[Discuss] core competency

[jack at coats.org (Jack Coats)]

I have worked in some companies where, when getting ready for a major
upgrade, they
hired contractors.  To do the 'support and maintenance' of the 'old
stuff' whey the employees
do the new development, and when they are ready, they roll into
production and become
the support staff.  When the old stuff is after EOL, the contractors
are thanked and escorted
out - no harm, no foul.

I found this to be a good model. ... It keeps permanent folks on your
bleeding edge, they
know they will have to support tomorrow what they did today, so 'good
enough' should not
be 'good enough' for them.  Their new system needs to be right day one.

I have run into several contractors over the year that just wanted to
bill the next hour
rather than supply the service needed by the customer to solve the
customers issues
long term.  Kind of having the dog protect the steak issue.

Contractors, especially good ones, always have had a warm place in my
heart.  I have done
that, but the non-contract life is more my speed.  But so is
retirement now that I put in my years.

><> ... Jack
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart... Colossians 3:23
"If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate"
- Henry J. Tillman
"Anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new." -
Albert Einstein
"You don't manage people; you manage things. You lead people." -
Admiral Grace Hopper, USN
Life is complex: it has a real part and an imaginary part. - Martin Terma


On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 9:29 AM, Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org> wrote:
> On 01/24/2013 12:38 PM, Shirley M?rquez D?lcey wrote:
>>> Of course, when you outsource for expertise, you're really outsourcing to save money.  Because you get somebody part-time or temporary instead of hiring a fulltime person for that role.  At least ... I find in sales for my own services, that's one of the most compelling points to pitch to potential customers.
>> That assumes that your company needs enough of that role to justify a
>> full time person. A common reason for outsourcing is that a company
>> only needs a small amount of a skill, not enough to justify bringing
>> in a person for it.
> I filled that role as a contractor for about 20 years.  Generally
> projects have life cycles that require staffing up and staffing down.
> So, you buy those skills for the period of time you are developing the
> product. You develop the inhouse skills to maintain the product going
> forward.
>
> --
> Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
> Boston Linux and Unix
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