Does Outsourcing Work?
My company, heretofore nameless, is moving to a modified outsourcing approach. I say “modified” because they are planning to buy deliverables instead of outsourcing complete projects. I am not completely sure what the motivation is for this new approach. And I’m not convinced that the right issues have been thought through.
I will freely volunteer that I miss the “good ole days” where I worked with a tight-knit group of similiar-minded and motivated performers. These days it seems like we’ve moved to augmenting staff where needed and in doing so not even bothering to ensure proper levels of competence. What I’ve experienced lately are dysfunctional teams that never gell — they never converge. And further, we disband the team and people go their separate ways after benefiting from the experience that we provided them.
The outsourced deliverable mode will be even worse. Now we will have to thoroughly define what we want, painstakingly keep tabs on the progress (not an altogether bad thing), and keep up constant communication to a group working offsite. To me, this adds a lot of “motion” to the project. And another set of communication paths — we all know what can happen with those, right?
So I wonder, if this is the right thing to do. Is it efficient? Does it save us money? Do we get what we pay for? What about those who must manage the process? Is this what we signed up for?
I personally am quite concerned about my role within the company. I like the engineering process and I like the team camaraderie. It appears that those aspects of my job are quickly fading into the past. But of course, I’d have to say they were only mildly present even in the early days of my career at this nameless company.
So what to do now? Clearly my niche in life is to participate in a team-oriented environment which builds an interesting system. In the past, I’ve found product-oriented companies to be the most fun, but unfortunately the least secure. I’ve also never had a good experience with the kind of work you get within an IT organization. However, they are the most secure. So I will be introspecting some in the coming days to see what changes I need to make to ensure that going to work is a pleasurable and rewarding experience.