Working through language, time, and cultural differences (Part 2 of 3)

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Working through language, time, and cultural differences (Part 2 of 3)
By: Karen Johnson, Bacon's Information, Inc.

Part 1 of this 3 part article set discussed working through language differences.

3. Working with People In Different Time Zones
There’s an extra challenge working with people in different time zones. You need to be aware of the time for every location. Phone calls take some extra effort. You may need a headset, a calling card, and a phone authorization code in order to place an out of country call from your company phone. Your cell phone might not be able to accept or place an out of country call. There are tools available to ease the time frustrations, tools such as a multiple time clock that can be configured to sit in your system tray. Following are some tips and tools when working with people in different time zones.

Becoming aware of the time in multiple locations is the first step. A Windows tool called Microsoft Time Zone which is available for free, can be customized to include up to 5 locations, and can be configured to sit in your system tray. The tool is easy to use and provides a quick view to the current time in multiple locations. There are multiple time clocks available on the Internet. I’ve found a world time clock web site that I like because it has an additional time conversion tool. To remember the web site, I’ve created a Favorites folder in Internet Explorer called Countries where I keep a link to the world time clock as well as a link to a currency converter.

Once you become more aware of the time difference for the country or countries where your resources or project team members live, you will likely find that you need to schedule phone calls in advance. You might need to host phone meetings that involve multiple people in multiple countries where each country may be in a different time zone. Following are tips for making calls throughout the world.

For phone call meetings with multiple people, plan ahead. Schedule a phone call as you would schedule a meeting, using a calendar tool and booking the time with each person. If you’re using Microsoft Outlook to schedule, I do not recommend relying on the time translator for meeting invites. (The time translator in Outlook is designed to deliver meeting invitations to each person using the appropriately adjusted time zone for where they are located.) I don’t recommend depending on the translator because some of the people I work with travel and then meeting times are incorrect for them in Outlook. Rather than trying to determine who will be located where at the day and time of meetings, I suggest identifying the time zones for all attendees as part of the meeting invite. For example, 9am CST, 10am EST and 5pm in Moldova. In my experience, if I calculate the time incorrectly for someone, they will tell me. Consider adding a statement in your meeting invite asking people to let you know if you have scheduled time incorrectly.

Phone call meetings with larger teams in multiple locations get more complicated. I was once the head of a committee at a large company. The committee contained about 20 people in 6 different countries. In all, I think there were four time zones to schedule around. Our first committee meeting included a discussion about what day of week and time of day worked best for each person. We choose a day but we never found a perfect solution for the time so we rotated between morning and afternoon call times to share the inconvenience. I discovered that it was unlikely everyone would all be able to attend every call. I learned from experience, that the further ahead I booked the call – such as two weeks in advance and if I sent out a meeting reminder 2 days in advance, attendance would improve. Our committee also made an agreement about how many people would constitute a quorum and from there we would go ahead with meetings and decisions. Project teams may need to meet more often and different ground rules may apply.

For project meetings, it is important to identify required attendees versus optional attendees. It may be beneficial to contact required resources in advance of the meeting to ensure they will attend. Reschedule phone call meetings the same as you would reschedule in person meetings if the necessary people will not be attending. I recommend sending a reminder e-mail for phone meetings a couple of hours in advance. I also recommend canceling meetings no later than two hours before the meeting if necessary. If your meeting time will require people to shift their day significantly, provide as much advance notice as possible.

For phone calls with people who report to me, I schedule meetings more immediately and more frequently. I’ve always believed in providing people with respect for their personal needs mixed with their business obligations. I recommend being considerate of the time of day in regards to lunch breaks, prayer breaks, or commuting times. I’ve asked all resources reporting to me to use Outlook (our calendar tool) to block their time on their calendar so that I can schedule time with them accordingly. I’ve had nursing mothers block calendar time to ensure they can take necessary personal breaks. I’ve had people reporting to me who have had religious observances requiring a 15 minute break in the afternoon for prayers. In these cases, I’ve asked people to block the time they need.

For all phone meetings, whoever is placing the call should be identified. Identify who is calling who in your meeting invitation. If there is a call-in number include all necessary country codes. If you are calling a location you have not called before, arrange a test phone call-in advance to ensure you are authorized to call out of the country.

Recognize that not every state in the US or country in the world honors daylight savings time. Realize that different countries may recognize daylight savings but may change their clocks on a different weekend. You can look up daylight savings time on the Internet and add the information on your own calendar to remain aware of the time. (Also, the time clock web site I have referenced has information on daylight savings.) If you’re using Microsoft Outlook, you can set a secondary clock to help you remain time aware of another country.

Past the headaches of scheduling meetings, use the time difference between resources to an advantage whenever possible. Consider using overseas resources to run regressions tests for a new build during their business hours and you might find that when you return in the morning your overseas resources have completed a regression run and reported the results. Use the time difference to request resources to retest defects re-tested by the end of their day so that you can generate a defect status report when you return the following morning. Just be sure to tell your resources the goal and timeframe for each task so that they understand what work must be completed and when.

And finally, think ahead. If you are responsible for a weekly status report that includes the work from resources located elsewhere – request their status in advance. Tell your resources why and when you need the information. I suggest scheduling time on your calendar to keep in touch with resources during their prime business hours at least some of the meeting times so that you can listen to resources at their best.

In Part 3 of this series, Karen will discuss working with cultural differences.

Karen Johnson, the Quality Assurance Manager at Bacon's Information, has 21 years of experience in information technology. She has extensive experience in all aspects of quality assurance in a variety of software applications. Karen has spoken at the StarEast and StarWest conferences. Karen is also a member of WOPR - the workshop on performance and reliability, LAWST - the Los Altos Workshop on Software Testing, and AWTA - the Austin Workshops on Test Automation.