Responses to Flat World Webcast Questions, Part 2
This next set of responses comes from Flat World panelist Tom Koulopolous, founder of Delphi Group, managing director of Perot Systems Innovation Labs, and author of Smartsourcing.
- How do you measure the effects of virtual distance in flat world software development?
- Metrics are one thing but what about the actual practicalities of managing a globally distributed software development (particularly given the observations on non-verbal communication etc)?
Both of the questions above involve what is, in my experience, the central issue in globalization, the effect of distance and culture on communication. One of the great myths that surrounds discussions about globalization is that distance is no longer relevant. While we can transfer bits at the speed of light, making the time to travel nill, the time to transfer knowhow, tacit knowledge, and the nuance of context is still hindered by distance. If we ignore the importance of these aspects of communication we will inevitably undermine the quality of any process. The key to overcoming these issues is to have real-time insight into not just data but the process and the people who comprise it. This can often be achieved by creating stronger communities of practice among co-workers, establishing regular opportunities to share tacit knowledge across geographically dispersed workers, and generally investing in socialization. At the same time it is critical to have real-time insight into where a process is working and where it is not so that intervention can have an impact on the process at hand and not be just a retrospective analysis. This is very much akin to the change in manufacturing that occurred when defect prevention during assembly vs. defect detection at the end of assembly occurred.
The other aspect of this is the often underestimated impact of culture on communication. While we seem to have been discussing culture in organizations for decades, it is only recently that the internet has brought the challenge to center stage. Culture can often be addressed in face to face or even distance synchronous communications. However, its greatest challenge is in asynchronous communications. This is a nearly impossible challenge to describe to anyone who has not experienced the issue in a mission critical rather than a casual setting. The importance of not only extreme socialization (as I described earlier) along with an intense emphasis on knowledge management will doom a global development effort from the start.
Ironically, however, the participants may not know of their plight until well into the project when it is too late to adjust the trajectory of the outcome. Once again, real-time metrics become critical for intervention to have an impact.
It is easy to talk to globalization and the flatness of our world, another altogether to live it. My advice to anyone on this journey is to approach it with an open mind and an expectation to encounter the unexpected.
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