“Friends Don’t Let Friends do Outsourcing” [Sam Hahn]

EL SIG's co-chair contributes this cautionary story on outsourcing.

I have a friend (let’s call him Andy) who used to work for me and was a good engineer. He subsequently became VP Engineering at an outsourced software development company overseas. I have another friend (let’s call him Don) who also worked with me at a large software company in the sales group; we went on a couple trips together to call on customers when I was a product manager.

So when Andy wanted to spin out his own outsourced software development company (after learning the business), and Don wanted to find someone to develop a Web 2.0 demo / app so he could pursue funding or BD opportunities, I thought it a no-brainer to hook them up, as they could help each other out, right?

I’ll never do it again. At least, never without adult supervision.

Expectations were very high on both sides. Andy wanted this to grow into a big project once funding happened, so he put a lot of effort into getting the code developed exactly per requirements. Don wanted to see regular quick progress, but worked from a fairly detailed PRD. Neither had a good issue or bug tracking system in place. Meetings weren’t scheduled regularly; a date was set, but when that date came and went, many unmet expectations surfaced, to the detriment of the continued beneficial relationship between the 2 parties.

Of course I blame myself. I should’ve seen this coming and inserted myself into this process to make sure things went smoothly. But I assumed that I would be invited to do so if needed. Indeed Don had prepared several proposals to engage me in his venture. Each version had an issue we needed to discuss, so disappointment had already begun to set in by the time I considered looking into the outsourcing relationship in detail.

What did I learn? In no uncertain terms, “Friends don’t let friends do outsourcing.” (At least without Adult Supervision.)

By “Adult Supervision”, I mean with professional engineering management expertise on the client side. Sales people cannot assume they are going to succeed at engineering management of remote outsourced staff. To assume this is to make light of the engineering management profession. It’s challenging enough to get distributed development working for well-running, well-managed engineering organizations. It’s folly for an inexperienced person to step into an engineering management role to attempt to lead a successful remote outsourced offshore development. Don’t do it! When you see this coming at you – go to DEFCON3!

Friends just don’t let friends do outsourcing!

Originally posted at SV Project Management.

Sam Hahn

Since graduating from Stanford University, Sam has spent over 2 decades in just about every aspect of coding, research, product definition, customer understanding, system architecture, data modeling, team building, strategy formulation, corporate startups, executive management, private equity placement, and entrepreneur mentoring. In some of these positions, he has also been responsible for product management and sales as well. Sam was the first at TRW (and possibly elsewhere) to architect systems that integrated relational database management systems, hypertext, vector and raster-based cartography, elevation data, multiple sources of intelligence data (yes this must be vague!), image processing, document management, character recognition, text indexing, search, and reasoning systems as early as the mid-80's. Sam was responsible for 4 development teams at Siebel Systems (web engine, handheld, eService, and Sales.com) in his 7 years there. As one of the core architects at Siebel, Sam oversaw research in presentation technology initiatives, including metadata-driven portal frameworks. Sam was co-founder, VP of Engineering, and CTO of DocuMagix (now part of eFax.com), and has also held VPE positions at Sales.com and Purisma. Sam is a partner at Sand Hill Angels, and now advises entrepreneurs in startup strategies and companies on effective application of Chasm and Agile thinking and practices. Attempting to live an enlightened life, he is too often tempted by sushi, Cambodian food, and white mochas with soy, only somewhat balanced by his enjoyment of tai chi. Please agree, disagree, laud, personally or professionally engage Sam via S@mHahn.com

Please Visit the Previous Engineering Leadership SIG Blog

Due to the change in the name of the Silicon Valley Forum (SV Forum) from its previous name of the Software Developers Forum, we just started this blog.

Please go visit our older blog, sdforumelsig.blogspot.com.

Although no further updates or postings are expected, the posts remain timely, informative and relevant to enhancing skills as a Engineering Leader and as a leader in general.

Announcing the Next EL SIG Meeting, September 15 [Robert Lasater]

The next meeting of the Engineering Leadership SIG will be held on September 15 in SAP Building 2 (3412 Hillview Avenue, Palo Alto, CA), starting at 7:00 PM. Doors open at 6:30 PM. Title of the main presentation, "Problems, Big Problems, and Damn Problems: Solving the problems that keep you awake at night", by Jerry L. Talley.

Jerry says "The topic of the talk is a discovery from my 30+ years in organizational development work. I believe there are only 6 types of problems. Each type poses a unique challenge. The most critical decision in problem solving is not 'What's the best solution?', but rather it is 'What type of problem is this?' Once you identify the type you have a clear sense of the critical features that must be explored, what strategy to use in solving the problem, and what a solution would look like...at least in outline form.

"It turns out that strategies that work well for some types are disastrous when applied to other types. And some of the types are easy to confuse for each other. So typing the problem is not always simple; it's just always essential.

"The talk outlines the 6 types and briefly describes the strategy unique to each type. It is a dramatic departure from the classical model of problem solving which has been around since the 1950's and altered very little since then."

Jerry Talley has over 20 years of organizational consulting. Prior to that career, he was an adjunct professor at Stanford University teaching in the Sociology Department for 18 years. Coincident with that experience, he had a practice as a Marriage and Family Therapist for about ten years. Starting in the late 1970's, he moved into organizational development consulting, accumulating over 250 client engagements since that time. His clients included companies in high tech R&D, hospitality, health care, the military, manufacturing, banking and credit unions, education, publishing, mental health, city and county government, not-for-profits, and large consulting houses...and one organic grocery store.

Throughout all these experiences, the common focus was on how people think about and manage complex situations, how they attempt to solve the problems in their world, and how they form relationships with others in that effort.

For more information, go here.


SNACK SPONSOR: Brian Lawley, 280Group - The 280 Group™ provides Product Marketing and Product Management Consultants, Contractors, Training, Books,Certification, and Templates to help companies world wide to define, launch and market breakthrough new products.


SNACK & BEVERAGE NOTES: SVForum provides some pizzas, and SAP welcomes us to help ourselves to soft drinks that we may encounter in the vicinity of our events.

As of August we won't be providing alcoholic beverages in the future so we can spend more money on food.

MANAGEMENT RESOURCES SPONSOR: ProjectConnections.com supports EL SIG members with a wide range of resources for managing organizations, projects, and people. Members can access links to templates, checklists, articles, and more from the ProjectConnections.com Premium library. All this is available to ELSIG members at no charge, at the ELSIG page onProjectConnetions.com (Open Enrollment is offered twice a year for this benefit. It's that time of year! We'll be sending a notice shortly and you can sign up if you haven't already.)

Cost: $20 at the door for non-SDForum members, No charge for SDForum members

BOOK SWAP - Every month! Bring books to share.

JOB SWAP - Check out our Yahoo! Group here: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/SDForum_EL_SIG_JobSwap/

PEER-to-PEER Roundtable - Every month! Join us to share insights and advice with peers each month prior to the 7 PM event.