Working with an offshore team is a serious test of communication tools.

The real challenge does not involve CEOs and high-level executives. they are all accustomed to organizing and carrying out strategy and sales meetings virtually.

The real challenge involves project managers, programmers, designers, etc. – anyone who needs to work side by side with a colleague, sometimes for hours, on joint challenges.

At bcm, we have learned to embrace constraints.

A few years ago, we saw many of our peers attempting to mimic in-person interaction as closely as possible. Skype calling, VoIP, video technology, etc. For us, these tools proved to be great for introductions & strategy meetings, but terrible for the daily grind. Enter instant messaging.

Instant messaging is nothing like working side by side with someone. At first glance, it seems, at best, choppy and, at worst, dehumanizing. It is impossible to gauge tone, tough to pace conversations, and easy to get distracted. However, we have found that it is just plain effective.

IM conversations tend to fit the flow of computer work. You type a question, maybe test some code in your browser, and then come back to continue the discussion – all without heavy breathing on the other end while you are working away.

IM conversations preserve peace in public settings. Except for some quick tapping, they are silent, courteous to both the guy in the cubicle next to you and to your sleeping wife and baby when you suddenly remember that crucial thing you need for tomorrow at 3am in the morning.

IM conversations correct for accent issues much better than telephones do. It is much easier to adapt to the way a colleague in India or Guatemala spells something than how they say it.

IM conversations get archived. I probably check a chat transcript once every few days, to find a username/password for an app or to remember the name of the sysadmin over in Fremont I need to talk to tomorrow.

And, I hesitate to say it, but IM conversations are great for multi-tasking. That said, don’t multi-task.

For one-on-one conversations, most of the standard IM tools work excellently. I use Adium for Mac OS X, which allows me to communicate with my AOL, MSN, and Yahoo IDs seamlessly.

For more formal project and scrum meetings, we use Campfire, a tool developed by one of our software development heroes, 37 Signals. Campfire allows you to create a single destination (or a ‘room’) for project chat. We create a Campfire room for each of our projects, often meeting there at a set day and time every week. Transcripts are archived in one place, files are easy to upload and review (it’s excellent for design review meetings), and the interface is pleasingly simple. Even cooler, it integrates with basecamp, our project management tool of choice. I’ll be talking about basecamp in an upcoming post.