RE: [Marxism] RE: Down-Sourcing

[Adam Levenstein <cleon42@xxxxxxxxx>]

I thought I'd chime in on this, being a developer who has been up to my
eyeballs in the "offshore outsourcing" thing.

First of all, Jose--and I--grossly underestimated how much time it
would take for US firms to realize this is a really, REALLY bad idea. I
figured 2-3 years; in actuallity, it has *already* started to backfire,
so much so that several corporations (Microsoft and Dell in particular)
had to start bringing their offshored work (primarily tech and customer
support) back to the US.

In order to conduct productive development, there has to be constant
communication between management (who decide what needs to be done) and
development (who does it, after negotiating with management about what
*can* be done). Typically, this communication occurs through a layer of
project managers, quality control analysts, system architects, and/or
product managers. (The process and job titles change, but the result is
essentially the same.) Now, when dealing with offshore development,
this communication is hampered; you have to decide *which* jobs are
going to be offshored. It disrupts the entire development life cycle.
Plus, you have to deal with language barriers as well as time zone
barriers (ever try having a staff meeting at 3:30 am?).

So you have a disrupted process; to fix it, you have to make it even
*more* complex than it already was. This means added jobs, added lines
of communication, added positions. To say nothing of the fact that
companies' quality control has gone straight down the crapper as a
direct result of disrupted lines of communication. The end result of
this; more middle managers, more "process specialists," more expense.

For us, though, the entire experience has been fascinating to watch,
especially its result on IT workers. Capitalism is now the god that
failed; where once geeks lined their shelves with Ayn Rand, now people
are showing considerable bitterness and anti-corporatism. Also,
anti-Bush sentiment is considerably strong; *especially* anti-Patriot
act and anti-war sentiment. In fact, IT workers in some areas are even
starting to unionize (see http://www.techsunite.org/ ).

Adam


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