browngeek

well, almost Read the article “Hitting the High Notes” by Joel Spolsky and you’ll see why.

Joel’s point is that if companies skimp on programmers, they get crappy software…and eventually spend more money on maintaing that crap. I believe that this is the case with offshore development. Almost all software companies, ranging from giants like Microsoft to a tinies like PostX, are on the offshore bandwagon - all in the name of “cost reduction”. Heck, if you are a fledgling startup looking for funding, the first question VCs ask is - “Hmm… you idea is great, but what is your plan to setup an office in India?”. They are looking for a cheap alternative. They want to show more income (note- income, not revenue) to Wall Street. They figure by hiring 3 to 5 developers for the cost of hiring 1 here, they can get the same product out. Sure. But you get what you paid for. Shitty product. With lots of shitty code. And by the time companies realize this, its already too late. The product is out in the market and the maintanence nightmare begins.

I am not generalising here, nor am I against globalisation. India (China, Ukraine etc) do have top-notch developers. But companies are not looking specifically for them (Besides most of them are already in the US/UK). They are looking for quantity rather than quality. Wrong approach! Would you rather see the movie with 5 mid-riff baring, deep-cleavaged, average-looking women or see the movie with one (and only) Angelina Jolie (no mid-riff, no cleavage - just the lips) ?

Duh!