Thread: Anyone have experience good/bad with outsourcing?

I outsource lots of my work, but I have excellent contacts in India.
If you don't have the contacts or someone you can trust, you will get ripped off big time.
The other thing is most people over seas, don't think outside of the box. You have to hand hold them every step of the way. It is not easy... Also, if they figure out that you won't make a trip there to verify work, etc.... they will take you for a ride.

30k is not unreasonable by any means. I've been working on a website for some time now that parses various FS threads on forums I designate and saves the price, condition and pictures. Then outputs when that particular item is searched for and returns the high/low and various pictures to judge on a fair price to sell at. Originally I was quoted from a firm in Chicago 25k with a 90 day launch date.

Based on the quote I got,

25000 / 720 hours of labor = $34 / hour. Add in overhead, taxes, company profit, blah blah the coder is making mid-20 a hour.

Originally Posted by Go Getter

Do you run or work for a web dev company? Explain to me please how this price is justified.

These web development companies have a million things going on at once. I want someone thats going to dedicate their full undivided attention to my project. I'm not saying this to be selfish, but its true from both a personal and professional perspective. In a given 8hr work day, how productive is ANYONE going to be, when their minds, and their time is split doing several different things? There not!, and costs will run up as a result of people losing focus, adding hours on the clock that IM PAYING for.

Maybe I just need to search for some Zuckerberg-type-know-it-all, and see if he'll do it.

Not really knowing what the requirements are, Chuck could be right (and I do run a web company).

If you want, send me a quick email with what you're looking to do and I can help put it in terms that make it easier for the vendor to understand what you're looking to do. I used to do a ton of outsourcing just like this when I first started the company, now we do it in house.

When it comes to outsourcing you need to be more organized and on the ball than the company you hire. If they think you know what you're talking about they'll give you a more realistic quote.

If you want someone to dedicate their attention to your project alone then find someone local or at least in the same time zone as you.

Originally Posted by Go Getter

Do you run or work for a web dev company? Explain to me please how this price is justified.

These web development companies have a million things going on at once. I want someone thats going to dedicate their full undivided attention to my project. I'm not saying this to be selfish, but its true from both a personal and professional perspective. In a given 8hr work day, how productive is ANYONE going to be, when their minds, and their time is split doing several different things? There not!, and costs will run up as a result of people losing focus, adding hours on the clock that IM PAYING for.

Maybe I just need to search for some Zuckerberg-type-know-it-all, and see if he'll do it.

you get what you pay for - even more so in the online scam known as the internet.

i have plenty of experience in this area, over 15 years worth.


have you done a project like this before? do you really have all of your requirements down? to the pixel? all of the interaction? what happens when you get a prototype and you want to change some things - and that impacts some back-end processes? what about the 4-5 design iteration you will go through b/c you don't have what you want nailed down? what about the few interaction iterations b/c you tested the prototype w/ some friends & they have no idea what's going on - so you need to tweak? what about QA'ing the thing to make sure it works perfectly? did you spec out those internal tools you'll need to maintain your site? oh, wait, are you 3 months behind schedule and 1.5x over-budget? how do you speed this thing up? and on and on.


i can tell from your many posts this is *exactly* how the scenario will play out - unless you're using a professional developer/firm - who can zero in on the onset what's missing / needed / &, most importantly, how to guide *you* in the getting the answers to the right questions.

- chuck

^ something at the level I want done, there is certainly a lot to think about. I'm going to work on a wireframe like one poster suggested. I have no programming skill so I'm basically making drawings on paper and drawing lines to where each link would take a visitor, and later, desribe what each link, page and feature is for.

I know a bit about outsourcing. I spent 4 months in India this year building up a shop (.NET, iPhone dev and graphics).

If you want to just proof out and show a concept, use a simple CMS, then work on the backend.

For my work now, I proof out mockups with the graphics team, then will create walkthroughs if needed. Then if it moves forward, I will create a demo (then proof of concept, then pilot, then roll out). Every phase has a specific incremental cost. Based on interest (investment) I will move forward or shelf.

Then eventually for each project you will create a skills/requirements matrix to compare against current capacity. Where there are gaps you will look to source from all areas (contractors, outsource, onshore, etc), comparing risks to resources ($ and capabilities) to time...

We have looked at projects that take one resource a month to 9-15 month projects where we would have to hire 150 people.