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Launch a Program
Align with your developers for a fully integrated software outsourcing team.
Ease concerns about team alignment. Collaborate with Accelerance to synchronize your onshore
and offshore teams for a successful integration from the start.
Launch Your Outsourcing Program with Accelerance Align
A speedy integration of your globally distributed teams to get
your outsourcing initiatives started on the right foot.
![A speedy integration of your globally distributed teams to get your outsourcing initiatives started on the right foot.](https://www.accelerance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/shutterstock_1707351919-1.jpg?width=560&height=373&name=shutterstock_1707351919-1.jpg)
About Align
You've got the perfect partner. Now what?
Congratulations! You’ve chosen a partner to outsource your tech needs. How will you collaborate to ensure successful software development? Good question! Traditional models of simply handing off the work and waiting for delivery lead to less than satisfactory outcomes; a full 25% of outsourcing projects fail in the first two years. Align is the answer.
We understand the importance of alignment to a successful outsourcing partnership. Everyone on your teams, both internal and external, must be in sync on the project mission and vision, methodology, technological needs and expectations, budget, timeframes, service level agreements and deliverable deadlines. With Accelerance’s Align workshops, the success of your partnership begins before the work even starts.
After thousands of global client engagements over 20 years, we’ve found that clear direction and team building at the onset of an outsourcing partner engagement provide the foundation for flawless execution.
Align is a three-day workshop, facilitated by the team at Accelerance, that brings together both your team and your newly outsourced partner’s team to learn how to best work together effectively and efficiently. An Accelerance coach will guide you through the workshop. Your teams will practice working together and agree on how they’ll operate before work begins. All new teams “form, storm and norm” to learn how to work together.
How It Works
Your Align workshops focus on several different areas that we find important to the cohesive operation and success of your project. You can expect exercises, simulations, and scenarios of how your teams will collaborate.
Think of it as a dress rehearsal for your project!
Key areas of focus include:
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Shared Goals & Performance Expectations
Shared Goals & Performance Expectations
Get Started With AlignWhat are we trying to accomplish? What are the service level expectations? What are the milestones? Plans? KPIs? When is done “done”? When is a requirement really a requirement? All of these are key to success.
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Cultural & Linguistic Fit
Cultural & Linguistic Fit
Get In TouchManaging a multicultural team comes with unique challenges and opportunities. How will your varying team and work styles blend? What are the different expectations in work ethics, norms and hourly/weekly commitments? What kind of structure will work best for the two teams to collaborate?
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Clear Roles & Responsibilities
Clear Roles & Responsibilities
Talk To Us“Who will do what?” It may seem like a basic question, but it’s one that too many companies neglect when embarking on an outsourcing partnership and then confusion ensues. The Align process helps define team positions clearly, along with the tasks and expectations for each role, to avoid confusion and costly delays.
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Team Communications & Work Practices
Team Communications & Work Practices
Chat With UsExplore how you’ll manage communications between your employees and the outsourced team. What are expected turnaround times? How quickly do you expect responses? What’s the cadence for meetings? Who sets the agenda and facilitates those meetings? What tools and best practices do you plan to use to manage the project?
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Defined Methodologies & Processes
Defined Methodologies & Processes
Get StartedWe’ll talk about the unified development approach, including the end-to-end software development lifecycle. We’ll also talk about how the agile development process works and why it’s important. That includes how to manage backlog grooming, ticketing sessions and time estimations.
Shared Goals & Performance Expectations
What are we trying to accomplish? What are the service level expectations? What are the milestones? Plans? KPIs? When is done “done”? When is a requirement really a requirement? All of these are key to success.
![Shared Goals & Performance Expectations](https://www.accelerance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/shared_goals%20(900x400).jpg?width=900&height=399&name=shared_goals%20(900x400).jpg)
Cultural & Linguistic Fit
Managing a multicultural team comes with unique challenges and opportunities. How will your varying team and work styles blend? What are the different expectations in work ethics, norms and hourly/weekly commitments? What kind of structure will work best for the two teams to collaborate?
![Cultural & Linguistic Fit](https://www.accelerance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/multicultural_fit%20(800x300).jpg?width=800&height=300&name=multicultural_fit%20(800x300).jpg)
Clear Roles & Responsibilities
“Who will do what?” It may seem like a basic question, but it’s one that too many companies neglect when embarking on an outsourcing partnership and then confusion ensues. The Align process helps define team positions clearly, along with the tasks and expectations for each role, to avoid confusion and costly delays.
![Clear Roles & Resonsibilities](https://www.accelerance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/clear_responsabilities%20(850x350).jpg?width=850&height=350&name=clear_responsabilities%20(850x350).jpg)
Team Communications & Work Practices
Explore how you’ll manage communications between your employees and the outsourced team. What are expected turnaround times? How quickly do you expect responses? What’s the cadence for meetings? Who sets the agenda and facilitates those meetings? What tools and best practices do you plan to use to manage the project?
![Team Communications & Work Practices](https://www.accelerance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/team_communication%20(900x400).jpg?width=900&height=400&name=team_communication%20(900x400).jpg)
Defined Methodologies & Processes
We’ll talk about the unified development approach, including the end-to-end software development lifecycle. We’ll also talk about how the agile development process works and why it’s important. That includes how to manage backlog grooming, ticketing sessions and time estimations.
![Defined Methodologies & Processes](https://www.accelerance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/defined_methodologies%20(800x300).jpg?width=800&height=300&name=defined_methodologies%20(800x300).jpg)
Expected Deliverables & Outcomes from Align
What can you expect from your Align workshop?
![Gain a shared understanding across teams with Align.](https://www.accelerance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/shared_knowledge%20(900x600).jpg?width=900&height=600&name=shared_knowledge%20(900x600).jpg)
Measurable Results
Gain a shared understanding across teams.
What can you expect from your Align workshop? A cohesive team with everyone on the same page! You’ll save time and money in your project development as well as the headaches and frustrations that come with traditional offshore project management.
Head off the risk of team breakdowns through shared understanding and communications achieved by the Align process. Getting Aligned delivers measurable results, including:
- Reduced time for production of deliverables
- Increased speed to reach milestones
- Optimized organizational effectiveness
![A Globally Distributed Team Playbook](https://www.accelerance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/project_management%20(900x500).jpg?width=900&height=500&name=project_management%20(900x500).jpg)
A Globally distributed team playbook
Work together from the same playbook from day one.
Your workshop will include a glossary of all the terms you need everyone to understand in the same way, as well as a culture map that ranks how the U.S. and your offshore team’s home countries rank on a continuum for eight different cultural areas:
- Communicating - low-context to high-context
- Evaluating - direct negative feedback to indirect negative feedback
- Leading - egalitarian to hierarchical
- Deciding - consensual to top-down
- Trusting - task-based to relationship-based
- Disagreeing - confrontational to avoids confrontation
- Scheduling - linear-time to flexible-time
- Persuading - principles first to applications first
Want more information about Accelerance Align?
Download the infographic to gain valuable insights about how to achieve alignment with your globally distributed teams in your
software outsourcing projects.
![Download the Align Infographic.](https://www.accelerance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/visual_roadmap_accelerance.jpg?width=560&height=312&name=visual_roadmap_accelerance.jpg)
Infographic Downloadable
Download Your Align Infographic
Download your visual roadmap.
The infographic highlights key topics from our Align Workshops, delivered to our customers in the form of a written outline encapsulating their unique ways of working together as "One Team." The topics include:
- Your shared project vision
- Team culture mapping
- Roles and responsibilities
- Communications management
- Global team practices
- Defined methodologies and processes
- Software methodologies and tools.
Customer Stories
Explore inspiring testimonials from our delighted customers.
Read More Customer Stories![Rob Hilliard](https://www.accelerance.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Rob%20Hilliard.jpg?width=100&name=Rob%20Hilliard.jpg)
“Accelerance made our teams significantly more effective. The new development team that Accelerance helped integrate for us has accomplished about 60% of our planned yearly development in just six months. I'd recommend the Align workshop whenever you need to introduce a new team of engineers into your existing team.”
Rob Hilliard
Chief Information Officer, Academic Partnerships
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Accelerance's Align Service?
Align is a three-day workshop facilitated by the team at Accelerance that brings together both your team and your newly outsourced partner’s team to learn how to best work together effectively and efficiently as "One Team."
What is the value of Align?
A cohesive team with everyone on the same page! You’ll save time and money in your project development as well as the headaches and frustrations that come with traditional offshore project management.
Can I engage Accelerance for your Align service if I did not engage one of your certified partners?
Certainly! We firmly advocate for the success of every organization in managing globally distributed teams. Whether Accelerance facilitated the connection with your nearshore or offshore partner or not, we encourage you to reach out to us if you sense a need for enhanced alignment between your onshore and offshore teams. Together, we can transform them into a cohesive and high-performing unit.
Ready to get started achieving better alignment between your globally
distributed teams?
Contact us today to explore your options with one of our expert software outsourcing advisors.