India boasts a highly educated, English speaking workforce that possesses specialized skills often in short supply in the United States. Employing offshore resources can increase a team’s overall productivity by taking advantage of time zone differences and allowing work to proceed around the clock. When you consider the reduced labor cost and India’s legislative commitment to favorable policies and financial incentives, it’s no wonder that many companies choose to work with offshore resources for software implementations and other technology initiatives.

From fall of 2024 through summer 2025, I worked with a client that upgraded to Manhattan Active Warehouse Management (MAWM) along with Manhattan Active Omni (MAO) to manage customer orders and omnichannel fulfillment from brick and mortar stores.The offshore testing team was a critical component of the success of this project, and Summit led the contracting efforts to hire and manage these resources. We employed 12 quality assurance analysts from India and divided their efforts across the MAWM and MAO work streams. We’ve captured our best practices for creating a high performing offshore team notwithstanding the continental separation.

Strong Collaboration and Communication

Success with an offshore team depends on strong communication habits and a shared sense of connection. We focused early on creating predictable routines and building trust across geographies. The following practices helped the team stay aligned and highly productive.

• Daily huddles helped us stay connected and fostered positive relationships between the testing managers in the U.S. and the offshore employees. This helped us stay flexible and adaptable when project scope changed or priorities shifted.
• Agenda during these meetings included reporting on progress, documenting bugs/defects, and assigning team members to triage and retest. The testers had a clear understanding of what was expected of them. 
• We shared project information frequently and openly, just as we would with any core team member in the U.S. Sharing as much information as possible helped the QA analysts feel connected to the work and improved their engagement in testing because they understood how they contributed to the overall success of the implementation.
• Our team enjoyed learning about each other’s families, cultural celebrations, and daily routines. This helped establish positive team morale and a motivating environment to overcome challenges and meet deadlines.

Knowledge Transfer (KT) Sessions

It is critical for good testing to ensure that your QA resources have solid comprehension of warehouse processes and transactional flows. Our QA Analysts in India craved understanding of the warehouse flow, and we went to great lengths to make sure our testers understood how the warehouse would operate. This investment in training for the offshore team increased the quality of our testing results. 

• We took the Customer Flow Document and created slide decks detailing many warehouse transactions, including photos from the facility. The QA team gained understanding that allowed them to complete transactions correctly and gave them a resource to complete future test iterations with the same process. 
• For complex transactions, we scheduled time with client MAWM experts and Manhattan consultants to work directly with the testers and show them the proper way to complete transactions.This collaboration was essential for vetting enhancements to MAWM base software. 
• The more we invested in training our team members in India, the more skilled they became at reporting true defects rather than missteps in process flows. This made our testing iterations much more efficient and helped the testers feel empowered to work proactively on test cases.

Clearly Defined Roles and Responsibilities

To provide a sense of accountability and project ownership, we assigned areas of focus to each team member based on prior experience. The QA team felt increased responsibility and higher motivation because we empowered them to take ownership of certain functional areas.  

• As the project kicked off, an early priority was to leverage the strength of the QA team by identifying the areas of warehouse functionality where they already had experience. We determined that we would have a primary tester for Receiving, another for Putaway, another for Cycle Counting, and so on.
• This allowed certain team members to build on previous experience and become experts in their area. They cross-trained each other and built a well-rounded team that could help with all testing cases.
• The QA team really appreciated having a primary function, and each took a sense of pride in having an area of responsibility. In this way, we created a quality mindset which went well beyond just completing testing tasks. Everyone really cared about validating that the system worked as designed, especially in their primary functions.
• This ownership allowed our team to broadly and thoroughly test MAWM functionality, integration with host systems, and verify MAO performance. We comprehensively tested all functional and edge-case scenarios, to include exception handling for many transactions.

QA Reporting and Stakeholder Engagement

Rigorous testing of new software is critical for any implementation project, but few project leaders have the capacity to review details of hundreds of test cases. Timely reports that succinctly captured testing progress, software issues, and delegated responsibility for issue resolution propelled us to QA success.  

• Our team employed Jira/Zephyr Squad project management software to track test cases and create reports on testing progress.This allowed us to communicate regularly with client executives and Summit leadership keeping them apprised of testing milestones.
• We focused and prioritized weekly top issues and reported on blockers to testing efforts.This created transparency for our stakeholders and helped us escalate and ultimately resolve issues that prevented testing of high-priority scenarios.
• The high-level executive summaries were accompanied by detailed testing statistics describing percent complete, progress toward goals, and quantities of test cases that were blocked by defects.We resolved issues proactively because of the clarity of our reporting.
• At times, issues needed to be escalated beyond the QA team and core project team.The testing managers did this effectively by pulling in senior leaders appropriately when conflicting priorities caused delays. The QA Analysts counted on their managers to have their backs and really appreciated this support.
• Our testers also documented all of their testing steps using screenshots and creating PDFs to upload into our Zephyr Squad test iterations. The clients and the Manhattan team always understood the steps that testers took to complete transactions. This transparency of work ensured high levels of trust and fidelity in our test results.

Inclusion and Recognition

Due to our geographical separation, we were unable to take the QA team to lunch to express appreciation for their efforts. Nevertheless, we wanted to make sure every QA analyst felt seen, heard, and appreciated. e. We prioritized inclusion and recognition throughout the project to strengthen connection and momentum, and as a result, we created a close-knit group that accomplished a lot of work.  

• Though it may seem a simple thing, our efforts to make sure the QA analysts understood that they were genuinely contributing went a long way to ensure the success of our project. Showing them how their testing efforts would positively impact the implementation of MAWM and MAO gave them a sense of accomplishment and kept motivation high.
• We took time to express gratitude and recognize contributions. Each QA analyst learned new things and grew professionally on this project, and we celebrated those achievements together.
• Our team experienced a trusting and open environment that allowed us to be transparent about all aspects of the project. We learned from our mistakes and created positive team momentum. We encouraged and motivated each other during sprints to meet deadlines.

Concluding Thoughts

The successful implementation of MAWM and MAO by our client, in partnership with the Summit Advisory Team, highlights the significant advantages of leveraging offshore resources. With strong collaboration, comprehensive knowledge transfer, established roles and responsibilities, robust reporting, and fostering an inclusive environment, Summit effectively managed a high-performing offshore team of quality assurance analysts from India. This approach maximized productivity and efficiency and also cultivated a motivated and engaged team, ultimately leading to a successful project outcome despite geographical separation.

If getting started with IT resources from India seems daunting, Summit can provide you with vetted and highly experienced QA analysts.We have an office in India and maintain a strong team to help with any implementation services you might need. Additionally, we’ve created strong relationships with other contractors, allowing us to scale quickly as needed. Summit can help you tap into cost savings and gain efficiencies that working with an offshore team offers.