Sunday, July 15, 2007
Are Developers in India Second Class?
An architect I know who works for another Fortune enterprise recently returned from a road trip where he was part of a team investigating outsourcing. He visited India, Philippines, Brazil, Trinidad and China.
He noted that in other countries (with the exception being India) that all the software developers had the same books on their desks as you would find on American's desks. In India, he did notice a few books which caught his interest because they seemed to be produced on rice-like paper. While in India, he asked a couple of folks whether their employer(s) have a budget for purchasing the latest books and most said that they are on their own. Several of them replied that they rely solely on finding free information on the Internet while others use BitTorrent to find PDF versions of bootleg books.
The economic situation in all of the countries were pretty similar in terms of wages and the affordability of buying books from the United States yet their did seem to be a bigger willingness to sacrifice some of their own salary to do so which he felt was missing in India.
I suspect that IT executives and CIOs in America need to pay attention to the lack of books on desks. As we know, 90% of the time, a software developer doesn't need them. It is the 10% of time where they become vital especially if you have outsourced production support. Would you rather have someone simply pull a book off the shelf or spend time hoping to find the answer for free via google...
| | View blog reactionsHe noted that in other countries (with the exception being India) that all the software developers had the same books on their desks as you would find on American's desks. In India, he did notice a few books which caught his interest because they seemed to be produced on rice-like paper. While in India, he asked a couple of folks whether their employer(s) have a budget for purchasing the latest books and most said that they are on their own. Several of them replied that they rely solely on finding free information on the Internet while others use BitTorrent to find PDF versions of bootleg books.
The economic situation in all of the countries were pretty similar in terms of wages and the affordability of buying books from the United States yet their did seem to be a bigger willingness to sacrifice some of their own salary to do so which he felt was missing in India.
I suspect that IT executives and CIOs in America need to pay attention to the lack of books on desks. As we know, 90% of the time, a software developer doesn't need them. It is the 10% of time where they become vital especially if you have outsourced production support. Would you rather have someone simply pull a book off the shelf or spend time hoping to find the answer for free via google...
