Ryan Carson is in line for the "most controversial blog post of Sunday evening" award with his entry on why you need to get rid of your freelance developer ASAP. One thing's very clear from reading the comments: most people disagree with him. It's particularly interesting to see someone like Ryan come up with a statement like this - or perhaps it's exceptional marketing. Carson Systems certainly seem good at generating buzz and a name.
What do I think?
I've been fortunate enough over the years to work with a wide range of people in a wide range of contexts. Insourcing, outsourcing, offshoring, nearshoring, contract, permanent, full time, part time, any time. I've worked with incredibly talented architects, designers and developers from America, Bulgaria, Canada, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland and of course the UK. Some of them I've never met. Some of them I trained. Some of them have been training me ever since! Some of them have been paid by the hour, some by the day, some for projects, some for bug fixes, some were salaried, many were contract.
And guess what? There's no one solution that works without fail in every context. What I can tell you is that you can make significant savings by leveraging costs and exchange rates between different economies and markets. But you can also make significant losses and expensive mistakes. Just as there are significant advantages to retaining expertise in-house, there are also massive cost advantages to exploring outsourcing and offshoring.
I guess what it boils down to is that "get rid of your freelance developer ASAP" is glib and dangerous advice. There's no simple answer. Be sure to consider all your options, and to keep an eye on the long-term value as well as the short-term savings. And certainly don't just take mine or Ryan's word for it: do the math yourself.
Posted by savs at February 21, 2007 5:41 PM