Developer Champion
Yesterday I walked into the kitchen to see how lunch was going and my boyfriend handed me a knife, a part-chopped hard boiled egg and said "finish this, I need to have a shower". As you do. Apparently there were two things that needed doing - "this" needed finishing, and I needed to keep an eye on the fish.
Fine.
One of the most obvious differences I faced when I moved from LMAX to 10gen were the working conditions. I don't mean like being deep underground in some dangerous situation vs being pampered by beautiful slave boys and girls. What I mean is that the working practices at one company necessitated being in the office for core hours, and at the other flexible hours and remote-working are practically mandatory.
After the acquisition of a company with offices in New York, I pestered my company outrageously until they got fed up and finally relented – they agreed to send me to the US.
To ease the transition, I chose to move onto a project which would allow me to start working in London and continue on the same team after I had moved to New York.
In the extreme over-excitement that followed my relocation, it took me a little while to realise that effectively I was an offshore resource, no different really from any of our Indian test team, and the team needed to manage this appropriately.
I learnt a number of lessons whilst playing this game. Some of these points are also valid for teams with remote resources (e.g. people working from home).
Continue reading "Tales from the Other Side: Confessions of an Offshore Resource"