I was a student at FIT when the first shuttle launched and had the honor of watching the live launch from a small boat about a mile and a half from the launch pad. It was a memorable experience of raw power.
This morning I was woken by the sonic boom as the last shuttle was still supersonic on approach. Somehow fitting personal bookends to a wonderful program.
A few years ago I set up an offshore development shop in Bangalore, India and then spent 20 months living there running it. Here are some things I'd suggest:
Do your homework. The quality of these overseas shops varies considerably from hohum to "world class". You should consider a visit to their facilities to meet with the people to see what you'll be dealing with first hand.
Unless your company is capable of writing rock-solid unambiguous specs you're wasting your time.
If your project is applications oriented you have to provide your own subject matter experts.
If your project requires coordination with other teams elsewhere in the world (say at home) ensure that outsourced components are relatively discrete. Avoid at all cost team A needing the work from team B the following day to proceed. You're asking for trouble.
If you're not familiar with CMM or other process maturity models study it, you're going to need it.
Set up frequent status reporting and have someone at the home office who frequently coordinates with the offshore team. This should include trips to their facility at critical times for review, information exchanges etc.
Don't think that because the developers get paid a tenth of home country rates that you'll be able to do the project for a tenth of the cost 'coz you won't. Cheaper yes, but not that much cheaper.
Be aware that available internet infrastructure in some offshore locations may be very poor. When I was in Bangalore in the mid 90's the office internet connection was via a microwave tower the company had to install on the ceiling of the rented building. Access rates were monstrous and the ISP was a government-controlled monopoly. (This may have opened up some by now).
All this said, if you do your homework and are prepared to invest significantly in the effort it can be well worth it.
Although not X-Windows based, I was heavily involved in the design, building and deployment of a 3-tier Central Res. System for hotels called Global II. This system is still in use today by an international chain.
Some facts:
Deployment date: February 9, 1988
End date: still running to this today for a major US-based chain (obviously changed over time)
Clients: MS-DOS originally, DOS/Windows now
Networking: X.25/X.29/Async/TCP-IP substrate with app-specific protocols on top
User base: 24x7 user base across 5 continents
Server: Stratus (VOS), always hosted in USA
Database: Initially file-system. Added Sybase support into production 1989/1990
I was extremely disappointed by this book. The title/subtitle implies something along the vein of "Open Sources" or "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" but what you get is something more like Donald Trump's "The Art of the Deal".
The chapter on Netscape and releasing Mozilla was interesting, the rest is a self-aggrandizing account of Bob Young et al. playing "Let's make a deal".
Recommendation: save yourself $30 odd and give it a pass.
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I was a student at FIT when the first shuttle launched and had the honor of watching the live launch from a small boat about a mile and a half from the launch pad. It was a memorable experience of raw power.
This morning I was woken by the sonic boom as the last shuttle was still supersonic on approach. Somehow fitting personal bookends to a wonderful program.
All this said, if you do your homework and are prepared to invest significantly in the effort it can be well worth it.
Some facts:
Great idea.
I can think of one or two choice individuals I'd like to nominate to take the journey...
I was extremely disappointed by this book. The title/subtitle implies something along the vein of "Open Sources" or "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" but what you get is something more like Donald Trump's "The Art of the Deal".
The chapter on Netscape and releasing Mozilla was interesting, the rest is a self-aggrandizing account of Bob Young et al. playing "Let's make a deal".
Recommendation: save yourself $30 odd and give it a pass.
It's usually top management and the visionaries who get shaken out first, which of course makes the culture clash even worse.
I've been through this as an employee and it is a miserable event, maybe taking 18-24 months to settle down for those who ride it out. Not a fun time.
Usually what ends up happening is that the smaller aquired company ends up being totally assimilated into the culture of the larger aquiring company.