| PITFALLS OF OUTSOURCING | | | | your project, they are likely to have also assigned a |
| The primary motivation to outsource is to reduce | | | | less experience solution architect. More senior |
| costs; at least that is the belief. The other reason is | | | | solution architects allocated to the highest valued |
| that your company does not have the internal human | | | | clients. |
| resources, or, the resources lack the particular skills | | | | For larger systems designed in America or Europe, |
| that are required for a project, or a technology | | | | there have always been software design engineers, |
| platform used. | | | | more recently called solution architects, assigned to the |
| You are a Highly Valued Client, or are You? | | | | project. They know how to transform the business |
| When choosing an outsourcing company it is very | | | | requirements into valid technical specifications and set |
| common to go with the biggest names in the | | | | the design and development standards for the project. |
| business. There is comfort in knowing they have | | | | Don’t Rush Standards – the Architect is the |
| done it before and are probably the biggest because | | | | Gate Keeper of the Design and Development |
| they have been successful at it, the “big blue | | | | Standards |
| syndrome”. However, this success is a | | | | We know many projects stray off schedule and are |
| double-edged sword that tends to affect many | | | | full of bugs. This problem exacerbates when your |
| projects in unexpected ways. | | | | project falls into the hands of lesser experienced |
| In most cases, the vendor assigns programming talent | | | | programmers, technical leads, and project managers. |
| that is least experienced and skilled to your project. | | | | What occurs is programming is done in a hurry and in |
| Frankly, you are less important than the fortune 100 | | | | a perpetual “catch-up” mode of coding. Design |
| client who might represent 10-25% of the vendor’s | | | | documentation is hastily written after the fact rather |
| revenue while you represent less than 0.1%. You do | | | | than prior to each task. This leaves the programmer |
| the math. | | | | guessing at far too many concepts, or simply cannot |
| Dual-Shore Development Methodology | | | | remembering what they coded weeks or months |
| Dual-shore development has different challenges to | | | | ago. Comments are all but void in the code leaving |
| other development processes, particularly when the | | | | the next programmer clueless as to what the code |
| offshore team is, a contracted vendor. Some of the | | | | does without spending a disproportionate amount of |
| issues include accountability, utilization, and project. | | | | time studying something that should normally only need |
| Many aspects of agile methodologies do not | | | | a quick glance. Moreover, testing…well forget unit |
| address these issues, leading many companies to | | | | testing. |
| adopt more traditional development processes such as | | | | I highly recommend modeling your system using the |
| the “Waterfall” approach. | | | | agile-based modeling approach with much more |
| Control the Design and you Control the Code – | | | | robustness than simple class hierarchies or sequences |
| Don’t Outsource Design | | | | of method calls. This is easily accomplished with the |
| In the same way the outsourcing company might have | | | | PROTECT approach. |
| assigned an overweighting of junior programmers to | | | | Click here to read full article. |