Cultural differences in outsourcing

What you said about Indian programmers is right...I agree...Iam from India so i know the culture there...they say "yes" for everything bcoz they are under pressure from there managers constantly...it's not same as here...you cannot eat potatoe chips in classroom...there is less freedom...there is pressure to perform...my suggestion is you should ask them to repeat what you said or send them a soft copy of what you need.

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hey Yakov,

Im a Indian and i tend to agree with your point but there is a diff in stating things between three different countries you are supposed to be stating all three -ves or all three +ves

The genralizations you made about china and India are -ve you have to accept it and The genralization about Russia is +ve you have to accept that too. All i want to say is these three statements dont belong together and this is why theres is such a huge debate probably you were just biased subconsciously and im sorry for that

I have to agree that managers better get used to this because American programmers are species that is on verge of extinction.

The American programmer is not on the verge of extinction for the following reasons: <p> Salaries in India and other major outsourcing countries are getting higher therefore making the hassle of dealing with communication issues, different corporate cultures, and time zone differences less appealing. <p> Top level programmers are immigrating to the USA in pursuit of the American Dream. Those that stay behind might not be the best. <p> In the US, there are more opportunities for the average person to make a decent living so those that pursue a career in IT (specially post 2000) are more likely to do so out of a genuine interest in programming. Trust me, this shows in the quality of their code.

Norman is exactly right and corporate America is slowly coming to grips with the true cost of outsourcing (high turnover of resources, longer time-to-market, communications issues, junior developers, infrastructure costs, and timezone logistics). If your project has a really good team, you have a chance that you can "follow the sun" for round-the-clock development. However, more times than not, you end up losing an extra day. To try to alleviate this problem, either Americans start the day very early and work from home late into the evening to answer questions/coordinate activities or the Indian developer starts the day late and perhaps works 3rd shift. That is not a long-term strategy for either individual.

The previous comment touched on eating at your desk in India. I learned about this in a recent project when an American manager was asking the Indian team to arrange to have dinner brought in. He later asked for a status because he didn't hear anything and learned that they were not allowed to eat at their desks.

I'll end by telling Kabra that the reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated.