[thomk]

The best way to combat that is to not design anything too far into the future. This is where agile and sprints can be very helpful. It also means you are checking the work of the subcontractors on a regular basis. After a while you will learn how to communicate very well, you'll see the strengths and weaknesses of the staff and you can operate within those constraints.

That is the real work here; discovering acumen. Once you know that, you can hand out work that fits within their wheelhouse.

American developers excel at this because there's less of a communication gap. If an American can not do something he will tell you. If you are wrong about the way you are doing something, an American developer will tell you. Outsourced subcontractors will blindly do what they understood they were supposed to do without questioning anything resembling rationale.

Just know that going in.

You know what else is like that? A computer.

GIGO, etc.