[Discuss] core competency

[bogstad at pobox.com (Bill Bogstad)]

On Thu, Jan 24, 2013 at 12:54 PM, Edward Ned Harvey (blu)
<blu at nedharvey.com> wrote:
>> From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org [mailto:discuss-
>> bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On Behalf Of Dan Ritter
>>
>> Will they live or die over whether an engineer is inspired and
>> dedicated and works overnight fixing a problem or implementing a feature?
>>
>> If so, then it is a mistake to outsource that function.
>
> I'm going to have to disagree with this logic.  Because having an internal employee versus outsourcing is just a relationship difference between your Corp and the Employee.  It does not necessarily come with any difference of competence or dedication or loyalty.  Sometimes it may, but it's not correct to draw a cause/effect relationship (or even correlation) between the quality of work done, and the worker(s) status as an employee or outsource resource.  And you certainly don't get any guarantee of loyalty or competence by hiring somebody on a W2/W4.

You go from "does not necessarily" to "not correct to draw a ....
relationship" to "don't get a guarantee" in that paragraph.   While
"does not necessarily" and "don't get a guarantee" are certainly true,
 I don't think its wrong to suggest that there can in fact be a
correlation between
the relationship between a person and an organization; and what you
can typically expect that person to do for the organization.  It is
completely reasonable for me trust more what my cousin (the car
salesman) tells me about cars then what the guy who works at the
dealership across town says and the reason is that we are in different
relationships.   That doesn't mean that the guy at the dealership is
automatically going to lie, it is just more likely.   Nor does that
mean that the "outsider" is always going to be the wrong choice.
Consultants who aren't going to be around for a long time, may very
well be in a better position to be honest about the faults of a
particular IT solution when it is being championed by an internal
advocate.   If that advocate has a lot of clout within the
organization, it might just be easier from a career perspective for
potential internal critics to silently let it pass them by then to
make a potential enemy.

Bill Bogstad