The quality of work done by cheap Indian labor

[hanratty21]

Less thinly veiled racism people.

So, you don't mean 'Felipe,' right?

[MechaPiano]

I hate loosing work to Indians.

[Frets]

Code is in the eyes of the beholder.

I've seen very functional yet simplistic as1 that makes me think a middle school kid did it thru extremely complicated "look how challenging my coding can be" and "I'll show you who can code you'll never be able to figure this out so you'll have to hire me for updates.

Smart outsourcing requires you to work to set standards for whoever you send the work off to. The less you specifiy the more "Mad Genuis Creative spur" you'll get in return. When you outsource you also need to let them know that they will be held accountable for the final product. Back when I was a web developer I would sub contract graphics artists for certain projects. I never had a Diego Rivera incident because I would give clear cut instructions and do follow ups. If something wasn't working I'd let the graphic artists know.

[PAlexC]

I think outsourcing has it's place. Not for everything, but it's a reality these days and you have to embrace it for the other benefits you get. Frankly, India's IIT's were a great government investment and put them on this playing field. The U.S. would never do anything like that, for fear or being labeled socialists.

I do think, however, that you have to choose your vendor wisely. My boss made a very poor choice, a lot of things made it clear that they didn't have their stuff together. In fact, the owner, worked for a larger company and split off to start his own.

Secondly, managers who have not worked in the field can be idiots. They don't understand that you can't just tell someone to 'build something' and it happens without problems. You need clear requirements and specifications, and an idea of what it actually is that you want. Unfortunately, I don't work for such a man. He asks for specs because I say we need them, then doesn't read them, and gets upset when I explain how reality contradicts his ideas unless you're willing to spend a lot of time and money, which he isn't.

Third, unless you're paying decent money, your code will always be less than perfect. Stuff gets re-used, because they promise speed and turnaround. That means re-using and breaking things up among as many people as possible. Code isn't cohesive or designed, it's slapped together. That doesn't mean it's awful like the stuff I'm dealing with, but when it comes time to extend or modify, you're not going to be satisfied.

The bottom line is too many business decision makers think outsourcing will make all the pain go away, but it doesn't. You still need to specify and manage, and they don't want to do that.

[Frets]

The bottom line is too many business decision makers think outsourcing will make all the pain go away, but it doesn't.

And there you have it. If you treat projects as a liabilty that is what they become.

[Frets]

I just had to drop this link into the discussion.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32172403...orld_business/

See Page2

A study by Duke University professor and Harvard researcher Vivek Wadhwa, for example, found that among Chinese nationals who emigrated to the U.S. and later returned home, 72 percent said they thought professional opportunities were better in China. Among Indians who returned home, 56 percent said the same of their country.