[nylug-talk] Offshoring is a problem, but not only offshoring

[sixtyfourbeets]

Paul Robbins wrote:

[ Disclaimer: I am not saying that ALL offshoring/outsourcing causes this
type of problem nor that I am for/against offshoring/outsourcing.  This is
one person's individual evaluation of one software team's production.  I am
not in any way trying to instigate a flamewar. If I wanted to do that, I
would talk about Ubuntu. ]

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What you described is common with offshoring, it is usually the case
that the offshoring
agency presents a fancy GUI and promises the world.
Meanwhile management falls in love with the offshoring agency like a
teenager from a broken
home falls in love with his/her first love.  Management is completely
clueless about the
technical background of how things work and not interested in knowing more.
I intereviewed at the DQ department at AMEX and the manager in his
infinite brilliance told me this:
'I have had to learn to manage my expectations with offshoring'.
Lovely, so basically he has learned to a) lower his expectations, b)
expect less than what was originally promised,
c) not bother getting a handle of the core of the problem.
AMEX's offshoring foray basically amounts to them being atleast a year
behind the timeline it was promised,
their code is written in C++.  Offshoring doeesnt save time or money,
a company can hire a handful or less
of fairly talented motivated coders here and pump out the same results
if not better that an offshore
company can only promise.
Between the time lag and poor communication with the offshore company
the balance falls in favor of the
local company.
Boeing offshores its design and engineering team, but the level of
communication and quality of the
talent employed is beyond what you and I are exposed to on any given day.
So writing some crappy tickerplant is a no brainer with a roomful of
local talent.

Steve M