Re: Help with Outsourcing Tech Pubs

Subject: Re: Help with Outsourcing Tech Pubs
From: Peter Neilson <neilson -at- alltel -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 05 Jan 2005 23:24:51 -0500


I dealt with outsourced software development some time ago, and
the major failures were many:

1. Failure to plan. The developers in Farofflandia were probably
good coders, and were assumed to be good designers as well. The
resulting software never met customer expectations, and was
ultimately abandoned.

2. Failure to travel. Neither the US team nor the Farofflandish
team had the budget for sufficient visits to each others' sites.
Apparently if that money were budgeted correctly, the economic
justification for the outsourcing would have vanished.

3. Failure to allow telephoning. As a late add-on to the team (as
tech writers often seem to be) I had frequent need to telephone
Farofflandia to talk to the developers. Only managers could make
overseas calls. I had to commandeer my boss's office and computer
to work the project if I needed to discuss anything by phone.

4. Permitting the fait accompli. Farofflandia apparently controlled
the project definition, and was able to determine when the project
was finished. "It's an 18-month project, we worked for 18 months,
so we are done." Well, maybe that wasn't how it happened, but it
sure looked like that.

This fail-tale is not unique to far-away outsourcing. Failure to plan
properly and failure to communicate can easily sink a local project.

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References:
Re: Help with Outsourcing Tech Pubs: From: Mike O.

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