

7 things to consider before outsourcing software development - JohnReel
http://johnreel.com/blog/2008/08/01/considering-outsourcing-development/#comments

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pjackson
The slant of this article seems to be mostly steering people away from
outsourcing. I understand the motivation, but I disagree in some cases.

Outsourcing is always a touchy topic with hackers and techies like me. Nobody
likes to consider sending work offshore that they themselves either used to
do, or at least consider critical to their business.

My take on outsourcing is: Don't Outsource Your Brains.

My meaning is: it's useful to outsource pieces of your business that are not
core to your strategy. HR, Benefits Management, Software Testing, and
Development can all be candidates for outsourcing under some circumstances.

If you're a software or technology company, it may not be a good idea to
outsource development. Or, it could be a good idea to outsource implementation
of the mundane, easy parts of your application after your Chief Architect has
put a solid framework together, so that he or she can move on to solving
tougher problems.

If you're a t-shirt printing company, then outsourcing your e-commerce, SEO,
and other technical functions could be a great idea, so you can focus on
making the business of printing t-shirts better.

Shoot. I am a techie, and I think S3 and EC2 are great ways to get a business
started at a low cost. Because managing infrastructure is not my core
competence.

It was a great read, thanks.

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adrianwaj
Well worth the read, but I don't know why you linked to a comment...

There'd also be people that engage in outsourcing arbitrage: present as an
outsourcer to a client and then outsource directly to others with the
requirements.

~~~
rdj
1st Bob: What you do at Initech is you take the specifications from the
customer and bring them down to the software engineers?

Tom: Yes, yes that's right.

2nd Bob: Well then I just have to ask why can't the customers take them
directly to the software people?

Tom: Well, I'll tell you why... because... engineers are not good at dealing
with customers...

1st Bob: So you physically take the specs from the customer? Tom: Well... No.
My secretary does that... or they're faxed.

2nd Bob: So then you must physically bring them to the software people?

Tom: Well... No. ah sometimes.

1st Bob: What would you say you do here?

