Why Are You Still Outsourcing Software Development?
Posted on Sat, Apr 17, 2010
“It’s 2010. Why are you still outsourcing?” was the question posed by Ness’ Holly Ripley-Boyd in a recent conversation with Maryann Jones Thompson of SandHill.com
It might seem like an odd thing for someone who works for a “specialist offshore software development firm” like Ness to ask, particularly when Ness’ Software Product Labs are described as “a leading provider of outsourced software product engineering services.”
However, when Ripley-Boyd describes the approach taken by the Labs, and the reasoning behind it, the aptness of the question becomes readily apparent.
1. Software end users care less and less about how the product is built.Indeed, if end users ever cared where a software product was developed, they certainly don’t today. (Frankly, they probably assume that it has been developed “somewhere else.”) Moreover, they certainly don’t care where the code resides or where the software is hosted, preferring more and more the “as-a-service” model and paying as they go.
2. The software development process is not simply a question of supply chain management.Ripley-Boyd calls the second era of software development “The Rush Offshore,” pointing out that this stage was driven by the desire to take advantage of cost arbitrage and involved effectively reducing isolated elements of the software development process to nodes in a supply chain. Unfortunately, this inherently anti-collaborative approach meant that money was saved at the expensive of the one thing users actually care about: Quality.
3. Long-term partnerships, continuous collaboration, and a “one-team” mentality are the way forward.What is the true alternative to outsourcing? Building a dedicated partnership with an organization that will focus on the product (as opposed to this or that project) while providing “innovative, domain aware, globally delivered software services.”
Are there cost savings to be realized by accessing a global talent pool? Certainly.
But these savings pale when compared to the value of working, across every stage of the product development lifecycle, in collaboration with a global network of software developers who share an unparalleled range of experience and depth of ever-increasing knowledge.
Doesn’t that sound better, even ideal?
So why are you still outsourcing?
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