Rakkar has posted a blog entry here with some useful advise on how not to outsource.
To get my programmers, I posted on a general job site, naukri.com.
Lesson one – research: To find game developers go to game dev related sites and ask for recommendations for sites where good outsources can be found (or any particular outsources companies/staff that people would recommend). Don’t post for specialists in a general job site.
I also had no idea what Indian programmers were worth at the time. I got prices ranging from $250 a month to $5000 a month,
Lesson two – research more: again a failure to research leaves you at a disadvantage.
I ultimately hired 4 guys at, on average, $1500 a month. One disappeared on the day he was supposed to start work. One was fired after wasting 3 days just trying to compile the game and had to get help even opening and copying files. Another supposedly worked for two days, then disappeared, and told me he took another job else a week later. The last was the best qualified of the bunch: my former graphics programmer – a diamond in the rough comparatively speaking. He claimed to be a former lead programmer at nVidia, claimed 6 years of experience, could speak well, and could answer most of my general interview questions.
Yet at the same time, his graphics knowledge wasn’t what I was expecting…..
Lesson three – Dump bad people fast: Rakkar did a good job sacking a useless applicant after three days, but….
Lesson four – research even more: The four applicants made a lot of claims that would have been very easy to check. This should have been done as a matter of course but the fourth applicants seeming lack of graphic knowledge should have acted as an additional (final) alarm bell.
Conclusion
Outsourcing can save money but only if done correctly – and even then there is often a high management overhead. I know of several developers who have had good experiences outsourcing to India but they all say the same things….
- Research the process first before diving in.
- Investigate the company/person before doing business. Look at past work and seek references.
- Produce a detailed specification for the work to measure against.
- Manage/review the work on a regular basis, give detailed feedback and if its not going well (after corrections have been attempted) terminate.
- If something doesn’t seem right it almost certainly isn’t.
- Ultimately you get what you pay for.
