You're right about the language barrier, when I commenced working for DHC very few in my team had a good level, all documentation was in Chinese which is tough to deal with for any US/European corporations. Much of their core business was in dealing with Japanese partners across the water. The one thing I certainly found with my team over there was that they can adapt very well to change once the proper and correct procedure is in place. Intrepret that how you will, the enormous amount of red tape required to deal with a vendor is staggering but the rewards can be very beneficial for all involved if approached properly.
Mind if I ask which park you were in? I'm interested in heading back over to China, Beijing specifically, to work for a number of years in the future. Jonathan On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 3:33 PM, robjames <james....@gmail.com> wrote: > > That's interesting Jonathan, > > I am glad (as you probably are) that most companies these days are > starting to get the message that its not a 'leave it with them and see > what happens" situation. That is a recipe for disaster. > > I know that a lot of the Chinese ODCs are not big fans of Agile, > because sometimes there is a little that is left to interpretation. > But I have found by using the right tools and making sure you > constantly are communicating (again as if you would with a local > team), Agile works great with remote teams because it allows for > dynamic changes to your project. The one thing that I haven't > mentioned here, but I think is a no brainer, is that the local company > must have already accepted Agile internally, otherwise I could imagine > this being a nightmare (ie/ implementing agile and an ODC at the same > time). > > Finally, I traveled to Dalian last year and found the city to be truly > amazing when it came to technology opportunities. The amount of > talented people and companies are just huge. I had dinner with the CEO > of the largest tech park there, and they are truly passionate and > enlightened people when it came to technology delivery and execution. > I almost selected a local vendor for a project there, but found that > English in Dalian was not as great as some other cities. I guess > because of their geographic location, they tend to have better > Japanese and Korean speakers. > > RJ > > On Apr 9, 7:57 pm, Jonathan Clarke <clarke.jonat...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Hi Rob, > > > > I worked in Dalian for a number of years as a project manager for a small > > Chinese outsourcing software company (5000 people). You are spot on with > > quite a few of the remarks, it's pretty vital for you to be in direct > > contact with the offshore team lead at all times. Communicating via IM > is > > pointless, with the language barrier there is so much which can be > > miscommunicated, it's tough enough in our native language. > > > > Agile approaches are rarely implemented within the major Chinese software > > corporations, quite a few borrow heavily from CMMI. I > > > > On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 2:27 PM, robjames <james....@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > Hi All, > > > > > I have been following this group for some time, but felt that it was > > > time to introduce myself and start contributing. > > > > > My name is Rob James, and I have been involved in technology, > > > particularly start-ups for most of my career. My most recent role was > > > as CTO of Aegeon Corp, an Australian Company based in Southern > > > California that developed a next generation knowledge management and > > > mashup server called Spaceo.us (which was the runner up at last year's > > > Enterprise 2.0 show in Boston for most innovative new product). > > > > > You can follow me on twitter as @snaglepus and my blog is at > > >http://robjam.es > > > > > But I just wanted to highlight a recent posting that I made about > > > setting up Offshore Developments Centres (ODCs). I have had some > > > experience with this, and the most recent post is about the Myths most > > > people have about ODCs. Find it here; > > >http://robjam.es/2009/04/the-7-myths-about-outsourcing-development/ > > > > > I hope you enjoy, and please add your comments, agree or disagree, the > > > conversation is good!! > > > > > Regards > > > > > Rob James > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Silicon Beach Australia mailing list. No lurkers! It is expected that you introduce yourself: http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia/browse_thread/thread/99938a0fbc691eeb To post to this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to silicon-beach-australia+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/silicon-beach-australia?hl=en?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
