If you want to have the best quality software, then you must pay the best people what they are worth, without unpaid overtime every single day. |
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If you want to have the best quality software, then you must pay the best people what they are worth. Joel Spolsky expounds on why in Hitting the High Notes.
"The common belief is that when you're building a software company, the goal is to find a neat idea that solves some problem which hasn't been solved before, implement it, and make a fortune. We'll call this the build-a-better-mousetrap belief. But the real goal for software companies should be converting capital into software that works.
And in fact the conventional wisdom in the world of copycat business journalists and large companies who rely on overpaid management consultants to think for them, chew their food, etc., seems to be that the most important thing is reducing the cost of programmers.
Roughly speaking, if you try to skimp on programmers, you'll make crappy software, and you won't even save that much money."
Software Engineers get no respect:
The creators of technology aren't feeling very appreciated these days. Their jobs are being sent offshore, pay raises are paltry at best and neighbors think they're geeks.
Equally dispiriting is the fact that most engineers in the United States remember a different time, when they were valued by employers and respected by others. Those days seem long ago to many of the 4,083 respondents to EE Times' Insight 2005 online survey. Conducted in August, it explored engineers' attitudes about work, politics, religion and other topics.
"We just don't have any class or status," said one engineer at a bioscience firm. "Someone with a bachelor's or master's in electrical engineering or software, he's just a flunky. There is no respect for them."
...
Adding insult to injury, engineers seem to have it better in China and India, the two nations seen as the largest threats to U.S. technological leadership, according to our survey. "People over there [in China] in engineering probably will be treated more respectfully than here," said one design engineer. "Over there it's more concentrated in science and math than here. People tend to be more respected when you become a scientist."
...
"If this country wants to continue to be a mover and a shaker and a leader in the world, you won't get that by having a country that is mostly all gardeners or people working at Wendy's," said another design engineer. "Right now, it seems like, what the heck do I want to go into this profession for? There's no money in it; there's nothing but layoffs and it's all being outsourced to India."
"Factory jobs are being added in the United States for the first time in years...On the surface this is good news.
More troubling, however, is that increased competition will raise the cost of living everywhere.
The demand for consumer goods will have an exponential effect on the demand for raw materials. And if the past five years is any indication, those costs will shoot up while salaries creep up.
This is not the kind of thing economists gave even a passing thought to when they encouraged globalization. Raw materials are treated with roughly the same disdain as the environment by most political and business leaders, but they are what make everything run."
Since you are reading this site, I know you have an interest in doing Software Safety correctly. Are you ready to compete in the "Global Market"? This is what some of the competition has in store:
HCL Infosystems manufacturing process are ISO 9001 certified, while its software development processes have achieved SEI CMM Level 4.
India Infrastructure Management Software Case Studies
Published by IDC
November 2002
R104-11111
Description
This document looks at what some of the key factors are that are influencing the management of software assets in India.
See the section on "Guidelines" in the menu to learn more about SEI CMM Levels.
Cyber Lodge, the first open source high-tech worker's organization, is planning to offer access to benefits including discount health insurance, for unemployed and contract workers in High-Tech.
I do not have any personal experiance with the organization, so don't consider this an endorsement.
DENVER - A software engineer who twice lost jobs to foreign workers is hoping Coloradans will get a chance to vote on whether to bar the state from relying on workers overseas.
Richard Armstrong, 40, of Parker is leading a corps of volunteers to collect enough signatures to place the issue on November's ballot.
India software exports soar to $12 billion, says Nasscom--
Software and service exports in India grossed $12 billion in 2004-05,
34 percent higher than $9.2 billion in 2003-04, according to figures
released by the National Association of Software and Service
Companies.
http://newsletter.eetimes.com/cgi-bin4/DM/y/eoMO0FmDwR0FrK0DRjK0EG
"Engineering ... it is a great profession. There is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer's high privilege.
The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all can see them. His acts, step by step, are in hard substance. He cannot bury his mistakes in the grave like the doctors. He cannot argue them into thin air or blame the judge like the lawyers. He cannot, like the architects, cover his failures with trees and vines. He cannot, like the politicians, screen his shortcomings by blaming his opponents and hope the people will forget. The engineer simply cannot deny he did it. If his works do not work, he is damned....
On the other hand, unlike the doctor his is not a life among the weak. Unlike the soldier, destruction is not his purpose. Unlike the lawyer, quarrels are not his daily bread. To the engineer falls the job of clothing the bare bones of science with life, comfort, and hope. No doubt as years go by the people forget which engineer did it, even if they ever knew. Or some politician puts his name on it. Or the credit it to some promoter who used other people's money ... but the engineer himself looks back at the unending stream of goodness which flows from his successes with satisfactions that few professionals may know. And the verdict of his fellow professionals is all the accolade he wants.
For more information on the career of Herbert Hoover see his biographical sketch at the Hoover Presidential Library in West Branch, Iowa."
I'm not going to turn this site into one on politics but I thought you might want to read these few items, your QA or programming job, or mine, might be next.
Keep in mind that our US Goverment says Outsourcing is a Good Thing, as they raise our taxes, to make up for the losses of the good high paying jobs in this country, that they taxed in the past.
US strongly opposed to ban on outsourcing - Aziz Haniffa in Washington DC | June 13, 2003 12:35 IST
The United States is strongly opposed to any attempt to legislate a ban on outsourcing to India or any other country by American companies, and will resist efforts to do so, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick assured Union Commerce and Industry Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday. "All I can say is, the attitude of the federal government is very clear," he emphasized.
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Wireless Systems Design UPDATE
PlanetEE - www.planetee.com
August 29, 2003
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3. "Off The Cuff" Column
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Outsourcing Drains America's High-Tech Community By John Blyler, Executive Editor
Has your high-tech job been outsourced, yet? One out of every 10 IT jobs in the US has been outsourced to other countries. Over 51 percent of software executives say their off-shoring strategy is well underway, according to a recent study by McKinsey and the Sand Hill Group. Further, nearly 20 percent more will commence offshore software development in the next year.Where are these jobs going? Mainly to India and Russia [and Brazil]. Here are some recent outsourcing that made the news: Bell South may move up to 600 jobs to India; General Motors will spend $60 million on its R&D center in Bangalore over the next three years; Sprint is preparing to offshore hundreds of jobs; Hewlett Packard will spend $55 million on an R&D center in Singapore, and Intel continues to migrate an untold number of software quality assurance and control jobs to Russia.
How has the US government responded to the outsourcing of high-tech jobs? Last month, President Bush made a statement at a recent press conference implying that the unemployment in the IT sector is the result of American workers who have not kept their skills up to date, according to Russell T. Harrison, Legislative Representative - Grassroots Affairs IEEE-USA. While many experts doubt the accuracy of the president's assessment of America's high-tech community, others see it as a mote point. Just what can the government do, regardless of their perception of the problem? "Will there soon be a tariff barrier for bits and bytes at the border crossing," asks Tony Nash, president of the Zanobi Group, Inc, a strategy consulting and research firm.
Should the wireless design technical community be concerned by the growing number of outsourced high-tech jobs? If so, what can be done? Please join our on-going, weblog discussion on the PlanetEE forum.