The market for all those one time high paying computer programming jobs are starting to be filled be less expensive offshore software developers. Welcome to the world of global competition in offshore software development. Depending on your context, offshore software development can be viewed as a new competition threat or opportunity in new resources. Or, it can be viewed as a combination of both.
As an American, I believe there is mostly a negative conatation towards the trend of large American companies offshoring jobs. You know, the underlying tone is somthing similar to "big companies only care about profits, not people". Honestly, when the topic is big business, I can agree with points on both sides of the discussions. But, what is often lost in these discussions of offshoring software development jobs are the opportunities it creates for small business.
I'm living proof that small business opportunity lies in being able to win local clients and then clearly articulate and manage the project to offshore developers. For me, more time needs to be spent thinking on strategic level concepts and ideas rather than fulfilling tactical level operations. I did not realize this overnight and it has taken me years to accept.
As a software developer, my industry is in a state of flux. Is offshoring software development a good thing or a bad thing? The jury is still out and the discussions are usually quite lively. Over the years, I've heard the following snippets in the discussions "quality vs. cost", "you get what you pay for", "we tried offshoring software development once and now we spend all day fixing offshore developers code", "we saved a boatload of money by offshoring certain tactical aspects of software development", etc. In my experience, these points have more merit in big company circumstances compared to small business.
Clients for website development expect to pay lower fees than they did in the 90s regardless of their company size. As a small business owner, I'm unable to maintain a sustainable profit margin with lower client fees. What can I do? Simple. Hire offshore developers at lower rates, so my profit margin allows the projects to be worthwhile. The opportunity for me is to spend more time on clearly defining technical architecture, project management and communicating regularly with developers and clients rather than writing code.
Win-win-win: Client wins, my company wins, offshore software developers win. But, when there is a winner, there usually is a looser? The looser in software development landscape shift is the small business that refuses to adapt to global competition or utilize these global resources. Or the individual software developer who refuse to adapt to lower rates and more pressure and competition to innovate. And no, building walls around ourselves and the industry is not the answer. If we try create global software development competition barriers, we are creating a path towards lose-lose-lose.
Todd McGrath is web developer, manager and entrepreneur who is facing the shift of software development landscape.
More content and resources: Community resources for offshore and outsource software development