Outsourcing a project gone bad story...

But a slew of mistakes on both sides -- mostly in communications -- meant that instead of being ready in six months, the software didn't reach end users until earlier this month, a year behind schedule. The story of what happened highlights a number of key issues facing users and vendors as Russia tries to break into the global outsourcing market. more

Comment: People underestimate communication so badly. They underestimate the benefits of face to face, and weekly meetings. Keeping things on track is no small job when everybody is on site, we have to be even more pro-active communication wise when doing offshore. I was having lunch the other day with an old timer OTI and his opinion was exactly the same, they have had multi-sites development for many years, and you have to invest time and money in making people talk to each other, face to face, and force them to use the phone as much as possible, e-mail/groupware/collaboration tools aren't gonna cut it on their own, to quote him. Nothing new here, but still we keep on reading the same mistakes over and over. What is the problem, is-it new people who've never been in a d-team scenario before, or is it people who've done it for so many times they've grown lazy?