Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Outsourcing High-Level Work
philistine writes "The Seattle Times reports
A Seattle labor group said it has new evidence that Microsoft is shifting high-level work to foreign contractors, including work on the next version of Windows. The evidence is a cache of Microsoft contracts with Indian technology vendors that were leaked to the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, an AFL-CIO affiliate that has focused on outsourcing in its effort to organize tech workers."
A Seattle labor group said it has new evidence that Microsoft is shifting high-level work to foreign contractors, including work on the next version of Windows. The evidence is a cache of Microsoft contracts with Indian technology vendors that were leaked to the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers, an AFL-CIO affiliate that has focused on outsourcing in its effort to organize tech workers."
hmm... that is interesting. if you just drop the "it." from the front, the color scheme disappears and you get the normal slashdot colors.
Casual Games/Downloads
Simply change your DNS records to resolve it.slashdot, games.slashdot, or whatever colour (yes, I'm British) scheme you don't like, and Robert's your proverbial uncle...
Personally, I've done so, except of apple.slashdot, which I quite like...
saying-good-bye-to-the-middle-class dept.
Forget the many economist that make arguments like this one, stating that outsourcing will ultimately benefit consumers...
Forget government data that downplays the significance of offshore work...
Forget the fact that companies like Microsoft sell millions of dollars worth of software to foreign countries around the world...
...and just jump to the conclusion that the entire US middle class is doomed.
Nice!
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
Since when did the law of averages have anything to do with programming ability? I would say that Indians generally are not only better programmers, on average, but better theoretical computer scientists, too.
Go look up some of the premier computer science departments in the country (or even around the world) and take a hard look at the number of Indians (and Chinese) PhD students. Then go look at the average quantitative GRE scores of Asians and compare them to other races. Seeing anything interesting?
The reality is that the education system in India is generally more rigorous, especially when it comes to math. I doubt that Microsoft's primary motive for outsourcing is money -- they're not hurting for cash -- but instead is simply an effort to try and find a large number of great computer scientists. Unless we start increasing the effectiveness of our own elementary and secondary school systems, we're going to be slowly left behind.
I'a a 25-year veteran of working as a software developer as both a permie and a consultant.
I know the politically-correct policy is to consider that programmers from countries such as India do reasonable work, but my experience is that it is just not true. I keep finding that the resultant source-code from outsourcing is abysmal.
I've worked on projects for several different companies where programming has been outsourced to India and Russia, and it has always cost way more money to put it right than outsourcing the project has saved.
I expect Microsoft will also find this out the hard way, and to the end-users disadvantage.
My experience is that it does not matter to where you outsource it. Any job outsourced to another company can result in bad quality code.
Remember that every company will tell you how good the quality of their programmers is, how good their methodology is, etc. But in the end they just allocate a bunch of programmers to your job, and every time a new (= always more important) job comes in, the best people are moved to there and a new load of trainees continues on your work.
This can happen when you outsource to India, but it may just as well happen when you outsource to a reputable company in your own country.
Companies do not, have not and never will outsource because it results in good quality work. That's merely a lie to placate their customers. They outsource because it cuts costs and lower costs means higher stock price. Now given that most company directors have bonuses tied to rises in stock price, and the damage the outsourcing causes won't become apparent for a few years; it's pretty obvious why outsourcing is occuring.