AgileAttitudes Article
 
 
 

Vol 01 Issue 08- Too Scared to Do The Right Thing- Offshoring and Agile Part 1 of 2

  
 
Back to the list of articles Agile Attitudes Volume 1, Issue 8 Sept. 23, 2004 A free bi-weekly email newsletter Brought to you by Agile Rules consulting www.agilerules.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Welcome to Agile Attitudes, a newsletter of ideas, insights and technical tips that help people find better ways to develop software. Feel free to share this with anyone - just be sure you send or print the whole thing, including the copyright notice. Directions for managing your subscription are below. O><O><O><O><O><O See our publications page for Nancy's Embedded Systems Conference paper and accompanying slides. The URL is: http://www.agilerules.com/publications.phtml O><O><O><O><O><O Too Scared to Do The Right Thing: Offshoring and Agile Part 1 of 2 by Nancy Van Schooenderwoert Earlier this year I had a conversation with 'Paul' the President of a small high tech company in Cambridge, MA and his Vice President of Product Development, 'Dan'. This is a true story. The names have been changed to protect the innocent. (Cue the Dragnet theme.) I had given them a description of the agile software development and testing techniques that my team had used to consistently deliver code with a 0.17% defect rate. That's fewer than 2 bugs per thousand lines of code, and for embedded software. Below is part of the conversation we had. Paul: "You've picked a very difficult row to hoe [referring to the job of coaching teams in agile techniques]. Managers all over Cambridge are terrified their CEO's are going to announce that the work's moving to India. They're looking for a way to stop that from happening, a way to compete with that. Nobody here can work for $90 bucks a week. The engineers are sweating it out, and their managers are going 'Oh God and I can't even code anymore!!'. I suspect you'll get lots of meetings but very few takers." Don: "I was at Motorola when they brought in SEI's CMM practices. The engineers were very skeptical until they had an integration go smoothly." Paul: "Development is just one of several things that can go wrong in business. Your relationship to customers is critical - often technical people don't get that." Paul: "All kinds of managers right here in Cambridge are wondering how to deal with engineers - they don't understand each other and don't communicate well. And then a guy comes in wearing a suit, very well-spoken, and says he's got a hundred programmers in India who can do this work; all management has to do is sign on the line and the issues will all go away. That's what they're wondering, and it's tempting to just go with that - why not? If you can address that communication gap between management and engineering, you have something." Don: "The ability to add new features very quickly is really key. I don't think you can do that with an offshore team. No matter how final you think the product is, you'll have to add new features. I don't think the companies are thinking that through when they send their work offshore." Don: "Once work goes to India it'll never come back here. Only they will be able to maintain it. Moving it back to the US just won't be an option." Paul: "[Referring to my very common-sense test strategies] You're like the doctor who says 'eat right and exercise' - only they'll always come back with 'But isn't there a pill?' There has to be a compelling reason for them to do it. Caribou only migrate because they have to. Nobody wants to lay off 40 people and send their work to India but they're afraid that they have to." Paul: "I'm just naturally blunt. I don't say any of these things to discourage you. You've got a valuable idea and need to work on selling it to managers. I'm very interested in seeing how you develop your message. I'd like to talk with you again in a few months." Food for thought, this. In part 2 I will take up the issues raised. This kind of heads-down bunker type thinking is widespread, and it has to change if we're going to have a healthy software industry in the USA. Stay tuned. O><O><O><O><O><O More articles on Agile software topics at http://www.agilerules.com Within our company we have a sub-specialty in embedded systems. Our site has articles on embedded XP and we support a discussion list focused on the use of agile methods for building embedded software. The list signup info is at http://www.agilerules.com/mailinglists.phtml O><O><O><O><O><O To help you get started with in-depth research into Agile Attitudes topics, we have added a Library section to our web site at http://www.agilerules.com/library.phtml Order using our links and receive discounts up to 30%! O><O><O><O><O><O If you enjoyed this issue or found it useful, forward it to a friend! Help spread the word about better ways to build software. 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Send feedback to info@agilerules.com To manage your subscription: http://www.agilerules.com/mailman/listinfo/agileattitudes O><O><O><O><O><O Brought to you by Agile Rules consulting 162 Marrett Road, Lexington MA 02421 Copyright (c) 2004 Agile Rules info@agilerules.com O><O><O><O><O><O Privacy notice: We will not release a subscriber's address to any third party for any reason. This is a strictly opt-in newsletter. No one is ever subscribed without their explicit request. </plaintext> </td id="bodytable_r1_c3_body"> </tr id="bodytable_r1"> </table id="bodytable">