Web Dev Outsourcing Jitters?

The word 'outsourcing' can be a very sensitive word depending upon the audience. Some are just plain scared of it, others have lost jobs because of it, and others gain great benefit from it.

I'm not going to get into the economics or politics of it here today. But, what I want to do is share a recent experiment with you. Recently, I had the need to get a small Access database program completed. My resources were tied up so I decided to try the outsourcing route.

My tool of choice was www.rentacoder.com, which is an online portal for finding developers of many varying talents. I posted the job bid request with some very specific details on a project that should only take 3 to 5 hours to complete.

This time I left it open for anyone to bid, not just United States based freelancers.

Man was I in for a suprise. I received bid requests that were horrbily mispelled and simple concepts were misunderstood, 99% of them coming from overseas.. It was a frustrating experience wading through all the requests, because so many were that way.

So, did I outsource the project overseas? No, I didn't. The reason was quite simply a business decision. I couldn't afford to have the language/cultural barriers have a negative influence on the timeliness and quality of work. Could I have saved money? Maybe not much on a 3 to 5 hour project, but small or large you've got to consider opportunity cost.

Until next time...