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Resolved: That offshoring technology executive and/or development management will benefit project effectiveness and organizational competitiveness.
Two weeks back I described why I believe that if you accept the traditional business case arguments for offshoring development and developers, it makes more sense to offshore management and executives instead.
I invited readers to respond in 111 words or less with a “Pro” or “Con” statement to the resolution that leads off this article, and offered a small prize to the best argument on each side of the issue.
We got a lot of responses. They fell into five categories. There were general comments that did not try to argue for one side or another, pointing out additional aspects of the issue the writers believed important.
There were two piles o writers who favored offshoring management: those who believed the people who do the line work should also be offshored (what well call Extraordinary Rendition), and those who took the line that workers should be hired in-house (well call this the Jeff Arrangement, because thats the one I suggested made most sense).
Among the “Con” respondents, there were those who believed line workers should be domiciled offshore or wherever the work could be done at the lowest out-of-pocket cost (well call this Status Quo), and there were writers who felt those in-house managers should be managing in-house developers (whom I call YIMBYs).
By the way: There were insightful responses that misunderstood the contention as well, conflating the term “offshoring” with “outsourcing,” and making arguments in support or in opposition to outsourcing that was not offshore, something I didnt specifically address.
While organizations do some of their outsourcing offshore, most outsourcing is done domestically.
And while offshoring is almost always done to save on upfront labor costs, most outsourcing that isnt out of the region costs as much or more as leaving things inside the company.
For example, many organizations avoid putting consultants or other part-time experts on the books, even if they cost more as contractors, because our perverse tax structure usually punishes businesses for hiring local people and subsidizes layoffs or job exports.
Here, Ill present the Honorable Mentions, the most enlightening of the entries that didnt win. Some of these were of winning quality but didnt follow the instructions.