#14 - Sean Cummings: Offshoring and Pointing Fingers

I have spoken with Sean Cummings about the pros and cons of offshoring and how it compares to on-shoring. He also talked about the importance of having clear goals when undergoing an outsourced initiative and that one of the key benefits of outsourcing is that not everybody is good at everything.

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Long Recap

Transcription

Short Recap

Conversation with Sean Cummings, CEO of Laminar Consulting Services on Offshoring Pros and Cons, also when compared to Nearshoring, plus the relevancy of establishing clear goals prior to undergoing Outsourcing and a great Horror Story about finger pointing.

Timeline

01:20 How does Outsourcing relate to Laminar?
02:52 Why to Outsource?
04:50 On client awareness about Laminar’s Outsourcing
06:18 About Outsourcing challenges
07:50 On building trust with an Outsourcing provider
09:51 Offshoring versus Nearshoring
13:32 On miscommunication
15:11 Laminar client’s geographies
16:08 The operational toolkit
17:55 What is not subject to Outsourcing
20:48 The Horror Story
25:57 Outsourcing success keys
28:22 Quality Assurance Outsourcing, what it means.
31:50 Advise to Outsourcing newcomers
34:08 Final message

Key Points

" We don’t permanently need all resource types while building an application"

" Keeping things hidden from clients is a no-no situation because eventually “that cat will fall out of the bag” and then …"

" Projects are not without risk"

" Are there such thing as a “Perfect Project”? … No! "

" Having the right resources in the right place is a powerful way to mitigate risks"

" Multivendor strategy over a given project may represent a huge headache for the client"

" Besides establishing goals, the team needs to be aware of the path towards achieving those goals"

Links Mentioned

Skype - Instant messaging app that provides online text message and video chat services
GoToMeeting - An online meeting, desktop sharing, and video conferencing software
Microsoft TFS - A product that provides source code management, reporting, requirements management, project management as well as other functionalities

Definitions

AGILE - The Agile Method is a particular approach to project management that is utilized in software development. This method assists teams in responding to the unpredictability of constructing software. It uses incremental, iterative work sequences that are commonly known as sprints.
SCRUM - Scrum is an iterative and incremental agile software development framework for managing product development.

Guest

CEO Sean Cummings Laminar Consulting Services
Cell: +17144500099
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I'm an Outsourcerer. I'm a DNN Geek. I help people with their sites @ DeskPal. I'm a #Pomodoro practitioner. I'm a husband and a father of 2 beautiful girls.