Outsourcing

A lot of companies outsource work to India in search of cheaper labor. Here is my experience based on working with an Indian company. I just decided to create "Lessons Learned" document so that it may help other project managers. See if your experience is similar to mine.

Lessons Learned:

• Indian developers/managers have no sense of timeline or due dates. They do not follow their promises, deadlines THEY have agreed upon.
• They would like to start programming the very next day, even without first understanding the business requirements first.
• Communication with Indian developers is a REAL challenge. Daily chat/email is a must.
• We cannot depend on the weekly status reports. We HAVE TO ASK & INSIST for daily feedback.
• Indian developers won't tell us whether they understood our feedback or not. Most of the time it appears as a one-way communication (from us to them).
• We must remember that common sense is not common. Indian developers have to be TOLD what to do and how to do. So spend a lot of time in planning as well as execution.
• Lot of follow-up is needed. We still have not received Master Contract, Contact List etc.
• They do not understand nor appreciate importance of good documentation.
• We need to verify their work regularly before it is too late.
• Developers are afraid to say NO. Silence from them does not necessarily mean that they understood our needs and they can perform the work.
• Do NOT move changes to production without thorough testing.

In short, outsourcing work to India is NOT as easy as it is made out to be. At least, that has been my experience and several of my friends who have worked with Indian developers agreed.