

Ask HN: Have you ever outsourced development and if so, how did it go? - rrhoover

While usually not a good long term strategy, outsourcing development overseas can be cheap and smart approach when technology isn't the core of the business.&#60;p&#62;I'd like to hear about your experiences and recommendations of where to look for engineering talent.
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veyron
Short summary [It's too late to write a thorough response]:

1) with any sort of outsourcing solution, you either end up paying too much or
having to hand-hold and babysit the development process. both are expensive
resource-wise.

2) especially if you arent focused on the technology, the people who actually
do the work treat you as nontechnical, and try to screw you over. Worked with
an outsourcing firm once, and a person messaged me:

"okay 4/11/11 1:03 AM tell me whats issue on XHTML/css which is developed
using web2.0 technology 4/11/11 1:03 AM not Table based old technology .
4/11/11 1:04 AM This xhtml/css is very much all search engine friendly as well
as Google friendly . 4/11/11 1:04 AM Whats the issue with xhtml/css ? 4/11/11
1:04 AM Please explain so that we can fix issue asap ."

now, needless to say I wasnt particularly focused on the development of the
website [it was ancillary]. I estimate i spent more time babying the
outsourcing team than I would have spent actually getting the site up myself.

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rrhoover
Lol, "using web 2.0 technology".

Thanks for the insight. Shady, incompetent firms seem to be a common theme but
there has to be at least a few honest, effective resources available.

~~~
veyron
There's a good explanation for why they are few and far between, and I'm going
to quote The Dark Knight here:

"Joker: Like my mother used to tell me - If you're good at something, never do
it for free."

If they were good, they would charge a lot of money [making them unappealing].
By going with a cheap alternative, you are either going with a new company or
with an incompetent group.

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sohailprasad
Outsourcing generally depends on what project specifically you want to
outsource, and the work quality varies immensely. Personally, I've had a
reasonable experience dealing with an outsourced logo development project, but
a terrible (and relatively expensive) one with an outsourced web development
project. I learned the hard way: when you hire an outsourced web developer,
you get a web developer (read: they'll make you a webpage), not a designer or
product engineer.

The key theme is to be involved every step of the way and have a clear idea of
what you're looking for.

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luckystrike

      .. recommendations of where to look for engineering talent.
    

I wrote this comment on the India specific HN version that has some
suggestions on how to go about finding a good offshore development firm -
<http://hackerstreet.in/item?id=1058>. It could be of some use to you.

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petervandijck
I've done it quite a few times. Mostly it went bad. The last one though is
going quite well. Why?

\- very, very clear and limited requirements.

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abbasmehdi
I've had great success! Get a referral.

~~~
aonic
Can you give me one? :)

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abbasmehdi
Depends what you want done. I know good folks so prices might be in the mid to
high range of the typical outsourcing menu. I am not taking a cut, FYI. Put up
the project (high level) somewhere and share the link.

