Being Agile: Eleven Breakthrough Techniques to Keep You from “Waterfalling Backward”

Working with Customers in Countries Other Than Your Own

Chances are good that if you’re building enterprise-level software, you have customers in countries other than your own—and chances are good that they don’t speak the same language you do. Assuming you globalize your products, here’s how we suggest you interact with your foreign customers during an agile project. (For the purposes of this chapter, we’ll just assume that your native language is English.)

First, if your non-English customers speak English, then no problem. You should definitely involve them in regular, active interaction with your team just like you would any other customer.

If your non-English customers don’t have good facility with the English language, perhaps you can bring ...