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Managing a Global Programming Team?
cwimmer asks: "I work for a technology company in the United States who survived the economic slowdown by trimming fat where necessary. Unfortunately, it seems that my small programming team must've looked like mostly fat to management: it has been trimmed from a high of 5 to the current 2. We have been given a very large programming project that we estimated would take 4 coders (the size of the team at the time) 6 months to deliver. I have been given deep pockets with regard to moving some or all of the project to an offshore partner, and I can probably get 4 or 5 programmers in India. Does anyone have any pointers on managing a team of programmers on the other side of the world?"
It sounds like this is going to be a close source proprietary application, but would it be adventageous to GPL it? Say, for instance, you're writing some widget modeling software. Another company faced with the same issue may needs a SIMILAR widget modeler for a different product. Then for the cost of nothing you've just found 2 companies that can combine their resources to attain a similar goal. Post it on Sourceforge and see if there's any freelance coders or other organizations who also want to help. Instead of hiring paid slackers, you've now found volunteers who are more concerned about putting out a viable product than draining a company for cash by delaying the project.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
This is fucking stupid. In this shitty economy you're advertizing a request for cheap labor in another country to replace the 2 programmers who lost their jobs HERE.
Hindu is a religion. Hindi is the language.
Hint: Use the right word
Labor union for IT/IS workers... Good idea.
IMHO This whould only exacerbate this problem. Look at how many formerly unionized, American manufacturing jobs have shipped to Mexico. On the other side of the coin, consider how many Japanese car companies set up shop in the USA using non-union labor, more and more "Japanese" cars are being made in places like Ohio and Kentucky by non-union USA workers. Each of these plants has vehemently rejected unionization as a means of "preserving" their jobs.
Oh, and for the original poster seeking help with outsourcing, fuck you, fuck your company and fuck the mother of your god.
In case of fire, do not use elevator. Use water!
Being a code-monkey that works for bananas, I would give my left nut for $40 - $80 an hour. (The fact that I'm female would make it a little difficult though). There are thousands of newbie programmers in the US that would probably work for half that and are just as fast as the third world programmers.
I work with a group of 5 programmers that can each spit out hundreds of coding lines a day.
DON'T tell me that the Americans are lazy you Rat Bastards!!
It seems more and more companies would rather hire overseas help, than hire Americans. Indeed, in this case they are dropping two Americans, in favor of 3 or 4 from India. If you choose to support their efforts then you should move to India and become a citizen there, since the more people go along with this kind of insulting behaviour, the less jobs we Americans will have, and the more will be available in India.
Personally, I would tell them to go fuck themselves and find work with a company that puts the interest of the country and it's citizens over the bottom line
Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun