Runtime - The Software Outsourcing Newsletter
for Executives and Investors
from Accelerance and Steve MezakIn this issue: The results of my outsourcing book title evaluation shows tremendous interest in eliminating the risks of software outsourcing and finding a way to do it well. Plus a story of how NOT to select your vendor.
Teetering on the Edge of a Flat World
Are we living in a flat world? Many of you think so. But some do not and think use of "flat world" will go the way of the phrase "new economy ” used during the dot-com era.
A hearty thank you to all of you that responded to my challenge a couple of weeks ago to judge the several proposed titles for my new book. Your tremendous response confirms that interest in outsourcing of software development is growing in popularity. People are craving information on how to outsource successfully and how to avoid the risks.
The winning title that was voted #1 over all the others was "Software Without Borders: A Step-By-Step Guide to Outsourcing Your Software Development ". This is now the title of my book.
The second most popular title was "Software in a Flat World". Of course, this title uses the phrase made popular by Tom Friedman’s bestselling book, "The World is Flat ".
However, some of you criticized this title and suggested it was unfair to ride on Friedman’s coat tails. One person suggested this phrase would eventually go out of style and should be avoided. Perhaps.
I think "flat world" is now in the modern day lexicon. It’s used all the time on TV and the newspapers. Globalization is here to stay and I predict flat world will remain in use for a long time to come too.
Many of you also made suggestions of different titles. My favorite was Software Without Sunsets. Nice alliteration!
The funniest was this twisted take off of the flat world idea: Flatulence! Which deserves the subtitle – How to Keep Your Outsourcing From Turning Into Crap. :-)But seriously, the goal of my book is to tell the What, Where and How of outsourcing. I want the readers to realize that outsourcing software development is practical even for small companies and projects.
Readers will expand their perceived borders of country and culture and discover the techniques required to make offshore software development work well. And the title Software without Borders captures that idea very well.
Many people are still making dreadful and unnecessary mistakes as they get started with outsourcing. For example, I spoke to one company last week that is getting poor results with outsourcing to India.
"The programmers seemed to work well for a couple of weeks", said the head of operations for a custom software development firm in Pennsylvania.
He described the code they received from India as being incomplete or not working at all. Now they have to completely rewrite the code themselves to make a deadline for their own customer.
"How did you find these guys in India?" I asked.
There was a moment of silence at the other end of the line. "I am embarrassed to say that we responded to some spam emails about their service ", he admitted. "And the sales guy we then talked to was very convincing."
In a way, it is taking great courage for them to even consider using outsourcing again. But they know there are people out there achieving success. They know there has got to be a reliable way to outsource.
And there is.
You need to be organized in your search for a good outsourcing vendor. If you have time you can look for one yourself. My book and other writings available on the Accelerance web site will tell you how.
But if you don’t have time, or just want extra help then Accelerance has several services you can use to get started quickly. These services will keep you from teetering and falling off the edge of our flat world.
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The Runtime Bottom Line: Set your spam filter on high to ignore emails from useless outsourcing vendors. Use an organized and careful approach to sourcing and selecting your outsourcing vendors. Confirm their experience by looking at samples of their work and with reference checks with their other clients.
Until next time,
Steve Mezak
Accelerance, Inc.
Risk-Free Outsourcing
213 Garcia Avenue
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
1-650-712-8990(c) 2006 Accelerance, Inc. All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the "Runtime" eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.
The attribution should read:
"By Steve Mezak, CEO of Accelerance, Inc. Please visit the Accelerance web site at http://www.Accelerance.com for more information and resources on outsourcing and creating great software products."
