30 November 2011

If At First You Don’t Succeed With Outsourcing…

In this Practical Software show, SEP group member Mike Anthony, Co-Founder & Advisor at IQity Solutions, explains how his first attempts at outsourcing failed. Attempts to find off-shore teams to handle all of his development needs led only to disappointment. However, in the end Mike has made outsourcing work by adopting a distributed model, which requires keeping core engineering talent locally. Having a local team makes it easier to have customer interactions and avoid issues with giving over critical intellectual property to third parties.

Mike keeps communication problems are kept at a minimum through the use of daily scrum sessions with both local and off-shore engineers. Short release cycles of 2 weeks make it easy to make sure things stay in alignment.

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25 November 2011

If You Have A Well-defined Box, Off-shore It

In this Practical Software show, SEP group member Keith Laidlaw, the CTO with GamingVC, explains how the most successful off-shoring projects he’s worked on involve products with well-defined requirements that are fairly static. Products which are dynamic, with constantly shifting requirements are difficult to manage with off-shore teams. Keith also explains how there are different types of off-shoring work-models which work better for varying development models. In one cases Keith brought the entire off-shore team on-shore for the duration of the project.

Unfortunately, Keith talks about how the whole outsourcing is changing as the costs rise. He is seeing some quotes for projects that are the same as hiring staff domestically. This has implications for the future of off-shoring altogether.

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24 November 2011

The Last Thing You Want For A Successful Software Project Is To Write Code.

In this Practical Software show, SEP group member Marten van der Tempel, a consulting partner with 4ton, shares the secrets he has devised to lead successful software outsourcing projects. It all starts with and objective and in-depth specifications, according to Marten, followed by a deep understanding of the customer. It not good enough to just know that you are writing software for accounts, but it is also critical to know WHY accountants need this software.

When it comes to specifications, being specific and detailed is important if you want a successful outsourcing experience. Marten also explains how visualizations or wire-frames, of exactly what the user interface should look like are even more useful than text specifications. Communication with people who may not speak your native language is hard enough and distance only makes things worse. Use as many screen mock-ups, wire-frames, and visualizations as you can. The worst thing you can do on any software project is to start writing code before the goals, end-users, and specifications are fully understood.

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22 November 2011

The Golden Rule Of Outsourcing - A Little Respect Goes A Long Ways

In this conversation - Raul Suarez - Systems Consultant at Manulife Financial explains how the key to managing successful off-shore projects lies in building relationships and treating the off-shore team with respect. Treat off-shore staff the same way you would behave to people in your own office. This applies to both communication and simple courtesy. Don't keep the off-shore people in the dark with problems you are facing and make sure to time some meetings at times that work best off-shore. The off-shore developers aren't just faceless coding automotons, but real people. Get to know them!

It also helps to have a defined process and lines of informal and informal communication.

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Can Time Zone Differences Actually Be An Outsourcing Advantage?

In this Practical Software show, SEP group member Brian Borg (the owner and lead QA engineer at OnPath testing mentions that the time-difference of off-shore teams can actually be an advantage in product development, allowing for around the clock work and faster turn-arounds.

Brian also points out that organizations have to really embrace it and change how they work, and communicate, to make outsourcing successful. If you aren’t willing to have lots meetings at odd hours and communicate like mad via electronic mediums then most likely your off-shore project will fail.

I would like to thank our SEP Practical Software show guest host volunteer, Sanjeev Nambudiri, who has been interviewing group members for these podcast shows, allowing us all to share our experiences with one another.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Software

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16 November 2011

Does A Lack Of Local Talent Make Off-shore Outsourcing A Necessity?

In this Practical Software show, SEP group member Wei Tang, Engineering Manager at Teradata, talks about his experiences bring up off-shore teams. Like other SEP members we have spoken with Wei points out that communication is paramount. He also discusses strategies for overcoming language difficulties. Wei also points out that cost savings is not the only reason for off-shoring work anymore. According to Wei, outsourcing can be a critical part of a company’s effort to get the best talent around the world. Does this mean that the pool of local talent is insufficient?

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14 November 2011

Outsourcing Jujitsu –off-shore Teams Can Transfer Knowledge To You!

In this Practical Software show, SEP group member David Read, CTO at Blue Slate Solutions, talks about how to make outsourcing work. He points out that it takes longer than most people think to integrate new individuals into your team and projects. Communication is certainly critical, but the management methodology actually doesn’t matter that much. David suggests picking the best methodology for your culture since they all can work well with outsourcing.

David does raise a very interesting non-traditional way of using outsourcing as a means to acquire skills in your own team. There is such a wealth of trained talent abroad these days that it is often possible to find people who have deep experience in areas where your business wants to grow. You can hire these people as a means of doing a reverse knowledge transfer, having them educate your team in new technologies or skills.

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08 November 2011

Does Successful Outsourcing Require The Death Of A Private Life?

In this Practical Software show, SEP group member David Murch, Director of Engineering at Corporate Safe Specialists, talks about his experiences with successful outsourcing projects. David has a lot of great advice on how good outsourcing efforts require a culture compatible with such activity, and offers tips on how to build just such a culture. This does raise the question as to whether one of the cultural traits organizations need to adopt is the abolishment of personal lives, and accepting an environment where everyone needs to be available 24/7 to answer questions from their colleagues around the world 24/7?

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Can Outsourcing Work If The Client Has No Core Engineering Expertise?

In this Practical Software show, SEP group member Alexander Lesnevsky, Senior project manager at NAVIS, talks about his experience both as a vendor providing outsourcing services and being a customer of outsource services himself. Having a detailed vision, or specifications, for the desired work is important but it isn’t necessary for clients to have core engineering knowledge, according to Alexander. He has worked on successful projects where the customer specifically didn’t have any in-house software development knowledge.

Alexander also explains how pilot projects are an ideal way to assess outsource vendor capabilities. Don’t be afraid to look to small vendors. The size of the outsourcing firm is no guarantee of quality. In fact, Alexander has seen small outsourcing firms run circles around the big boys.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Software

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01 November 2011

Is Secure Mobile Computing Just A Pipe Dream?

In this Practical Software show, SEP group member Hadi Nahari, the Chief Security Architect of Mobile and Software Platforms at NVIDIA, talks about the challenges and opportunities that developers face in the exploding world of mobile computing devices. Not only does the growing complexity of mobile devices increases the security challenges but consumer adoption decisions have implications too. If users don’t adopt technologies like Near-Field-Communications then we will be stuck using antiquated security systems.

Does this mean that secure mobile computing is a pipe dream as consumers choose to use ever more complex (and powerful) devices?

 Hadi also shares his thoughts on which mobile platforms are the most secure and offers predictions for the next big thing in mobile security.

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You can find all the Optimistic Bear shows here: Software

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