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by dion.
Original Post: Outsourcing can be like going on a diet
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You can go on a bad diet and still lose weight. It happens all the time. The reason is due to side effects of going on the diet, NOT the diet itself.
When you go on a diet you are often saying "I want to take control of my health". You will often look at what you eat (the diet part), and also look into exercise. Since many people do NOT watch what they eat OR exercise much, just doing those means that you end up losing weight! It could have nothing to do with the particular diet.
NOTE: This doesn't mean that diets are bad, or that they never work... just that they don't HAVE to be the direct cause.
What about outsourcing? I was talking to someone today about how they company says they have a failing project. The reaction is to outsource it. As part of this decision they are going to hire a project manager, technical writer, etc... and they will be focusing more on getting the requirements done and on paper. My reaction is: Why wouldn't you do that NOW??? The project could in theory end up being a success NOT due to the direct cause: outsourcing; but due to the fact that they actually ran the project the way they should have done!
I would guess that a lot of projects have gone this way. The side-effect creating the success rather than the direct change itself. Of course, as with the diets, this doesn't mean that there are no reasons to outsource... and that it is intrusively bad... but we should start doing the right thing and giving out current projects the best chance of success today.
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