Pencils Down

While not strictly software, AMD does have an effect on the software industry.  Yes, i know it should be AMD, but I left the ‘typo’ in on purpose.  Just the title of this article bothers me.  How can you spinoff the thing you do?  The analysts are all excited about removing all this debt from the books of AMD.  There are possible cost affects to the design process.  Blah blah blah.

This makes no sense.  AMD is in cut-throat competition with Intel to be fastest to market, low cost mass producer of chips.  There is no elegant division of duties where ‘design’ or some other such group can be chopped out and premium priced.  This assumes there is no value to the synergies of having your design staff walk down the hall to meet with the fab people to go over plans for some new chip.  I just don’t believe that.  Or even more likely having fab people on staff as part of the planning process years in advance.

Some ’software’ companies tried this with outsourcing development to the Far East.  It really didn’t work unless your management was running the show over there - hiring, firing, just being across the hall to run a meeting.

Please, kick your CFO in the butt and get back to work.

Uncategorized Outsourcing

I was looking forward to working with an agency in town.  However, there was a delay in the go signal for a new project.  I don’t know about you, but no news has been bad news for me.

The guy says all future projects will go through RFP.  Remember, we aren’t talking big dollars here.  So that means eLance and the like where Asian programmers bid a dollar an hour for work, not having any idea what you are trying to do, but taking your money gladly.

I thought everyone did this 10 years ago and got killed.  Yes, the big guys still do this, but they have a full management presence in Asia.  They aren’t hiring out with a classified ad.  They are working with their own employees who happen to live in Asia.

I can’t compete at a few bucks an hour on any kind of work.  It’s really not clear the agency is big enough to withstand a few really bad outsourced projects.  If they are still around in 2 years maybe I can work with them then.  I know I will still be plugging away.

Uncategorized Outsourcing