one interesting article about HPs out-sourcing

HP offshored almost everything a LONG time ago. It is best described as "The Indian effect"

For those technically inclined, "The Indian effect" is described below referencing a thread from Dice (dot) com

techtalk (dot) dice (dot)com/t5/Tech-Nation-Discussion/Ability-to-manage-an-off-shore-team/m-p/309718/highlight/true#M46626

I like to call this position the "ejection seat" or the "dunk tank". Basically these positions are for the patsies who will take the blame when the project inevitably fails. Here's how it works.

1) Management decides to offshore development. Because they don't understand development, they need a technical person to actually do the management while they are off attending conferences, eating catered lunches, preparing powerpoint presentations, checking their Ameritrade accounts on their iPhones while in meetings, etc... All of that important management stuff that makes them so indispensable.

2) An onshore technical person is hired to manage the offshore team. The offshore resources all have master's degrees in EE or CS from the Technical University of South Punjab and are experts in every computer language and technical skill. Their resumes claim expertise in everything from VLSI to database design to Ruby and PHP. One of them claims to have invented FTP, which really impressed management. Yet strangely, the average age of these accomplished ubergeniuses is 27.

3) Management is "saving money". and "managing risk." Rather than hiring a team of 10 local developers with a mix of experience and expertise for $2M/year, they have 20 offshore expert ubergenius 27 year old developers and a local technical manager for $1.95M/year.

4) The offshore team of 27 year old expert ubergenius developers fails to meet deadlines and the deliveries have serious quality issues. This is, of course, due to the incompetence of the onshore technical manager. He doesn't know VLSI design and has never invented anything as important as FTP, so clearly he is not qualified to manage this team of offshore experts with master's degrees from the internationally acclaimed Technical University of South Punjab. This is what the sales representative from Tata/Infosys/Wipro tells management during crisis meetings and phone calls to discuss the slipped schedule.

5) The provider of the offshore resources creates a recovery plan to get the project back on track. Because of the incompetence of the onshore technical manager, more offshore resources will be required to pick up the slack and make up for his inadequencies. 10 more offshore developers are added. The project budget is now $3.75M/year, but management is still "saving money."

6) 2 years on and the project is still not complete. Worse, an interim release is not possible due to the serious quality issues with the software which has been delievered. Clearly the onshore technical manager's incompetence is the problem. Management takes a break from their Ameritrade monitoring and catered lunch eating to lay him off just before Christmas. This will not be a problem because the external consultancy which provides the offshore resources now has placed several other resources onsite with the customer. They will provide technical project management from now on. They are more qualified, after all. The new project manager not only has a master's in EE from the University of South Punjab, he invented UNIX. At 31 years old, he has not only the technical expertise but the maturity as well to manage the offshore team. The project budget is now $4.5M/year, but management is still "saving money." The powerpoint presentations show that, despite some setbacks, the project is back on track and will be finished soon now that the troublesome onshore technical resource has been eliminated.

7) Another year on and market conditions have changed. Customers are no longer interested in the sort of product that the project was designed to produce, so the product is cancelled. This is actually a good thing because the software is still no closer to being finished due to severe quality issues. These quality issues are, of course, due to the incompetence of the onshore software testing and quality group. The technical project manager as well as the sales representative from the offshore consultancy recommend moving all software quality and testing work offshore for future projects. It will save money, after all. Management lays off the software quality and testing group, saving $2M/year. They contract with the offshore resource provider to provide these services and receive twice as many people for $1.9M/year. They've saved money and increased their human resource base. Management bonuses all around! Those Ameritrade accounts are looking better than ever and will require more frequent monitoring.

Steps 1-7 repeat on and on until the company is bankrupt or sold off to be stripped of its remaining assets and IP. HP is deep into this right now. There will be no turnaround. I have seen this over and over and over for the last decade. It is getting worse, not better. The managers are never punished or laid off. Only the lowest level technical managers are fired after being worked to the bone trying to manage teams of technical "experts" in Bangalore.

Any technical person who accepts the "dunk tank" or "ejection seat" position is a fool. He would be better off becoming a waiter in a fancy restaurant and working for tips. If he's young and healthy he could become a fireman or a plumber. These are all more stable career paths.

Stick a fork in IT, it's done...

hoapres, 49 minutes ago