RE: What are the most important issues during offshore software development

> The problem is not outsourcing to Asia. The problem is outsourcing. I
> bet my Gibson Les Paul that results would be much poorer if, for
> instance, brazilian companies offshored systems development to
> american or german companies. After all, how many americans or germans
> out there can communicate well in Portuguese?
> 
Speaking the language helps, but there's something in the attitude of Asians
that (in my experience) makes it a lot harder to work with Asian (mainly but
not exclusively Indian) firms than with most others.

They often have an attitude of racial superiority to their customers, and
are totally unwilling to accept that they may be wrong.
If you look at the massive flood of threads on for example the Sun forums by
lazy Indian kids who are utterly incompetent but claim to be senior students
and want others to do their graduation work for them, it gives a clear
indication that these kids are not interested in learning their trade, only
in getting a piece of paper so they can pass themselves off to foreign
customers as professionals.

While such an attitude exists worldwide, it does appear to be far more
prevalent in Asia than elsewhere (and especially in India).

I've spoken (and worked) with quality Indians (and others) who clearly
indicate that all Indians (and Pakistani and others) who have proper skills
and integrity get out of the country as soon as they can, and often get good
jobs elsewhere.
That leaves mainly the incompetents, the lazy kids who can talk quick but
don't know an integer from a float, to man the offshoring projects.

> Software professionals from India, Brazil, China and Eastern Europe
> are just as knowledgeable as those from North America and Western
> Europe, so it is offshoring that hurts product quality.
> 

No, it's the people doing the work out there in Asia (and to a lesser degree
eastern Europe).