Re: Re: Summing up and moving on (I hope)

Hi Dale,

Dale Emery wrote:

> Hi Bill,
>
> > > What problems do you see organizations trying to solve by
> > > outsourcing?  Can you give a few very specific examples?
> >
> > I gave two in the posting above; cost and culture clash.  I can be
> > more specific about those two if that's what you're asking.
>
> Yes, that's what I'm asking.  Specific examples.  I think I understand
> the cost problem.  I'd like some specific examples of culture clash.

Conversing with business folks in technical language, hygiene, overall
appearance, apparent disdain for co-workers ("users"), approach to
productivity improvement.  More?

> > PC's brought computing to the corporate masses.  IT began to develop
> > applications for new areas of the business.  That brought IT culture
> > into contact with parts of the corporation that had not been exposed
> > to that culture before this.  The IT culture was quite different
> > than that of the rest of the corporation in many cases and friction
> > resulted.
>
> Can you give examples of how IT culture differed from that of the rest
> of the organization, and of the friction that resulted?

Is this the same question as above or different?

> > PC's and the development of applications for new areas of the
> > business also caused demand to exceed supply with respect to IT
> > developers.  That drove IT salaries up leading to new sources of
> > friction.
>
> Interesting.  Tom DeMarco talks about this in the title essay of his
> book Why Does Software Cost So Much?
>
> One possible way to respond to the gap between supply and demand is,
> "Gosh, we love what you IT folks have done for us!  The tremendous
> value youve created helps us to see so many possibilities for how you
> can help us in the future!  Thank you!"
>
> Why not that response?  Why friction instead?

IT folks began making more, much more, that folks with similar seniority
levels.  That breeds resentment in and of itself.  Coupled with a perception
that IT folks took the position that they deserved it because their work was
somehow inherently more valuable (as opposed to being a demand-driven
phenomenon) than that done by the folks performing the customer facing work,
friction was probably inevitable.

> > First, the Outsourcer would remove the programmers and their culture
> > from the business and replace it with an interface called a
> > Consultant that would walk, talk, and look more like the business
> > people with whom it interacted.
>
> Suppose the business folks isolated themselves from the culture clash
> by inserting consultants between themselves and the IT department.
> How would that compare with inserting the consultant between
> themselves and an outsoured IT organization?

In some cases that happened.  Then the outsourcer pounds on the cost button.

> How do you see XP reducing the culture clash without resorting to
> buffer-consultants and outsourcing?

The on-site customer gets a chance to develop more than just a passing
impression of the developers.  Gets a chance to see them struggle, gets an
appreciation of their work.  It creates a situation where it's near
impossible not to develop a relationship between the individuals.  That
differs greatly from the DUF situation where the analyst comes in, spends a
little time with the business person, and then disappears until the software
is "done."

> > Second, because software development was the Outsourcer's core
> > competency, the implicit if not explicit statement was that, managed
> > by someone who knew how, the IT staff would be more productive and
> > the company would get more "bang for the buck."
>
> So the company is trusting that the outsourcer provides Operational
> Excellence.  And they are willing to sacrifice Customer Intimacy to
> achieve that (or perhaps they're unaware that they are sacrificing
> Customer Intimacy).  Is that what you're seeing?

Customer Intimacy wasn't happening.  To the contrary, it was more like the
antonym; Customer Enmity.  So, given that, they go for the next best thing.
I think if they see the choice really exists, at least some will choose
Customer Intimacy or Best Performance (depending on the value proposition
the company chooses to compete for customers) over Lowest Total Cost
(Operational Excellence).

BTW, thanks for the use of the CTC terminology.

Best regards,
Bill


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