Re:

> You can't win, though.  Invariably it's blamed on any number of things
*except* the poor developers or poor quality or the deliverables.

One thing everybody involved in offshore projects will learn sooner or later
is that quality, verifiable deliverables are key even more in offshore
projects. If your current development process doesn't produce them today
then your offshore projects will fail at least as bad as the ones you are
running today.

Maybe it takes going through the exercise of an offshore project for people
to realize that the hourly rate of the offshore developers is not the
correct metric to look at. I agree a 100% with Brad that communication is
key for successful projects and the timezones and language barrier are a
real problem.

We'll see where we stand in 5 years. I am hoping for the best.

> I feel like a US auto worker in the 70's.  And given my absolutely
miserable experience with the last two American cars I've owned (and stellar
> experience with the last two Hondas I've owned), I hope the US software
industry does a better job recovering than the US auto industry did.

Your comparison is somewhat skewed. European car makers are thriving despite
their much higher price tags than their asian counterparts. The german
premium car makers were still reporting growing sales in the US market
despite the weak economy. That's despite manufacuring in high labor cost
regions and without 0% interest promotions by the way. American car makers
flat out missed the boat and are stuck with their decade old designs and
poor quality. Ford had to buy Volvo and Jag to get current, Chrysler
couldn't make it by themselves and is falling back on Mercedes technology
now and GM is bringing in technology from their european makes. They didn't
stay current with developments in other markets, thought of themselves as
invincible and they were paying the bill. Of course that doesn't really
comfort the auto workers that went through tough times, but after all, even
without the jobs in the automobile sector and the garment industry, btw, US
unemplyment has been at the lowest levels ever. Even today's 6% look great
compared to countries in Europe.

That doesn't go to say that the software industry doesn't face similar
threats. I'm saying that low price competition isn't the automatic doom of
an industry. I do believe that the quality vs. total cost ratio will be the
determining metric once the hype is over. It's up to the domestic developers
to take advanatage of the benefits they have and deliver the overall better
product.

Christoph