How to keep work onshore

Dear Bob …

I’m feeling trapped. I’m under a lot of pressure to send work offshore, and while I don’t want to, the financial pressure to do so is nearly overwhelming.

Do you know of any successful strategies for keeping work on-shore and in-house?

– Patriot

Dear Patriot …

I admire your desire to look beyond saving a few bucks. And your experience isn’t unusual: Beyond any financial benefit to offshoring is the herd mentality so common in business – it doesn’t matter if an idea makes any sense, so long as a lot of other companies are being just as dopey.

I have two answers for you. The first is this: Look hard at the methodologies you use, and the roles they require in IT for their success. If you’re organized to formally separate analyst and developer positions, you’ve created the preconditions for sending work offshore, because offshore development works best in highly structured environments.

Extreme programming and other adaptive methodologies, in contrast, collapse business analysis, systems analysis and coding into a single role that gets up close and personal with the business. By doing so they can reduce the total effort required for development enough to offset the 20% or so net savings companies get from offshore prices.

And, they deliver fringe benefits like a better relationship between IT and the business, increased flexibility, better code, and reduced risk (I’ve been reading and hearing about offshore companies whose respect for the confidentiality of client information is, shall we say, less than absolute.)

There’s a second answer, though, that you need to consider: In this situation, I think you’re asking the wrong question, though, just as much as the companies that think they need an “offshore strategy.” Because while wanting to keep jobs in this country is laudable, it isn’t necessarily good business.

No company needs an offshore strategy. What companies do need is a comprehensive sourcing strategy – an understanding what characteristics each of a variety of staffing sources provides. Whether it’s employees, independent contractors, consultants, systems integrators, or outsourcers, and whether the integrators and outsources are on-shore, offshore, or multi-shore, each has a unique mix of qualities, just as each situation calls for a different mix of those qualities.

When you look at the situation from this angle you’re likely to find that some of the tasks facing IT are ideally suited to being handled half a world away.

You’ll almost certainly find many more that have to be worked from inside the four walls of the corporation.

And, you’ll find that some situations can be defined in ways that change which source you choose.

As with so many other subjects, there’s a simple answer and a good answer, but not a simple, good answer.

– Bob

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