Paul Ballard's Weblog

I’m about to publish a new article/blog series on my experiences as a manager outsourcing software development to India as well as living and working there.  I meant to do this while I was there, but the pressures of getting software out the door coupled with dealing with the issues I’m now going to write about kept me busier than I would have imagined.  So now that I’m back in the USA with power that doesn’t go off several times per day, I’m going to spend some time documenting what I learned in hope that it might help other western managers faced with similar situations.

Setting the stage

In order to understand the viewpoints I’m going to express, it’s worth taking a couple of paragraphs to describe where I started this journey.  I have more than 20 years of experience developing software.  In that time, I’ve held a number of different roles and have worked in every conceivable type of team and industry.  I’ve had projects where I was the only developer and I’ve worked on projects that had literally dozens.  As the industry has evolved, a major paradigm shift occurred as companies looked to commoditize software development and inevitably went searching for cheaper resources.  India and their large systems integrators answered that call and so for the past decade or so, you would be hard pressed to find a significant development team without a native born Indian on it.  In my recent positions I have been a manager of both onshore and offshore native Indian resources, as well as American, English, French, and various other countries.  But the largest majority has been from India.

Here in the USA, there’s been no small amount of controversy over this paradigm shift.  Whether your personal views fall on the side of expanding global markets or nationalist job protection, there is ample evidence available both for and against your views.  In my personal history I’ve been booted from a project and replaced by three offshore resources due to a corporate mandate to move half of all development offshore.  I’ve also staffed projects through my consulting company using offshore resources that were being abused by their management and who refused to let me help for fear of being sent back to India.  And I’ve met more than a few happy, successful Indian natives who after working in the USA long enough to get their greencard eventually went back home to India to be with their family.  But no matter what the situation, the undeniable fact is that the software industry has tied itself inextricably to India.  So as a manager it only makes sense to try to understand software development in this new model, hence these articles.

Disclaimer

While it is useful as a tool to speak of the cultural, work, and management aspects of outsourced software development (specifically in India) in sweeping generalities, please know that I do so with the complete understanding that these descriptions won’t describe every person in/from India.  Each person is an individual and I have had the great pleasure of working with some of the best talent in India.  So as those friends read these posts please remember, I’m not necessarily describing them.  On the other hand, when taken in large numbers the generalizations I will describe are accurate in my perception, if not intent or reality.  I welcome any of my colleagues to correct me if I’ve misinterpreted something in these articles.

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