Whining from a “cheap” Indian developer
It really pains to find posts in sun.com like this. And the reactionary blog posts like this. Look at the code flaws that the blogger has pointed out. These flaws are not supposed to be made even by a JSP first-timer. I wonder what book the developer went through before writing something like this. Fortunately, the bloggers, Tim O’Brien and Jamie Flournoy, have not indulged into rude criticism against the JSP question by a Wipro employee.
I have personally experienced the swapping of “rockstars” and “newbies” happening in one of the projects of mine when a portion of it was outsourced (tips for outsourcing). Managers are just anxious about their immediate victories in getting the contract for a project, but sooner or later, the client loses the trust that it initially had. “The best advertisement is a satisfied customer”. The client will, in future, not only look upon alternatives to the company for outsourcing, but also may create an aversion towards outsourcing.
And, it is my humble request to my fellow developers to learn things before they actually put them into use in the project. Of course, we get projects just because our labour is cheap. But again, we are paid on par or even more than any other profession in the country. The cream of the population wants to immigrate to a richer country. Please do remember that the Indian GDP growth rate went up from 7% to 9% in the last few years. It is not because of those immigrants. The bulk of foreign exchange is earned by the Indian companies which got the outsourced projects. Loss of project means lots to the country. Bad quality of work will only result in immediate gains. No point in earning money for yourself without laying a foundation for your future and the future of your children. Indian labour has till date earned the name of “cheap” labour. This is just becoming “poor quality” labour day by day.
If you are moved to a project with a completely new technology, learnt it before you put that into work. We, fortunately, have a rich collection of Indian edition books which are also available for lesser cost. Only that extra mile is going to save us and our country.
Tags: indian, poor quality, software
August 19th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
What’s sad about the code in question is that it is representative of the kind of quality most of us see from companies like Wipro.
What’s happening, and it’s clear to people in America, is that large offshoring operations are taking on more business than they can handle, and they are hiring at an unsustainable pace. The same thing happened in the US in the late 90s. There were more jobs than there were capable engineers to fill them.
From here, it looks like the standard behavior from consulting companies - take the business irregardless of if you have the people to complete it.
August 19th, 2007 at 11:47 pm
I totally agree with your point that too many projects are being promised without knowing the capability to handle. I have not been in consulting companies so far in my short career. And I have not seen this type of “code” anywhere around my desk too.