There is more to communication than merely knowing the language of a country. Cultural references and memes are woven into conversation, and that doesn’t include the subtleties of culture that are impossible to learn remotely. Enter Television. American television has started to permeate cultures in Central America and Eastern Europe, and that is giving people in those countries insights into American culture that they’d otherwise be unable to find.

We were working on a partner’s website, and they had a page listing all of the people on their team, along with what they loved and hated, just to spice up the page. Coincidentally, a QA manager there said she loved Sheldon Cooper and that’s when I first learned about “The Big Bang Theory.” (That’s right, I learned about this American show from our Hungarian software development partner.) I am not a huge TV watcher, so I am a little late keeping up with the trend, but even in Hungary, it’s a big show. It is a general rule that most software engineers and our partners are big fans of “The Big Bang Theory,” no matter what country they are in. For all of the challenges with software outsourcing, the fact is that there are a minimal number of cultural differences.

With cultural reference points to refer to, communication improves and there is a better understanding. And it’s not just a better understanding of characters on a TV show; it’s really how those characters interact, demonstrating in a small part the way American society interacts in general. The show gives other cultures a good understanding of how we are and how direct we are, especially the characters in “The Big Bang Theory.” They are always kidding each other and giving each other a hard time, and that’s kind of an American thing, especially compared to some Asian cultures.

People in Asia, usually out of politeness, don’t question the client; they don’t question authority. When you tell them to do things in a certain way – or from an American perspective, when you suggest doing things in a certain way –they do just that. From an American perspective, this shows a lack of initiative, a lack of innovation and a lack of critical thinking about the task at hand. What it really highlights is the importance of cultural understanding. For a long time American companies felt like it was their responsibility to learn the culture of their outsourcing partners. Now, in no small part thanks to American television and “The Big Bang Theory”, international outsourcing companies are learning American culture too.

Software outsourcing is still easier than you may think, and we can help select those companies that are tuned into American culture and who are not afraid to push back when something doesn’t seem to make sense. Accelerance can work with you to select that software outsourcing partner.

I’ve already discussed aspects of winemaking in Argentina. However, in a previous post, while I’d mentioned the many charms of Budapest, Hungary — which I’d visited last year for a meeting with an outsourcing partner — I barely even got to touch upon some of the area’s excellent wines. This is a shame, as wine is a huge part of Hungarian culture. Although the wine industry suffered under the Communists and really didn’t do very well for a number of decades, in the last 20 years or so it has been re-emerging, with a new generation of winemakers embracing traditional Hungarian varietals and wine styles.

One wine in particular, a red blend popularly known as “Bull’s Blood,” took my taste buds by the enological horns during my visit and left a lasting impression. I like strong, bold red wines, and Bull’s Blood fits that profile very well. Think of wines like syrah, or petite sirah — they don’t necessarily have that sophisticated, aged, Cabernet type of taste, but more of a bold, deep red, strong flavor, a bit less subtle than the finer wines.

Bull’s Blood (or Egri Bikavér, as it is known in Hungary) comes from the Eger region of northern Hungary and was customarily anchored by the kadarka grape, although officially the wine must contain at least three of 13 specified grape varieties. The kadarka (also known as gamza, among many other names), which is thought to have originated in Hungary, was once the country’s most famous grape, but its finickiness led to the Communists virtually abandoning it in the ’70s and ’80s in favor of easier-to-grow options. It’s a dark-skinned grape with a strong aroma, dark color and spicy aftertaste.

Some say the quality of Bull’s Blood suffered under the Communists due to industrialization and the exclusion of the kadarka grape. Whether that’s true or not, both the grape and Hungary’s winemaking tradition have been on the rebound since the country transitioned to a democracy in the late ’80s, and Bull’s Blood, as well as its many fans, have been the lucky benefactors.

In case you were wondering, no, you don’t have to travel all the way to Hungary to sample this homegrown product (although I could think of worse ways to spend your time and money) — I’ve also found Bull’s Blood for sale in good wine shops in the States. In fact, I stumbled upon a bottle in a Silicon Valley wine shop and found it to be a good value.

One last thing: I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the name a little bit. The first thing you should know is that younger winemakers in Hungary apparently shake their heads at the name Bull’s Blood, thinking it old-fashioned. You’ve been warned.

But how did this “old-fashioned” name come to be in the first place? Well, the story goes that back around 1552, the Hungarian town of Eger was attacked by an Ottoman army numbering 35,000 troops (possibly more). At some point during the month-long assault, word spread among the Turks that the Hungarians — there were only 2,000 or so soldiers and townspeople defending the community — were drinking wine fortified with bulls’ blood to give them superior strength. The Turks became demoralized by the news, so the legend goes, and eventually the siege was broken. Ah, the power of good PR.

Watch this space for future reviews of the wines I’m fortunate enough to sample as I visit our software outsourcing partners. It’s to our benefit to take the time to learn and share information about other countries’ cultures, whether we want to better understand outsourcing partners or simply need to scratch an intellectual itch. The process inherently makes us better informed and more thoughtful wherever our pursuits take us.

If your particular wheelhouse doesn’t include outsourcing, contact us here at Accelerance and let us help. We’ll be able to provide you with all the important information necessary for choosing a software outsourcing partner that’s the best fit for your company. 

As I’ve stressed before, having the right culture can make all the difference for a software development or programming organization, and breaking culture down into its constituent parts can be a crucial first step when building a new team or trying to improve an existing one.

For those scoring at home, the elements we’ve covered so far are interpersonal, innovation, standards, delivery, communication, empowerment and selectivity. For this final post in the series, we’ll take a look at excellence, focus and environment.

Excellence

At first blush, the desire for excellence is a bit of a no-brainer — it’s how you meet client expectations, gain more business, and continue to grow. But it doesn’t happen in a vacuum. By making sure people know it’s a priority for your organization and that there is an expectation of excellence within your team, you’re encouraging team members to step up and achieve.

And what, you may ask, is excellence? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

No, really! You need to define exactly what excellence is and communicate that to your team. Excellence could be reaching certain delivery goals, increasing velocity, delivering with fewer bugs, adding more features in the next iteration … your definition of excellence is that which aligns with the goals of your organization. If you don’t know what those goals are, then this exercise will be a twofer, since establishing goals is crucial for a company to operate effectively.

One last thing: When defining excellence for your team, try to state it in terms that are measurable. This provides a means of feedback so that team members will know if they’re working according to company expectations, and it provides managers with a yardstick for gauging productivity and efficiency.

Focus

To be specific here, I’m talking about customer focus: really experiencing what customers go through and what problems you’re solving for them. Such a focus might involve working with personas, visualizing the user, and creating stories that fit those personas in order to get a good visceral, concrete sense of what customers are going through, either without the software while you’re solving the problem or with the software once they’re using it.

Another means of encouraging customer focus is to make the development team use the software they’re developing. I’ve seen this in a number of different companies. At one, we had a product that was a database of information for electronic parts, and it was a very configurable system. It used what was called a metamodel approach, so you could basically define the data structure in the application, and the user interface would then adapt to that and give you the necessary screens to add or modify information within the system.

We realized, “Wow, this system is so flexible! You could use it as a bug-tracking system,” which was not anywhere near the reason why it was developed. In the end, though, forcing the development team to use it as a bug-tracking system really helped, because it let them experience the things that were good and the things that were not so good. As a result, the product’s flaws tended to get fixed more quickly. Until then, there had been no reason for the developers to suffer through those unintended product features the way a customer would.

The whole episode taught me that anything you can do to encourage focus on customer experience will ultimately benefit an organization’s programming culture enormously.

Environment

The environment element actually has two facets:

• the tools and things that make programmers’ lives easier in the software development process
• the physical environment in which programmers are working

For an exploration of the former, read “What Tools Does Your Outsource Team Use?” about how some of the latest visual tools enhance programmer efficiency and work quality.

As far as the physical environment goes, beyond the obvious considerations of providing your team with decent equipment and the like, it helps if you can create an environment that encourages teamwork. This can involve everything from having whiteboards available for meetings to establishing nice public areas where people can meet and collaborate in an informal, spontaneous manner.

At the same time, of course, you want to create an environment where it’s quiet enough for people to get their work done. Fortunately, advances in technology — noise-canceling headphones, white-noise machines, etc. — have made a big difference in this area. (Such was not always the case. Back in the ’90s, we had this excellent programmer, Dave, who became so frustrated with the noise around his cubicle that he moved his work station into the office supply closet. We didn’t want to inhibit his productivity in any way, so needless to say our use of office supplies dropped considerably).

Work environment quality is definitely one of the things we look at when we’re visiting an offshore team. It’s been my experience that a high standard is maintained around the world — including among our partners — because companies realize the importance of treating programmers well if they hope to keep them. There’s that much competition out there.

Wrapping up

So there you have it: five posts about the elements necessary for a successful programming culture. As I mentioned earlier, these posts were inspired by the book Managing the Unmanagble by Lichty and Mantle. They propose 17 different elements to be considered and we’ve covered most of them.

Hopefully this discussion will serve to remind people that company culture doesn’t just materialize from happy thoughts and earnest wishes. It takes planning, commitment and a sustained effort to ensure that all those many elements will be addressed. Like the old song says: “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, this ain’t no fooling around.”

It’s worth mentioning, too, that one of the real advantages an outsourcing partner can bring to the table is the ability to provide a team with a successful, fully functioning culture right out of the box, no assembly required.

Whether you choose to work with an existing team or build your own, however, the bottom line is clear: Culture counts, and failure to acknowledge this reality and act accordingly can mean the difference between just getting by and having a truly successful organization.

Hopefully, by looking at the constituent components of a successful culture, we can gain a better understanding of how they’re formed and implement them in our organizations. For this post, I’d like to discuss the elements of communication, empowerment and employee selectivity.

Communication

An emphasis on communication is vital, and it has to be encouraged at all levels: among virtual teams, among distributive teams, within management. All sorts of things can be done to help facilitate communication. For instance, although it can be a challenge at a distance, it is critical to establish a regular framework for meetings — a daily standup or a weekly status report, say, or at the very least quarterly meetings between team members so that collaboration can be accomplished.

In fact, teamwork and collaboration are absolutely vital. They encourage innovation, they help promote interpersonal benefits like fairness and mutual respect within the organization, and, yes, they definitely improve communication. There are various ways to foster this type of environment, but one of the most obvious (and perhaps overlooked) is for managers to reward teamwork over heroism.

You know what I mean by heroism: The hard-working programmer who sleeps in his or her cubicle, misses holiday get-togethers, basically becomes assimilated into the company like some kind of occupational Borg — all to nobly get that one project feature completed. It’s not at all uncommon in the programming world, and in fact I’ve been there several times myself.

Now, mind you, I’m not saying that employees shouldn’t work hard. What I am saying, though, is that there’s a difference between working hard and pretending to carry the company on your shoulders. When I think about one company where I was missing holidays and generally being a martyr employee, what was definitely missing there was a culture of teamwork. People were arguing all the time, there were personality issues between people. It was very divisive — not a very fun place to work. In contrast, if there’s open communication, then people feel comfortable in sharing and working together, goals are better defined, and there’s less chance workers will feel they have to play the role of the hero.

One last thing: How communication is promoted within a company will inevitably be influenced by the culture of its workers. The breadth of this is way beyond the scope of this post, but if you’re curious about how cultures can influence communication, my post “The 7 Ways an Indian Programmer Says ‘No’” will give you an idea of some of the considerations involved.

Empowerment

A lot of what goes into empowerment is simply trust — trusting team members to independently do the things that would be expected of professional programmers at that level. At the same time, you also need to verify quotas or establish other means of ensuring that the work is getting done and goals are being met.

Because of these two competing interests, fostering empowerment can be a bit of a balancing act. Probably the most important takeaway lesson is this: Don’t micromanage. Besides inhibiting employee development (and leading managers to run themselves ragged), micromanaging can actually deter a company’s productivity and efficiency. (For a real-life illustration of this in action, see my post “PresidentWare — When Leading By Example Goes Too Far.”)

Selectivity

I actually wasn’t sure what to call this element. By “selectivity” I mean, “Don’t hire jerks or bozos.” Somehow, though, I don’t think you’ll find a “jerks and bozos” chapter in any HR manual. But you get the idea. And let’s face it — we’ve all encountered these people before.

I once worked with a guy who was a jerk, and he basically did nothing to enhance the culture or working environment of the organization — in fact, he made it worse. He was loud, he was a blowhard, he liked to tell you what to do, he’d make inappropriate comments … and the thing of it is, I realized all of his jerk behavior was just sort of a defense mechanism to project authority, because he didn’t know what he was talking about. Regardless, he was insufferable, and the worst part about it was that the CEO there didn’t want to do anything about it.

Don’t make that mistake. Jerks and bozos can’t be tolerated within your organization. They’re distracting, they take away from the productivity and shared goals of a group, and they can be toxic to a company’s culture. Send out the clowns.

And on that greasepaint-tinged note, I’ll bring this post to a close. Next up, our examination of the components of a successful programming culture will be brought to a conclusion as we discuss excellence, focus and environment. Stay tuned.