Are Indian IT Consultants better than UK Contractors? The Voting poll says YES

[Notascooby]

That's Waterfail reasoning.

I've never seen unambiguous requirements and I don't believe humans can write unambiguous requirements.

That's the thing - you can only successfully throw a piece of work out the org if the deliverable is fully defined.

Whether or not that is possible or recommended is another debate. I think for small pieces of self-contained work it can. For largescale organisations nothing stays static long enough to document it to the level needed to throw it over the fence and expect what comes back to fit.

[cojak]

But in my experience, testing is resource hungry and time-consuming. Therefore is seen as the ideal thing to hire lots of cheap resources to cover.

I switched my terminology this time - I meant off-shoring.

The testers should be physically close to the developers at least. (And it depends on how you define 'cheap' in my experience..)

[The Spartan]

I have worked with some awful offshore teams in Vietnam and India, at present though I'm working with teams split across sites in the US and India and works really well

[SimonMac]

Its ridiculous to think that the flaws that people encounter with out sourced people never happen with natives, I have worked with a lot of locals who have an air complacency which in my opinion is just as bad as the outsourced people who are not competent. The only problem is when its an out sourced person we are complaining about we are much more vocal.

Bobs are not perfect, but there are some good ones out there!

[aussielong]

On the contrary; testing is being very successful in Bangalore with all 2000 test cases passing. All your bugs I am tinking are change requests.

[Mich the Tester]

Its ridiculous to think that the flaws that people encounter with out sourced people never happen with natives, I have worked with a lot of locals who have an air complacency which in my opinion is just as bad as the outsourced people who are not competent. The only problem is when its an out sourced person we are complaining about we are much more vocal.

Bobs are not perfect, but there are some good ones out there!

Absolutely. The real issue is the whole concept of thinking that IT is a secondary part of a modern business that can be outsourced to some party elsewhere, that requirements can be made unambiguous so that somebody who knows nothing about and feels no commitment to a business can write the code, a bit like you can outsource courier services instead of hiring your own fleet of motorbike riders. For most large businesses, IT is actually at the core of the business. For some banks, it almost IS the business. Fine if some clever techy in India is available at the press of a button to work with me on some issue or new function, but that's not what happens; I usually have to go through three numpty managers and two secretaries, none of whom have a bleeding clue what a computer does, only to get the techy's replacement on the line (personel turnover in India is running close to 50% per year) and find that his English is simply beyond comprehension.

Add in the ridiculous phenomenon of 'fixed price' projects where it's always in the supplier's interest to avoid fixing any bugs or continually obfuscate (not the techy meaning) when there's any misunderstanding of specs, and you have a recipe for failure.

It's rather sad that CIO's still seem to believe in this way of working; I don't know who sells them their MBAs, but he should be closed down.

[SueEllen]

Its ridiculous to think that the flaws that people encounter with out sourced people never happen with natives, I have worked with a lot of locals who have an air complacency which in my opinion is just as bad as the outsourced people who are not competent. The only problem is when its an out sourced person we are complaining about we are much more vocal.

You can get rid of natives much more easily as they are local so you can meet them face-to-face.

There as outsourced off-shore team managers apply some obfuscation to ensure it's difficult for you to get rid of them.

[Ignis Fatuus]

I'm working with a very competent outsourcing company based in Hydrabad. My peer over there deals with developers over there. I deal with him and customer management in the US.

Things will change guys, they always do. I may even get rolled over if I can't adapt fast enough. But I can see strengths in both UK and Indian contractors (for me time zones are one massive positive benefit - I spend half a day in India and half a day in the US), business will always need some face-to-face reassurance and that's where I come in.

There will be contracting work in UK IT for a long time to come, just not the type of IT work that we are doing now.

And not necessarily for all of us. Your mission (should you decide to accept it) is not to turn back the waves but to surf them.

[mos]

Well yeah ... some younger people grew up with Bobs ... so they do not know any better .... the key to success is to set your expectations low. I guess people can get used to anything.

[cojak]

And not necessarily for all of us. Your mission (should you decide to accept it) is not to turn back the waves but to surf them.

I am, I just worry that I'll fall off the wave and not be able to get back on.