Once you begin an oDesk assignment, please follow the steps below to ensure that your assignment ends successfully.

• Send daily reports
• Commit to a regular schedule
• Keep it in writing and archive
• Notify about planned absence

Daily Reports

The report can be short and informal and should cover work performed and any issues or questions you might have. Try to use the mailing list (<your-team>.devel@news.odesk.com) created specifically for the assignment so that all members of the team are updated on your work status.

Items to include in the report are:

• What you have worked on and completed
• Estimate of pending work
• When you will be online the next day and how the customer can contact you
• Any issues or questions you have about the project (i.e. instructions, things you don't understand, missing items, etc.)

If you are the Affiliate Manager for your firm on oDesk, you can send a collective report to the Buyer on behalf of your professionals working on the assignment.  

Regular Schedule

Commit to an online schedule and make your team members are aware of the days of the week and timeframe, that you are available online. Regular work patterns:

• allow other team members to know when you can be reached
• facilitates team coordination
• accelerates issue resolution
• ultimately increases the productivity of every member of the team

It is also essential to allow for some time overlap between members of the development team. Even a couple of hours of time overlap at a time when all parties are available for online chat goes a long way in accelerating the resolution of questions and other development issues.

If you are the Affiliate manager for your firm on oDesk, you can take charge of online collaboration of your professionals with other team members as well as the buyer.

Keep it in writing and archive

English is not the native language of the majority of oDesk developers. Therefore, writing, as opposed to voice communication, generally allows team members to

• take time to understand well
• use translator tools, if necessary 
• provide better thought-through answers/comments
• refer to the transcript of the chat/email at a later time

Email and Mailing lists are a great primary means of communication on the project. Yahoo Messenger or Skype are better fit for discussions and solving misunderstandings. 

We recommend that you keep all project-related emails and archive your Yahoo chats for future reference.  The mailing list is a great way to automatically have your emails archived. This allows a new team member to review the team’s correspondence from the very beginning of the project if needed to come up to speed with the project's background.

Absence Notifications

To allow the buyer to manage the project, notify them of any leaves, vacations, or other absences as early as possible. Ideally, provide 2 weeks of notice to any buyers that will be affected by the leave.

The points to cover in the absence notification are:

• Absence period and reason
• Work progress and how it will be affected by absence
• Availability during absence (if any) 
• Request for further instructions
• Person to contact when on leave (if any)

If you are an Affiliate Manager representing your firm on oDesk, it is your responsibility to co-ordinate all your professional's leave time with the Buyer. It is also beneficial if you can have another resource available if possible in case any of your professional is going on leave. You must inform the buyer of this in advance, so that the the buyer can hire the new professional on time and the professional can come up to speed with the project without any delays.