed team members have the skill-sets you require. However, the agency might shift team members to other projects. You may only get to know it later. 

That dedicated team model rules out such a possibility.

• You also save on other overheads like office setup and equipment, orientation and training, etc. You have skilled professionals ready for you to have them in your team. 

5. Communications Management Tools

Team meetings are necessary, whether your team is in-house or offshore. Even with the adoption of the best project management tools. 

The special need for an offshore team is that you cannot have it in any of your office meeting rooms. You need to create an online platform for the meetings. 

There are several options for you to choose from. 

Skype remains one of the most preferred online video conferencing platforms. In 2017,  there were 1.33 billion Skype users all over the world, informs Statista. The estimated number of users by 2024 is 2.27 billion. 

Zoom, however, has emerged as a tough competitor to Skype. In January 2020, Zoom had 12.92 million active users, says CNBC. That is a 21% increase from where it ended in 2019. 

Both tools have their pros and cons. The general consensus is: 

• Zoom works better for teams that need to have frequent video conferences.
• Skype works better for teams more oriented towards holistic business solutions. 
• As per the TrustRadius rating, Skype scores 7.9 out of 10 while Zoom’s score is 8.9.

While Skype and Zoom are the most popular tools for online team  interfaces, there are several other tools that you may want to check out: 

• Apache OpenMeetings
• Cisco Webex
• ezTalks Meetings
• GoToMeeting
• Pexip
• Team Viewer

Please note that the arrangement is alphabetical. It’s not a rating. 

6. Team Collaboration Tools

Google Drive

Google Drive continues to be one of the most popular storage and sharing online apps. Statista informs that in October 2019, Google topped the list of “most visited multi-platform web properties” in the U.S. It had nearly 259 million unique visitors from the U.S. alone.

An average of 1.7 billion people across the globe use Google on a daily basis. 

You get 15 GB storage free on Google. You can upgrade that to 1 TB for US$ 9.99 per month. 

Dropbox

A Forbes article states that at the end of the first quarter of the U.S. financial year 2018, Dropbox had 11.5 million users. 

Dropbox offers only 2 GB storage space free. You can buy up to 1 TB space. The paid plans start from US$ 9.99 per month. 

7. Online Storage & Sharing

Microsoft’s One Drive

It is a good fit for Windows users, naturally. One Drive offers 5 GB of space free and the paid plans start at only US$ 1.99 per month for 50 GB of space. 

If you need more space, there is a business plan for US$ 60 a year for 1 TB space. 

Box

Favored by small businesses and enterprises, Box comes with 10 GB of free space. Its paid plans start from US$ 10 per month. 

End-note

We started with human action, and we end with one as well. 

Treating your offshore dedicated team as a business partner rather than a vendor is one of the best strategies you can adopt. With a long-term relationship comes trust and dependability. Both of these are important factors in giving you a rewarding offshore experience.