gotdevops

This is definitely one major issue. At the top. The challenge at the top is that these outsourcing contracts are for many millions of dollars. They are often written in such a way that the parent cannot dictate how the outsourcing firm conducts business. The parent fills out a ticket and the outsourcer assigns the ticket to a resource and marks the ticket complete. The issue here is that this is not a bug related to email or Login credentials. This is an airplane with folks relying on it for safety of flight.

I think you are right on with this. Most startups also leveraging an organizational culture that goes against silos or fiefdoms. In the startup culture I’ve been a part of fast feedback and early identification of flaws in the process is a cornerstone of the development process. Troubleshooting issues in production is the worse case scenario. In this case production is literally a flying airplane.

It’s a very interesting point. I’ve worked with some very skilled devs from HCL. I’ve also seen them turn over to other firms because of salary and other firm related issues. I don’t think that piece has anything or very little to do with the fact that they are Indian. However the organizational culture is definitely flawed and it does appear to be more prevalent in large fixed bid outsourcing arrangements. I’ve witnessed it first hand being brought in to resolve issues created by the outsourcer on projects as large as 1/2bn. They difference between those projects is the mission. Those project were critical on a financial basis. This was and aircraft with peoples life’s on the line. No one dev or otherwise can say they didn’t know this code was going on an airplane. No matter their salary.

This is where testing comes in and from the fact packet it appears that the testing was also outsourced to another Indian firm?

It’s the hardware people’s fault right. Oh no it’s managements fault. It’s everyone else’s fault. I see a pattern forming here.

https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/13/suppl_2/ii22

You sound suspiciously like every other outsourcer I’ve worked with who breaks something critical. A million reasons why it wasn’t their fault. They did exactly what they were told right and didn’t take one second to validate the assumptions surrounding the systematic nature of the solution. The goal, the mission, the end state solution. That was another departments concern right. That was QA’s concern, that was designs concern, that was the testing center of excellence’s concern. Blame them. The perfect circle of siloed fiefdoms and no feedback blame. The problem is that lives were at stake here on this one and the entire house of cards is coming crashing down if this is determined to be true. There will be public outcry and no matter how many excuses you have the fact is families and lives have been ruined FOREVER, NOTHING ON THIS EARTH CAN REPLACE THEM and something must be done.

https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/13/suppl_2/ii22

For DOD no foreign you are correct. Unfortunately 737 max is not a no foreign DOD project. Please understand these outsourcing companies are extremely powerful and influential. They bring In highly trained and connected sales teams to negotiate big deals at the executive and political levels. In this case 11bn deal to Boeing for 1.7bn in services contracts for India. Please consider what level at Boeing that sort of deal is brokered at? Ask yourself what the repercussions are for internal folks who call out the outsourcing firms? As you suggest outsourcing firms often start out with non critical tasks like operations and maintenance. Through this process they actually consider those contracts as investments to gain access to learn the lay of the land especially where the critical systems are and who manages them. Then these firms often including architecture leads who are camouflaged sales people do their trade craft of above board and from my perspective suspicious below board tactics until they open the door to more critical projects and higher paying contracts. HCL, TCS, etc work on critical system not only in this industry but also in Medical, Infrastructure, Utilities, Telecommunications, Broadcasting, etc, etc. I wish you were correct but sadly I’ve seen the transition first hand and have been brought in to unwind what outsourcing firms have done in the name of cost savings. At the same time I was told and my teams were told to investigate, identify and fix the issue but don’t blame the outsourcer or this will be your last contract. This i was told was due to the level of the outsourcers executive Sponsership. Consider the influence these firms have over the execs and the reputation at stake with anything negative or other then thank you so much for the great work. In fact we were told that the outsourcer was to be treated as the customer. Even though months of war rooms and rework fell squarely on their ineptitude.