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Reasons NOT to offshore development ....

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    Reasons NOT to offshore development ....

    Attention all project managers, budget holders, decision makers wrt. where to get development resource ... This is for you !

    Subbing out development to India is a bad bad bad idea.
    I have just spent most of today picking my way through the tuliptest bit of Java you have ever laid your eyes on.
    No comments, badly/inconsistently indented, 1 try/catch block enclosing the _entire_ thing !!! Its a nightmare

    Eventually found the problem - within the catch block, they were performing a database insert to record the error that was caught. There were composing an INSERT statement using the error text from the exception along the lines of:
    Code:
    String msg_erException = er.getMessage();
    String updateErrorTable = "INSERT INTO ERRORLOG (COL1, COL2) VALUES ('some id', '" + msg_erException + '")";
    Trouble is, the exception message has single quotes in it - ORA-01536: space quota exceeded for tablespace 'MAXDATA'
    so, the resultant string passed to Oracle was:
    Code:
    INSERT INTO ERRORLOG (COL1, COL2) VALUES ('some id', 'ORA-01536: space quota exceeded for tablespace 'MAXDATA'')
    The observant amongst you will also notice the other glaring flaw with this - if the original INSERT failed due to tablespace exceeded, and the exception was thrown, why would this INSERT within the catch block ever run ?

    Jeez - they got paid for this as well !

    So, offshore development might be cheaper initially, but how much does it cost when a) it is not running as intended, and b) someone is picking their way through it when they should be doing what you are paying them to do

    Tantrum over ..... and breath ........

    #2
    It's becoz you is a racialist, innit.

    Comment


      #3
      only 1 day to pick your way through it, I spent 3 days going through my 14k lines of code, whilst scraping the egg and cress from the fag packet with the spec on it.

      So do you think that the Indian dev costs + your 1 day of effort was not cheaper than having one of us money grabbing ***** do it ?
      Your parents ruin the first half of your life and your kids ruin the second half

      Comment


        #4
        The observant amongst you will also notice the other glaring flaw with this - if the original INSERT failed due to tablespace exceeded, and the exception was thrown, why would this INSERT within the catch block ever run?
        Wouldn't it loop?
        IE Error leads to Insert which doesn't work which leads to error which leads to insert which doesn't work which leads to error.... etc etc etc.

        F in "Can't get my head around this pointy-clicky stuff" mode
        We must strike at the lies that have spread like disease through our minds

        Comment


          #5
          Yes indeed they should have used stored procs - I am working on another element of this project, and it has been mandated that every dml interaction I have with the database must be via stored procs - and I agree completely, and of course thats how I've written my code.
          So why have these goons been allowed to write such a pile of poop God alone knows.

          But should they be paid for this ? Good God, no - not IMHO. Honestly, if I could post the code I would (but then I wouldn't get paid ), but believe me when I say its the kind of thing you would expect from some 16 year old wannabe just out of school whose never taken any formal programming courses (Dummies Guide to Java, Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days etc )

          Comment


            #6
            There is of course some positive spin you could put on all this - I've been contracted to do a block of work for a period of time. Given that I've lost a day through this, my contract will get extended by that day, and I'll get paid for another days work !

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by Captain Jack
              It's becoz you is a racialist, innit.
              No, not at all. It just happens that this code was written by a bunch of Indibums (TCS I think ??)
              Its any of this new fangled cheaper offshore development that I have a problem with.
              If this were you or I doing the work, we are on site, in front of the customer. If what we've written doesn't work, we keep at it until it does. We write the code well. We test it. We are professionals
              But with offshore development, its too easy to hide behind the geographical distance. They are not customer facing, so dont have the accountability to the customer that we have. They dont have proper access to the DB to test (in this case 'tis true, but I accept that it doesn't have to be that way). I just see it as being too easy to knock up a quick'n'dirty bit of code that works when they ran it once, email it over, and forget about it.

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by Jakes Daddy
                If what we've written doesn't work, we keep at it until it does. We write the code well. We test it. We are professionals.
                Steady on, Jakes Daddy.

                Comment


                  #9
                  I do lurv it when they offshore stuff. I get paid lots to sort such things out when they goes titsup.

                  It's a win-win for contractors: either you get paid to write it, or get paid to fix it, which, lets face it, if you're any good at handling the client, means re-writing it.

                  It's called contractor rodeo!

                  (You know, just like the rodeo position, but you and the offshorer are doing it to the client.)

                  It is my ambition to one day run a project where the client offshores the development to a company I own and when it fscks up bring it back onshore to a company I own. In so doing I get paid twice or even more for exactly the same work... I have to admit I gained this aspiration by watching big 4 Co's who are past masters at such shenanigans.

                  Anyone who thinks this is wrong; well lets just point out the new terrorist laws...
                  Insanity: repeating the same actions, but expecting different results.
                  threadeds website, and here's my blog.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    some 16 year old wannabe just out of school whose never taken any formal programming courses
                    who's
                    We must strike at the lies that have spread like disease through our minds

                    Comment

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