Contracting and outsourcing

[sasguru]

No, that remark wasn't for you. But I can make a even better one now.
The reason why you are making this statement ("Knowing both sides, I can see that the management side is infinitely more difficult") has only one explanation. You are not qualified for the role you are filling in now. Just as an unqualified programmer would find a compiler to be chaotic and illogical, you do find this in your role. The reason is simple. Many business managers come to their position without any qualification, any proper study or any self-learning activity. True, it's difficult to find qualified business people. Example, how many project managers do know rup, prince2, cobit, itil (and I mean properly know, not just mentioning it on the cv) and have studied all their alternative, educating themselves everyday just like a good techie does. Answer: very few (the good ones). Most of them believe that improvisation is good enough, and are backed up by even more incompetent senior managers. It's not like that. Ffs, even comedians do not improvise but they follow strict mathematical rules. Sure, you will need a creative input but that's just as useful as is for a programmer.

Spoken like a true techie. Things rarely have "one explanation".
Stop wasting your time with stuff that you don't understand, techie boy.
Keep coding - until your code monkey skills are outsourced to Vikram in Bangalore.

[Emperor Dalek]

Outsource to Skaro, you know it makes sense. No problems with uppity staff plus my positronic brain alone could process your entire planet's financial transations in less than 1 millisecond.

[Francko]

I'm assuming your first sentence isn't aimed at me - my technical knowledge in my speciality is second to none, particularly as I was doing it for 15 years, mostly as a contractor, till I took my permie management job.
Knowing both sides, I can see that the management side is infinitely more difficult, as it involves dealing with people who, as a species, are chaotic and illogical. On the other hand techies can be stubborn, ignorant of the bigger picture and inflexible and those ones totally deserve their outsourced fate.

No, that remark wasn't for you. But I can make a even better one now.
The reason why you are making this statement ("Knowing both sides, I can see that the management side is infinitely more difficult") has only one explanation. You are not qualified for the role you are filling in now. Just as an unqualified programmer would find a compiler to be chaotic and illogical, you do find this in your role. The reason is simple. Many business managers come to their position without any qualification, any proper study or any self-learning activity. True, it's difficult to find qualified business people. Example, how many project managers do know rup, prince2, cobit, itil (and I mean properly know, not just mentioning it on the cv) and have studied all their alternative, educating themselves everyday just like a good techie does. Answer: very few (the good ones). Most of them believe that improvisation is good enough, and are backed up by even more incompetent senior managers. It's not like that. Ffs, even comedians do not improvise but they follow strict mathematical rules. Sure, you will need a creative input but that's just as useful as is for a programmer.

[Francko]

Spot on. It's not an accident that Francko has picked a monkey as his avatar.
He represents a lower link in the evolution of IT.

Monkeys are the ultimate evolution of IT. Or are you aiming to be a dalek instead? In that case, prepare to be exterminated.

[sasguru]

Yes, the number of times I've heard people say "that freelancer is shit because he doesn't understand the logic behind recursive programming" etc and yet that freelancer takes the client out for a drink, sits in meetings and helps the client out with project decisions and options, talks to the client about mundane subjects without arse licking, is sensitive to the political situation within the client's office, befriends the perms and offers free technical advice to the project without being secretive, speaks highly of the perms even if they are not to their tech standards, ...

...and ultimately gets additional contracts, normally without an agent buggering things up between that relationship...

It's the difference between "contract/temp" and defining a business/service...

Spot on. It's not an accident that Francko has picked a monkey as his avatar.
He represents a lower link in the evolution of IT.

[sasguru]

True but just because your technical knowledge is a joke doesn't make you good at other skills. The good techies are probably also good at business analysis and management, but many of them are just not interested. The bad techies will be poor as managers too but they are interested since they can mask their incompetencies more than what they could do as techies.

I'm assuming your first sentence isn't aimed at me - my technical knowledge in my speciality is second to none, particularly as I was doing it for 15 years, mostly as a contractor, till I took my permie management job.
Knowing both sides, I can see that the management side is infinitely more difficult, as it involves dealing with people who, as a species, are chaotic and illogical. On the other hand techies can be stubborn, ignorant of the bigger picture and inflexible and those ones totally deserve their outsourced fate.

[hyperD]

Yes, the number of times I've heard people say "that freelancer is shit because he doesn't understand the logic behind recursive programming" etc and yet that freelancer takes the client out for a drink, sits in meetings and helps the client out with project decisions and options, talks to the client about mundane subjects without arse licking, is sensitive to the political situation within the client's office, befriends the perms and offers free technical advice to the project without being secretive, speaks highly of the perms even if they are not to their tech standards, ...

...and ultimately gets additional contracts, normally without an agent buggering things up between that relationship...

It's the difference between "contract/temp" and defining a business/service...

[Francko]

The added value is usually the intangible stuff that techies are so poor at - political skills, business analysis, engagement management, client service.

True but just because your technical knowledge is a joke doesn't make you good at other skills. The good techies are probably also good at business analysis and management, but many of them are just not interested. The bad techies will be poor as managers too but they are interested since they can mask their incompetencies more than what they could do as techies.

[sasguru]

Is contracting going to disappear by 2011 due to the large outsourcing of IT infrastructure and development? What daleks' supercomputer is forecasting about that?

Whatever can be commoditised will be. The question to ask yourself is "What added value am I contributing that can't be contributed by someone on the other side of the world?". If the answer is nothing, then you have your answer.
The added value is usually the intangible stuff that techies are so poor at - political skills, business analysis, engagement management, client service.

[snaw]

Is contracting going to disappear by 2011 due to the large outsourcing of IT infrastructure and development? What daleks' supercomputer is forecasting about that?

Is there a trend for more outsourcing of infrastructure? I've seen more companies do the reverse recently but that's just in my limited worldview. Dunno the bigger picture trends.

[DimPrawn]

By 2011 all jobs of value will have gone abroad.

House ownership will be impossible.

New Lie will issue everyone with food parcels to stay alive.

HTH

[Francko]

Is contracting going to disappear by 2011 due to the large outsourcing of IT infrastructure and development? What daleks' supercomputer is forecasting about that?