I hear the same complaint

I hear the same complaint again and again from organisations outsourcing their software development to India. “I can’t retain the staff and they are getting more expensive by the day.” It seems to be a common problem so what is the underlying cause?

Many years ago a bright young developer from Mumbai said to me “I have to work really hard as there are 100 people after my job.” Not the case now with a real skills shortage and developers jumping ship for an extra $5 week. There is so much demand primarily for skilled staff, supervisors, and career engineers, that wages are escalating and then to make matters worse the skills gap in the western economy is exacerbating the problem. There is a desperate scrabble to get jobs onsite and work towards a green card ( blue now in the EEC). So internal demand coupled with emigration is serving to increase prices and lower experience level. Finishing a project with the same staff as it started with in becoming rare.

So how does an IT Manager resolve his development problems? Considering another location could be a solution, one that has less than 5% staff churn, one where the culture is one of loyalty and commitment, one where the costs are even lower. Where? Well give Vietnam a try, It fits the bill!