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More Than Money
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
Before we can embrace the politics and ethics of outsourcing and offshoring, it will help if we understand precisely what the terms mean and their origins. It’s important for PMs to know the intricacies of the issues involved, especially if they’re managing or intend to manage international projects.
First, outsourcing. Also called contracting out or out-tasking, outsourcing is the management of an entire business function by a third-party service provider, according to Wikipedia. Then the scholarly source’s definition gets a little confusing when it says outsourcing “is the delegation of non-core operations or jobs from internal production within a business to an external entity (such as a subcontractor) that specializes in that operation.”
Tech Web’s definition is clearer. According to the technical site, outsourcing is “contracting with outside consultants, software houses or service bureaus to perform systems analysis, programming and datacenter operations.” Better yet, it says outsourcing is a “practice used by different companies to reduce costs by transferring portions of work to outside suppliers rather than completing it internally.”
Fast history of outsourcing
Simply, outsourcing is a way for companies to save a lot of money. And while technology experts say it has only been around since the early 1990s, its roots can be traced to World War ll. Before …
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