OT: Computer Science in today's market

[Jim Bufalini]

If what your doing involves a GUI and end users, I wouldn't worry too much.
Even the programming itself is difficult to outsource.

Several years ago I had a company that outsourced to India. You can't leave
anything to the imagination in the spec. If you do it's guaranteed to come
back wrong. And there are cultural differences to deal with that effect the
software.

For example, making requests to reorder the prompts on a working entry
screen, so it matches the customer's workflow, elicit disbelief and outright
laughter. The programmers can't understand why you would take something that
works and change it solely for the convenience of the end user. After all,
labor is cheap and if someone complains they just get fired and immediately
replaced, right? Color, inconsistent layout, and look and feel become major
issues of contention.

On the other hand, if your a just a coder working as part of
multi-discipline team on non-visible background or system processes, well,
here they excel.

Jim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: use-revolution-bounces at lists.runrev.com
> [mailto:use-revolution-bounces at lists.runrev.com]On Behalf Of Richard
> Gaskin
> Sent: Tuesday, August 23, 2005 10:44 AM
> To: How to use Revolution
> Subject: Re: OT: Computer Science in today's market
>
>
> Jim Hurley wrote:
> > Thought some  of you might be interested in this article from
> the NYT on
> > Computer Science as a major in today's world of technology and the
> > problems with off-shoring of programming jobs.
> >
> > TECHNOLOGY   | August 23, 2005
> >
> <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/technology/23geeks.html?ex=1125
> 460800&en=6b61cc74c14ba4af&ei=5070&emc=eta1>ATechie,
> > Absolutely, and More
> > By STEVE LOHR
> > For computer science students, expanding expertise beyond
> programming is
> > crucial to future job security as technology jobs move to India
> and China.
>
> A reassuring read.
>
> Makes me glad I never jumped on the bandwagon with commodity languages
> like Java and VB.  Anything that can be commoditized will be sent
> overseas today, and done by robots tommorrow.
>
> I don't know about the rest of you folks, but I spend more time doing
> requirements analysis and design than coding.  Those jobs can be
> outsourced only at the publisher's peril: design work requires an
> intimate understanding of not just the regional culture of the target
> audience, but also the organizational culture.  You have to directly
> observe users in action, interview people at all levels of the
> organization your software will support, and learn when to listen to
> what they tell you and when to read between the lines to hear not what
> they're able to articulate but what they really mean.
>
> Software design is more about workflow than algorithms, more about
> people than machines.
>
> A tool like Rev is already doing most of the work that other companies
> outsource: the bit-counting tedium of lower-level languages.
>
> Us Rev devs ge get to focus on the people side of the business, which
> for me is more enjoyable (when I was working in C I kept asking, "Why am
> I typing this -- can't the machine do this for me?"), and not likely to
> move offshore anytime soon (except perhaps with short-sighted companies
> who prefer to jeopardize their viability by blurring the distinctions
> between short-term savings and long-term ROI, and I try to avoid working
> with companies that aren't ROI-driven anyway).
>
> --
>   Richard Gaskin
>   Fourth World Media Corporation
>   __________________________________________________
>   Rev tools and more: http://www.fourthworld.com/rev
> _______________________________________________
> use-revolution mailing list
> use-revolution at lists.runrev.com
> Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your
> subscription preferences:
> http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-revolution
>
>