Cruising IT people

[surb]

Originally Posted by Thorne

You are absolutely correct about the wage differences that can be found around the world.

However.

You shouldn't mistake having someone work remote with out-sourcing.

When out-sourcing was shoved down the throat of American companies by foreign software companies and governments who promised cheap custom software it was found to be a huge boondoggle because of cultural differences and the differences between what is considered "Good" systems design, good programming and programming by the hour, or programming by the day.

I have found that remote IT folks now have "VERY" high standards ( think scrum and agile ) due to the stigma that out-sourcing created of poor programming and unusable software products.

In the past when I was asked to "Fix" the problems created by out-sourced teams, often I found that it was better to just shelve the entire out-sourced code base and start over.

( think of a car that was an outsourced design and you find the wheels are actually on top of the car ) yes the wheels are attached and yes they turn, they just missed the subtle point that the car would need to sit on them.

This disconnect between expectation and result is however improving, I have been made aware of code that has been created by out-source teams that actually works to various degrees.

But unless there is a seasoned Architect/Programmer with proven credentials who rides herd on the out-sourced product you run the risk of not getting even the cheap product you paid for, and that causes you lost time to market. These days that can be a career mistake.

So now,,,, rather than destroy remote opportunities, outsourcing is actually creating new ones due to the clear need for more programmers and the need for somebody to make sure that systems created actually work.

And since the remote teams all work on different time schedules having a team lead actually sit in a office or cube at a specific time is getting rethought.

And so remote IT workers are coming into their own and demand will increase as the need for ever more sophisticated software continues to expand.

Of course this is only my opinion and my experience, your mileage may vary.

I second this, I have done more than my fair share of rework on off-shored work that ended up costing companies far more than in the long run if they had just hired me in the first place and did not use sourced work on the other side of the globe.