Training other contractors

[XLMonkey]

To put it another way, would it be a breach of contract to refuse to divulge what I consider to be my intellectual property? (rhetorical question, I'll have to read the contract and consult legal opinion)

Only if you have a distinction in your contract between foreground and background intellectual property:

Background IPR = tools, techniques and methodologies that you brought to the client prior to starting the assignment, and which are not client specific
Foreground IPR = anything created as part of the work itself.

You can, in your contract, make the distinction between the two and retain all rights in background IPR. However, unless this distinction is clearly laid out in the contract then the odds are that the client has the right to everything.

[Cowboy Bob]

Only if you have a distinction in your contract between foreground and background intellectual property:

Background IPR = tools, techniques and methodologies that you brought to the client prior to starting the assignment, and which are not client specific
Foreground IPR = anything created as part of the work itself.

You can, in your contract, make the distinction between the two and retain all rights in background IPR. However, unless this distinction is clearly laid out in the contract then the odds are that the client has the right to everything.

Not if you open source it. I got fed up with re-inventing the wheel everytime I did a new contract, so I re-wrote a lot of it to make sure I didn't infringe on people's IP and stuck it up on Sourceforge - https://sourceforge.net/projects/mpsc-modules/

It remains my property (copyrighted to me) but I published it under the Apache license so anyone can do with it as they wish (including the end client).

I can now explain to a client that I can do it for £X if I can use my existing code (they own all the project specific stuff), but if they want to own 100% of the code it will cost them £Y, where £Y is significantly greater than £X.

It's a win-win from my point of view.

[cojak]

Two excellent posts from XLMonkey:

When similar things have happened to me I found that the best way out was to try to make a virtue of the process: sell the client training and knowledge transfer services and then position myself to help supervise and assure the work that the offshore outfit was doing.

and Mordac

I'd stay on good terms with the client if I were you. In a couple of years, they are going to be right in the tulip, and will need someone with the expert knowledge to get them out of it.

You need to take the long view, get yerself ISEB Testing qualified (if you aren't already) to keep yerself clear of the cheapo out-source chappies, be professional in your conduct towards them and that includes the training aspect, keep a good relationship with the client for when they ask you back (I know other have been asked back in similar positions).

There's no point being childish about it - it's the way of the contracting world, you'll just have to expand your repertoire to keep yourself ahead of the game.

[bfg]

Mordac is right.
You're lined up to be well in the money after a short while, trouble is they will have massacred the code by then so it will painfully slow fixing it.

If you are not qualified as a trainer of any sort then who can blame you if your training is sub-standard and patchy and takes forever. After all it takes several years to qualify to teach children the very basics (GCSE) of a fairly non-specialised subject. How could an IT specialist hope to do high quality training in a specialised area to non-native language students - no matter how professionaly they undertook the task.

[xoggoth]

Wish Indians were half as stupid/useless as some on this board seem to imply they are. All the ones I've met seem much too competent for my liking.