[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: Fried

[Steve Baker]

Stephen Davidson wrote:

> My next contract is to clean up the mess left by an overseas firm (I 
> will call them Elbonians).

The situation where you go to a company in Elbonia and say "write this for me"
then sit back and wait for a deliverable package from them isn't the scenario
that worries me.  Working like that with US companies has been known to result
in disasters (and I've had to recover from a few of those).

What concerns me is when a US company opens an office in Elbonia and uses
Elbonian management only to cover day to day administrivia...doing technical
leadership, code reviews, etc from their US operation.   The time-zone differences
between Elbonia and the US then have an immediate benefit because while
the Elbonians sleep, the state-side team leaders can check on progress, review
code and issue change orders ready for the Elbonians to pick up bright and
early the next day.   In the hour or two of 'overlap' time when both teams
are awake, you hold teleconferences and IRC sessions.

I did some consultancy work for NeoMagic who work like this - and it seemed to
be working quite well for them...no worse than dealing with staff who telecommute.

If you think this won't happen because all Elbonian programmers are crap - then
you are just burying your head in the sand.   There are some pretty apalling
programmers (and some amazingly good ones) in any community you care to examine.

The examples on this page didn't come from Elbonians:

     http://www.sjbaker.org/steve/software/horrors.html

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
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HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
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