Offshore Software Development - cheap or not?

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  11 years ago

  by kremsoft

  Kris Reid

  Brisbane, Australia

  Joined 11 years ago

  Do you think Offshore Software Development is cheaper then in house? Development costs are cheaper per programmer hour but some people argue that the quality is hard to achieve and communication breakdowns can make it more expensive?

  I own a Software Development outsourcing company http://www.kremsoft.com so you might guess what side of the fence I sit on. Our website isn't even finished yet and we are busy working away on new contracts. I've got the designers so busy they haven't had 2 minutes to finish the website so I had to do it.... pretty impressive :)

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  11 years ago

  by Thushan Fernando

  Thushan Fernando

  Australia :: Melbourne, Australia

  Joined 19 years ago

  I guess its largely based on the scope of the project and deadlines.

  There is a high level of risk when it comes to outsourcing mission-critical aspects of software without properly communicating with the vendor (as you'd guess). I've worked in companies in the past that use outsourcing liberally, by that I mean all the core application development is done in house and some of the low-risk (but still important) bits were offloaded to offshore companies (most of the times India or a couple of times to Russia and Hungary).

  Another is where there's a lack of skill locally, this was especially the case for DRM/Crypto bits which we hired two Russian developers for - it was quite economical too. It took a bit longer than was originally planned but with lots of documentation, IM and talking over the phone, it worked out well.

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