Reply #66: I'm an IT manager who's looked at outsourcing

[RichardRay]

and decided not to do it for a variety or reasons, including pure cost. The kind of devleopment work I can get done cheaply and well in India isn't what my firm (or most otheres) need. To make it work really well I need to provide the code jockeys in Bangalore with a complete and unchanging specification. If you've ever tried to write software professionally you know just what a laughable idea THAT is.

Some folks have tried it. The IT journals are full of anecdotes from managers for big and little firms about the pitfalls of IT oursourcing. We're starting to figure out that outsourcing is just another one of the myriad chimera people try to sell as the silver bullet to solve IT problems. It may take a bit to find a new equiblibrium, but it's coming....