Comments on: Give Every Developer a $5k Outsourcing Budget

By: One with the Code » Blog Archive » Bottom-up outsourcing

One with the Code » Blog Archive » Bottom-up outsourcing — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 05:28:21 +0000

[...] I happened upon this little tidbit on my blog backlog. The unconventional James Governor taking a whack at outsourcing as done from the trenches: James Governor’s Monkchips » Give Every Developer a $5k Outsourcing Budget [...]

By: Path of the Digital Katana » Bottom-up outsourcing

Path of the Digital Katana » Bottom-up outsourcing — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 05:42:48 +0000

By: Matt Biddulph

Matt Biddulph — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 12:31:23 +0000

That’s a useful level of money as long as the work is easy to specify and isn’t going to have a management overhead.

For example, converting photoshop mockups to XHTML+CSS is not my strong point as a developer. Commodity shops like http://www.psd2html.com/ and http://csssage.com/ (found just now on a quick google - haven’t used them myself) who can turn this kind of work around without contractual negotiation or management work on my part.

By: Accidental Light » A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings

Accidental Light » A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 09:21:14 +0000

[...] James Governor’s post Give Every Developer a $5k Outsourcing Budget written in response to Top-Down Vs. Bottom-Up from Bex Huff Started me thinking again about top-down [...]

By: Isabel Wang

Isabel Wang — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 21:22:29 +0000

Some years ago my small startup was acquired by a much larger company. I tried to get my new colleagues to continue using the offshore development firm I was working with, but the idea that someone outside the company could complete certain tasks cheaper/faster was perceived as a threat and not an opportunity.

I tried to convince the IT director that the ability to manage both on-site and offshore teams would look great on his resume. He’d be building a global empire! But he was more concerned that the CFO would do the math and decide to outsource everything.

So while employees at some organizations would have a blast with $5K outsourcing budgets, many others would freak out and wonder if they’re asked to find their own replacements.

By: vinnie mirchandani

vinnie mirchandani — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 20:08:54 +0000

even though I help clients with a top down transactions I think it is a fantastic model. The more developers realize Porsche outsources 85% of what is in its cars and focused on competitive advatnage design, the less afraid they will be of outsourcing. And they will learn to better monitor the outsourcer - it will be their responsibility not some vendor relationship managers…

the problem with such a small amount is you push them in to staff augmentation models, not SLA based relationships..

my big question is why not “outsource” that sourcing decision/process back to IT, procurement etc. There is a good reason why those shared services were setup in the first place…you consolidate spend, get their expertise etc.

Mature outsourcing is about knowing what to keep and what to let others do…

By: Dale Vile

Dale Vile — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 19:03:38 +0000

James - see here my post from about 15th months ago on the involvement of technical folks in decision making.

http://freeformcomment.blogspot.com/2006/03/are-tech-influencers-being-left-out-in.html

We actually did a bit of research on the topic too - PDF can be viewed/downloaded here:

http://www.freeformdynamics.com/pdf/Vendor_Cust_Mar06.pdf

We are looking at this whole area again at the moment (just literally kicking off a study this week), but I can’t imagine much will have changed.

Basically, marketing folks, analysts and even execs in the vendor community often quote nonsense about CIOs controlling everything and techies not being important from a decision making perspective.

Back in the real world …

By: bex

bex — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:59:22 +0000

I’d like to draw attention to another thing I talked about in that post… the issue of having a genuine shared purpose:

“This harks back to the age-old question about when to allow employees to take the initiative… unless your employees are bound by a genuine shared purpose, bottom-up initiatives will do more harm than good. In a typical company, you’ll be OK… but in a dysfunctional company — where the only way to get things done is bottom-up — you’re just going to make a big mess.”

As long as you have oversight to prevent people from outsourcing your competitive advantage, you’ll be fine.

Naturally, this means you have to first determine what your competitive advantage is…

By: ivbeg: Сверху-вниз или снизу-вверх?

ivbeg: Сверху-вниз или снизу-вверх? — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:37:07 +0000

[...] Очень интересная заметкаeng у Джеймса МакГоверна по архитектуре уровня предприятий. Ещё две ссылки на ту же тему - Top-Down Vs. Bottom-Upeng и Give Every Developer a $5k Outsourcing Budget [...]

By: Иван Бегтин | Сверху-вниз или снизу-вверх?

Иван Бегтин | Сверху-вниз или снизу-вверх? — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:53:23 +0000

[...] Сверху-вниз или снизу-вверх? –>Очень интересная заметкаeng у Джеймса МакГоверна по архитектуре уровня предприятий. Ещё две ссылки на ту же тему - Top-Down Vs. Bottom-Upeng и Give Every Developer a $5k Outsourcing Budget [...]