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As difficult as it is to buy the right software, you’d think they’d call it hardware. You need to be an expert in how to buy software. You need to know how to write a software specification. For every business there are many problems or needs that can be addressed. Technology will only be able to solve certain problems. For every one of those there are many technologies that will work. For every technology there are many more products or solutions of that technology. And, for every product or solution there are that many more vendors. How do you know if the vendor you picked is even going to have a product, a technology or a solution that can solve your problem and that it's the right problem to solve with technology? First you need to figure out which business problems need to be solved. Then you need to narrow down which of those business problems can be solved with technology. After that you need to determine which technologies are the right ones to apply to solve those problems. Only then can you identify the technology product or solution to address those needs. Don't even think about talking to a developer or vendor until you've done these steps. CMMI can be applied to small companies and in agile development environments and methods.You can achieve a CMMI level rating even though you use XP (Extreme Programming) or another Agile Development approach or method.Looking for help implementing CMMI? Need someone who will understand that 'your're different?' Looking for discipline in a lightweight environment? Entinex understands and can help you achieve your process objectives.Software development isn't manufacturing. So why do people keep trying to use manufacturing methods on software? Manufacturing QA doesn't work in software which is why so much software QA is so painful. Entinex has the solution. Don't let obsolete thinking about software processes intimidate you out of pursuing a CMMI level rating. Old-style thinking about software processes have not kept up with the times, but Entinex has. Entinex understands that you're in business not for the process but to make money selling software products, solutions, and services. Let Entinex help you achieve your process goals without breaking your bank or rhythm.

A Requirements Paradox:

I like you, but you won’t get the job.
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So I then set my mind to some of the other factors that affect the decision to send work overseas.  Even though off shore developers are less expensive, and can sometimes deliver results faster than local developers -- for reasons I don’t have the space to address -- one of the reasons clients prefer to do business with local developers is: accessibility.  They like to be able to pick up the phone and talk to the developer.

In this country we value the relationships we maintain with the company and people with whom we do business.  Given this, why are so many businesses so willing to give work to people they barely know who represent others they’ll never meet who’ll actually do the work?

Some like to say that work ethic, long hours, and slave-labor environments are what drive down the cost of the overseas developers.  Hogwash.  Developers are highly educated, analytically thinking, creative knowledge workers.  That doesn’t change when you leave our shores.  Developers’ salaries in other countries give those employees a leg up in quality of life and they work with the latest technology in very comfortable surroundings.  Much like American developers.  In fact, most of the off shore developers were trained in the West, and in particular in the US, or by others who were trained here.  And, where is most of the technology developed?  The US effectively invented the software industry, so it’s not for lack of talent here that work goes off shore.

This set me onto a path that brought me to another realization.  (Given my particular areas of expertise, it’s frankly rather embarrassingly obvious.)  In order to successfully send work off shore, one must have very explicit, well-documented, well-understood, and complete requirements for the work to be done.  Could this be the real reason the "quality" of the work is so high from off shore developers?  Could this be an over-looked attribute of the benefit of off shore development that we could easily use to return business to our shores?

This conclusion is just another example of the value and the deep impact of good requirements.  If good requirements make sending software development work off shore possible, then what could good requirements do for improving communication between developers and their customers, and the quality of the results domestically?

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Did you know that your technology project has an 80% chance of failing? Do you know what to do to improve those odds? Do you know what to ask your software developer or vendor to make sure they know what to do so that the project you're paying them to do doesn't fail?
Would you like your software estimates to improve? Would you like to have predictability and consistency in your software projects? Wouldn't it be nice if you could forecast your capacity for new work and your sales effort? Wouldn't better estimats result in happier clients?

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