| The majority of these points relate to all outsourcing development whether if it's onshore or offshore. In fact it applies for in house development. Cheaper does not mean bad code and bad practices, and more expensive does not mean better code and better practices. The simple fact is that someone has to take responsibility and implement stuff right. > 1. It’s extremely difficult to judge the quality of outsourced work without your own local engineer It can be difficult measure any quality if you do not have the knowledge to do it. As this article is aimed at the "non-tech" founder, I have to question how that person would know good quality code or bad quality code without a technical advisor. > 2. Prepare to work some odd hours and deal with communication issues Some outsourcing companies work the hours of the client. If not then planning just needs to be done to organise communication. Even in the US (I am not in the US), there are different time zones which need to be compensated for. However I do realise a 12 hour difference can be difficult. > 3. Things will get lost when you transition to a permanent local team Bring on any new developer to an established codebase and they are going to need time to catch up. > 4. Each feature can become a line item in your technical debt This point does not even make sense. Technical debt is not related to offshoring it is related to poor design and implementation. > 5. Hiring and retaining local engineers could be more difficult Well this might be true, but then again it would probably be true of any bad codebase whether developed in house or outsourced. I am sure there are in-house projects with massive God Objects also. |