Working Globally, Struggling Locally

Globalization makes communication difficult. English is currently the "common language" used, but often you are dealing with people who know English as a second, third, or tertiary language, so communication issues can arise. On top of this, you may be dealing with people in multiple time zones and locations, so your window for communicating is narrow.

I have an issue with my current contract. I am in one time zone, the person I am working with is in a time zone 6 hours ahead of me (Israel) and we both are working with developers who are plus hours to that (India). So, basically, I have a window of about 2 hours at the early start of my day to communicate with everyone. Therefore, we use email as our most dedicated system of communication.

However, the developer in India doesn't like to respond to my emails. When he does respond, it is usually only to answer one question out of the 2 or more that I sent. The responses I do get assume a level of knowledge that I've repeatedly told him I do not yet have. They also show a lack of understanding of English, on top of everything else.

In addition, each location works different days of the week and has different holidays where they are out of the offices.

Yesterday, I provided some documents to my direct report, he reviewed, I corrected, and then he sent on to others. Today, I have an email in my in box from the developer saying I didn't do two things. I have the email chain where I asked him those exact questions but never received a response back, so I politely referred him to those and then said I would be happy to add those details if he can provide them. In the second case, he is somehow claiming that a process is different than it is. I went through it step by step on Monday, took screen captures, and discovered it was virtually identical to a set of steps already documented and approved. So I copied those procedures and made the changes needed for this process. He is claiming it is different than that process and I need to use a whole other set of steps (which, btw, are virtually identical anyway). So I mentioned all this as well.

This makes the second time now this particular programmer has said that I'm wrong or lying and I have had to go back and show him that I am not using screen captures, previous emails, etc. to prove the point. I don't like doing that professionally, calling someone out or being called out, but I also have to cover my own ass work-wise. The time zone, holidays, work days, and English issues all are contributing to the lack of communication, as is my still growing knowledge of the application and hardware involved.

I am struggling to figure out the best way to communicate with him using our limited means in order to get responses that answer ALL of the questions I have. Hopefully I can hit on something soon so that the remaining time on this contract is used wisely and well.