What types of software development tasks can be easily outsourced?

Question

There are a number of sites where you can post programming tasks. The general view I have picked up from other questions is that these sites are not very good at delivering successful results. But it seems to me that it must depend greatly on the type of task, and I suspect the success rate of outsourcing to rent-a-coder, elance, etc. will be very different depending on the type of work, other things being equal. So my question is; assuming you have the knowledge to do the task yourself, what types of software development tasks work well with these outsourcing services, and what types of tasks are best done in-house?

Some examples of task categories to think about:

• Build a system from high level specifications
• Build a component to integrate with existing system
• Build a component where you have/do not have an extensibility framework
• Additional plugins/components to fit an existing plug-in architecture
• Write a specific function
• Code in an area outside your specialization (e.g. you do ASP.NET but outsource CSS)
• Scripting tasks
• Product vs. app. for in-house use only
• Port existing code from one language or platform to another
• Web site design (graphic)
• Web site design (structure)
• Logo design
• Content authoring
• Testing

Answer 1

In my opinion the only way outsourcing can be accomplished successfully is any project/task that is throughly planned out. You have to leave nothing to interpretation by the outsourcing company. If this is achieved, almost anything can be outsourced.

Answer 2

I have found that outsourcing almost always delivers something that does more or less what you asked for--be it adding a feature to a major software package, building a test suite or even something as small as build systems, etc.

However, almost all of them do exactly that--give you something that does what you asked for. There is almost never any good design or engineering practices put into it, and when you want to change it or grow it, it never meets your expectations.

If you order sausage, it tastes like sausage, but you still don't want to look inside it.

Now that said there are consultants who do good work, but my personal advice is do everything in house if you can. For things like build scripts, etc, consider hiring some enterprising CS students from the local university; you get work done in-house that you can supervise and mentor, for a good price, and they get an internship to put on their resume.

Answer 3

confusing little things that can be answered on stackoverflow :-D

Answer 4

I'd say that you may outsource things that either can be done more efficiently (not necessarily better, maybe just at lesser cost) than by yourself or are not relevant to the core of your success. It's hard to describe on the spot what could fall into the latter category; if your company does something it does it for some purpose.

I agree that in either case you should plan carefully, that's certainly very important.

Answer 5

Projects for in-house use can often be outsourced. The requirements of such projects are often of limited scope (i.e. the requirements are easy to enumerate). They are typically projects that will never see the light of day (i.e. released to the public). They do the task as designed and not much more. Issues of quality, maintainability, and extensibility aren't as important.

This is a good article by Joel Spolsky about what should (and should not) be outsourced (software and otherwise):

In Defense of Not-Invented-Here Syndrome

Here is a relevant quote:

The best advice I can offer:

If it's a core business function -- do it yourself, no matter what.

Pick your core business competencies and goals, and do those in house. If you're a software company, writing excellent code is how you're going to succeed. Go ahead and outsource the company cafeteria and the CD-ROM duplication. If you're a pharmaceutical company, write software for drug research, but don't write your own accounting package.

Enjoy,

Robert C. Cartaino

Answer 6

I think if it's a project that your shop has no expertise in but needs on a temporary basis.

Examples:

• Logo/graphic design for a website
• Some sort of integration app in a language/framework you don't know
• Conversion from one language/framework to another

Basically, if you need an expert in X for a set amount of time (not ongoing), and you don't have an expert in X on the team, it might be a good idea to consider outsourcing it.

Testing you'll always need, I wouldn't outsource that unless you need a temporary boost in resources or something. Same thing for PMs and support staff.

Answer 7

Outsourcing always work for any tasks if you clearly spell out your requirements. However, it is a recepie for disaster if you expect more than that. For instance, if you are expecting any new recommedations or improvisations on any task, it won't happen most of the time for multiple reasons like lack of domain knowledge, expertise etc. In short, for outsourcing to be successful, you should only outsource those tasks that you are are fully aware (and have complete knowledge of all the ins and outs) could be done in-house but because of time and money cannot be done. This will make you flesh out good requirements and manage expectations on either side.

Answer 8

Additional plugins/components to fit an existing plug-in architecture.

I work on an app that interfaces with hardware devices from different vendors that perform the same function. We recently refactored to standardize and componentize the hardware interface. Since the boundary is well-defined it is a great place to outsource.

Answer 9

Good advice in previous postings. Also, outsourcing should not take priority over developing and maintaining in-house code reuse libraries. I've known of a few companies that needed outsourcing frequently in the beginning. But as code reuse libraries became more extensive and developed outsourcing was needed less.

Answer 10

From my point of view as a technical oriented person, all things non-technical are good candidates for outsourcing. Most specifically graphical stuff (design, logos etc) are something that I can't do (or at least I'm very bad at it).

Aside from my personal skills, they are also the tasks that have very few dependencies with programming - you can change them easily without braking your code.

Answer 11

Any work that requires close intrapersonal communication with the client, sponsors and/or users AND any work that integrates with other developers activities. SO, the negative of that is if a task can cleanly decoupled from other applications and people than it can easily be outsourced. If you look at the recent Boeing Dreamline 'issues' you can see the impact of outsourcing, major delays, increased costs, poor quality and loss of clients.

In many cases the cost savings of outsourcing are lost in the additional management costs required and the lower quality delivered. Do not mistake outsourcing with hiring expert consultants - where the consultant has some unique skill set that you require for only a short term period.