No surprise here - offshoring losing popularity
So the worm has turned eh? Offshoring of IT jobs is losing it's popularity.
"Among respondents whose firms previously had ceased offshore operations (61 respondents), the most popular reason cited for doing so was that the operations required too much management and close oversight. Additionally, 30 percent of these CIOs believed that they weren't realizing expected cost savings."
I can certainly attest to that - software development is a very interactive profession - so much of what we communicate never gets written down, much is communicated informally at the water cooler etc. When a person is not "on site"- whether they're in Boise or Bangalore the job becomes more difficult.
I've been on both sides of this - having a client in Ohio while my team and I worked in Boston was pretty tough - being in person was so much easier. Also I worked for a large mutual fund firm on a project where half the team was in India. We did weekly video conferences and bi-weekly 6.30am phone calls. It was hard! With the shortage of IT workers now in India (since everyone pretty much outsourced there at the same time) we found it very hard to hire (and impossible to retain) senior developers. Being the architect I felt I had to step up and that was fine but the other local developers found it a burden.
The really hard parts were cultural differences and inevitable misunderstandings but most of all the time difference was the most frustrating. With almost 24 hours between responses (you write an email at 9am EST, they won't answer it until, say, 10pm but you won't read it until 9am the following day) it's hard to keep momentum especially on critical issues.
More than ever these experiences taught me that keeping development teams close together - ideally customers with management with developers with architects helps get to success quickly.
Offshoring won't go away and I don't feel it should - I really enjoyed the intercultural and travel opportunities - but this just points to those "bean counters" who think software development is like "brick laying" or something that scales well when you add people - you just need bodies in seats - the cheaper the better.
It's NOT! Perhaps we should buy them copies of The Mythical Man-Month
Labels: project management
posted by Frank Kelly at 7:59 PM
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10 Comments:
Distributed software development really is hard. If you must, daily communication is really in order. If you're working with an offshore team, you need to be really tight with them, even having a personal relationship will definitely help because it allows both parties to have free and uninhibited communication.
Most companies go offshore to pinch pennies, but they're sorely disappointed when they realize that being cheap got them nowhere. If you're going offshore, don't be a cheap skate. Invest the time and energy to really communicate with the offshore team and make sure that they're just as committed. Otherwise, you'll save time and money staying onshore.
I mean, if you send work over seas and don't invest in (or demand) proper communication, what do you expect will happen?
Raza Imam
http://BoycottSoftwareSweatshops.com
2/28/2008 3:12 PM
I have found with off shorting you need to have a very clearly defined unit of work. Secondly you have to ensure that your expectations of the outcome are very clear.
You can get the feeling it is easier to just do the work yourself.
2/28/2008 3:56 PM
The survey seems to be incomplete abd begins with "94 percent of participating CIOs" What about the CIOs not participating in the survey. ;-)
I like the way you conclude:
Offshoring won't go away and I don't feel it should ... bean counters" who think software development is like "brick laying" or something that scales well when you add people
2/28/2008 8:57 PM
I WOULD LIKE TO BE DISAGREEING YOUR KIND SIR. I AM AMERICAN DEVELOPER WITH TOP NOTCH HTML SKILL AND LOVE TO WORK WITH THE SUPERIOR INDIAN ENGINEERS THEY ARE TO BEING THE BEST. COMPANY SHOULD BE HIRING THEM MANY TIME. THEY ARE TO BE DOING TOP DOG WORK FOR LITTLE MONEYS.
3/02/2008 10:21 AM
(Last 2 paragaphs) LOL! This is absolutely the most common attitude among IT managers that have no development experience themselves. Like the old commercial about "parts is parts", many of these guys think that "code is code", which is one of the reasons none of them thought about the ramifications of offshoring to begin with.
We had a major (read: mission-critical) project developed in phases over 5 years with offshoring teams in Russia and in India. There was very little oversight of these teams and no code review whatsoever. The result was a major disaster that's taken us the better part of 2 years to fix.
Yes, software development is complex, and there's really no substitute for frequent contact with the customer (if for no other reason than the fact that requirements are never really completed until the project is completed).
3/02/2008 4:35 PM
Outsource to Brazil. Much less cultural difference, much much less timezone difference, good enough skills, still good enough rates, friendlier folks ;-)
3/03/2008 12:44 AM
Read this, direct from Bangalore:
http://antipattern.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/the-beginning-of-the-end/
3/03/2008 8:38 AM
We are a development company located in Argentina (South America). We have been working in offshore development for two years now, and our customers are greatly satisfied with results.
The accent of the English we speak is much closer to US or UK and they understand us better than they do with people in Bangalore.
If you look at the timezone difference, it varies from 2 to 4 hours from US CST (Argentina timezone is now -0200, and generally -0300).
One more thing: We work using documents all the time, and manage requirements and configuration, so nobody gets a wrong view of the problem, nor changes anything without proper permissions. That is also useful to avoid problems.
I suggest you to try South American off shoring and experience the difference, I think you'll be more comfortable with results.
Thanks!
Marcelo.
3/03/2008 10:02 AM
LOL @ HAJI SARRADUMANUMAN
3/03/2008 11:37 AM
(Last 2 paragraphs) LOL! This is the most common attitude among IT managers who have had no development experience themselves. Like the old commercial tag line "parts is parts", many of these guys think that "code is code", which why many of them fail to grasp the ramifications of offshoring.
We had a major project (read: mission-critical) developed in phases over 5 years where most of the development team was offshore in Russia and India. Very little oversight or code review. When it was completed, it turned out to be a major disaster.
Yes, software development is complex, and there is no substitute for working closely with the customer.
3/02/2008 4:43 PM
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