outsource programming to india/russia???

[BZ]

Has any one ever used any of the companies that spam with offers of cheap programming services? I've never considered it before but I have a very cheap client who wants to reduce costs without limiting functionality

this would be for web database programming, probably in php

 

[MrChad]

Everybody's doing it. Come join the club. :disgust:

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

I've heard a couple horror stories of Indian-written code. I don't know how common it is, but from what I've seen it seems that it's very common for it to be total garbage. But that's just 2nd or 3rd hand opinions I've heard (on the internet, no less).

I would just tell them to find someone else. I hate having pressure like that on me. But that's just me.

 

[MrChad]

Originally posted by: BingBongWongFooey
I've heard a couple horror stories of Indian-written code. I don't know how common it is, but from what I've seen it seems that it's very common for it to be total garbage. But that's just 2nd or 3rd hand opinions I've heard (on the internet, no less).

I would just tell them to find someone else. I hate having pressure like that on me. But that's just me.

I think it really depends on who you deal with. Our company recently started an outsourcing partnership. So far the code we've received is pretty good. The major problem with outsourcing is not finding talented coders, but transferring enough knowledge and information about your product so that they can pick up and modify the code correctly and easily. Communication is also a big issue. It's easier if you have great documentation, but in the real world you don't always have that luxury.

 

[BZ]

how did you go about deciding on who to use?

I'm thinking the only way that I would want to do this if for isolated "black box" type modules - I wouldn't have to care so much if the code was terrible as long as it fit the api we give them

As you say, the trade off will be whether the amount of time it will take to spec those out, explain it to them, and correct whatever mistakes there may be will be less than the amount of time to write it ourselves.

 

[EeyoreX]

I think it really depends on who you deal with.

Agreed. This is the case for all things IMO. That would most probably rule out

companies that spam with offers of cheap programming services

\Dan

 

[singh]

Truthfully, most programmer's these days are just in it for the money and not because they like what they do. However, I'd wager the less money you spend the lower the quality of the code. Then again, there's plenty of programmers out of jobs these days. You may be able to find a decent one without spending too much.

 

[Ameesh]

i have worked with TATA Consulting. They will do whatever you ask but if you dont tell them exactly what and by exactly i mean down to the t , to do, they will give you crap.

 

[Nothinman]

Communication is also a big issue.

Having worked with many people from different nations I can second this, nothing is more frustrating than having to ask someone to repeat themselves 4 times and still having no idea what they just said even though they were trying to speak english.

I wouldn't have to care so much if the code was terrible as long as it fit the api we give them.

You or they never plan on the possibility of maintaining the code yourself in the future?

 

[BZ]

You or they never plan on the possibility of maintaining the code yourself in the future?

definitely a good point. I wished the client cared, but they refuse to take a long term view.

I had a different client recently answer "no" to the question "Doesn't your staff's time have any value?". As a result they are manually creating 250 flat html pages from an excel spreadsheet of data, rather than pay for a database.

man, time's have changed.