Friday, April 18, 2008

Second Life


I think I may have missed an opportunity to learn about the outsourcing exercise. The immediate reaction is the fear and anxiety of losing my job. But there is actually a lesson to learn. It is how a company outsources it's functions to another company. I suddenly realize that outsourcing entails a lot of detailed and careful work. There are plans, workshops and meeting and processes involved to carry out this exercise.

It would be interesting to know how this process comes about. I suddenly realize that I am missing out on a significant learning opportunity. I think companies in the future may need to know about this process of outsourcing to undertake this exercise. So it would need people who understand the needed things to do. So I have been reading a few materials about outsourcing and observing how this process will come about. Of course, the affected person will be me and my colleagues who will lose our jobs.

Watching the events unfold with clinical detachment is an interesting thing. Perhaps it is like smoking - enjoying the thing that will eventually kill you. Joking aside there is an art in this process: negotiating, ironing out service level agreements, planning for the affected workings, defining metrics to monitor and control, using function pointing to understand the applications to be supported by the outsource and other such activities. Also, organizing workshops to plan for the transition of work to the outsource. So it is an interesting project to observe and learn from.

I have downloaded a few articles from the Internet about this subject and intend to learn from it while observing the actual event. As for myself, I hear conflicting news. What is sure is that the transfer to another country does not seem to an option. More of early retirement or transfer to another department. The project is again delayed and as I am involved in a few projects, may stay until the end of the year. Probably. Will be in Bangkok next week until May. It will be a good time again as usual in Thailand.

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