[BjoernKW]

The key is to not hire fungible resources based on a set of TLAs but actual people instead.

Unfortunately, the software industry by and large still seems to insist on continuing this backward model rooted in scientific management because it creates a semblance of an industrialised process that can easily be scaled by throwing more resources with the same TLAs at the problem (see "The Mythical Man-Month").

If people are treated as a commodity it's no wonder they start acting like one.

There certainly are largely commoditised areas of software development. However, especially for those it shouldn't matter where the person doing the job is located or in fact which person it is that does the job.

All that matters is results. Only settle an invoice once the agreed upon results have been delivered.

[daveslash]

What does TLA stand for?

Also: Mythical Man-Month -- great book. I recommend it to anyone, especially programmers and project managers. Not too technical. Fairly light read. Good content.

[BjoernKW]

Three-letter acronym. Those technical acronyms CVs tend to be rife with (admittedly they come in non-three-letter varieties, too), e.g.: XML, CSS, PHP

[vangelis]

But can you imagine explaining that PHP: Hypertext Processor stands for PHP: Hypertext Processor?

[BjoernKW]

Piece of cake: It’s a recursive acronym.

[dredmorbius]

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