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I'm going to tell you a story about two textile factory workers, Oscar and Albert. About 40 years ago, Oscar and Albert worked for a regional clothing manufacturer. Both were good at their jobs and were well-liked by their managers, albeit for different reasons.
The managers liked Oscar because Oscar was FAST. As the clothing made it’s way down the assembly line, Oscar could stitch two pieces of material together faster than anyone else in the factory. He took the patterns that were given to him without question, kept his head down and pushed product through his station quicker than anyone else in the factory. His quality was good, better than most in fact, and his percentage of defects rivaled those of anyone else on the line. He consistently received praise from management for his speed, efficiency and relative quality ratings. Oscar really didn’t care if the clothing item he was building sold well, that wasn’t his problem, he was there to stitch together material, and he was going to do that better than anyone else in that factory.
The managers liked Albert because Albert was SMART. Albert could also stitch material together quickly, although not quite as quickly as Oscar. But the reason they really liked Albert was because he thought a lot about the work he was doing. After Albert was given a clothing pattern to work off of he would think of ways he could make it better. Sometimes he would come up with ideas on how to change the pattern to make the assembly line flow better, or he would suggest design changes to the pattern if he thought it would make a better selling clothing item. The managers loved Albert since his recommendations increased the overall productivity of the line and also helped to increase client satisfaction on the items that were being produced.
In the fall of 1971 The Company decided that it was going to outsource the manufacturing of its clothing to Bolivia. The cost of textile manufacturing labor was much cheaper in Bolivia and, with the advent of new technology, the act of stitching textiles together had become somewhat commoditized.
Oscar went to his bosses in disbelief. “How can you do this? There is no way those Bolivians can stitch clothes together as quickly as I can. I’ve been doing this for 20 years! Those guys are just learning this stuff. Not just that, their quality is terrible! Look at their defect rating, almost a third of their product is throw away work!” The managers listened to Oscar, and were sympathetic, since he was such a good worker. But alas they said, “You’re right Oscar, you are faster and build better quality product, but the bill rates of those resources are so low, that even with the slower speeds and poorer quality, we’re still saving money.” Oscar was furious. He went to work for another factory, where he was once again the fastest, but alas, that factory eventually moved offshore as well and Oscar was out of another job.
Albert took a different approach when he got the news. “I really do love stitching clothes together, but I’m never going to compete with those Bolivian prices, no matter how fast I work.” Instead of going to work for another factory, Albert opened up a tailor shop, where he built custom garments for customers that had very specific needs, that could not be attained on an assembly line. Some customers would come to Albert with specific designs in mind and he would give them other ideas on how to make the items even more appealing. The customers loved Albert's ideas and his work.
Albert went on to start designing his own clothing, coming up with new patterns and styles that the world had never seen. His ability to design great clothing items did not go unnoticed, and his products sold for a premium. There was no way that his ideas and creativity could be replicated by an assembly line, and people paid a premium for them. Sure, a lot of customers still went to the Bolivians to mass produce clothing items, but if they wanted something special, something that no one else had, they went to Albert. He quickly became rich designing some of the most beautiful garments in the world.
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Outsourcing application development in the new economy is not something new. Companies have been adopting the model at various rates and for various reasons for the past 20 years. Application developers are being forced to make a decision on how they are going to remain relevant and differentiate themselves from their offshore competition.
I see a lot of Oscars and Alberts in my industry. Oscars are still able to find work, for now, since not everything is being sent offshore and people like fast developers. Oscars like the waterfall model because it suits them and it plays to their strengths. They get the requirements, they don’t ask many questions, and they build exactly what their managers want as quickly as possible. Oscars never complain. But Oscars also don't care if end-customers like the software product or not. That’s not their problem. They are there to code, and they are going to do it faster and with better quality than any Bolivian ever could.
But Alberts are the ones that are really making a place for themselves in today's economy. Alberts don't differentiate themselves through speed but through innovation. Like Oscars, Alberts love to code, but they like being part of the product solution, not just a cog in the wheel. Alberts like to take the product owner's ideas and expand on them, give them alternatives, demonstrate progress and ask for feedback. Alberts like to build wonderful products, products that truly give their company an advantage over their competition. And because they prefer to work collaboratively and with shared accountability with their product owners, Alberts utilize Agile methods to build those things faster and with better quality than a whole slew of Bolivians ever could.
Remember, all of our clothes may be manufactured in China, or Indonesia, or wherever the low cost labor provider du jour is; but the designs, the trends, the thought leadership is coming out of New York or Los Angeles or Paris.
Are you an application developer? Do you love coding and want to continue developing software for the foreseeable future? Then you have a very important decision to make on how you're going to differentiate yourself from your offshore competition. Are you just going to be a better "coder" or are you going to be an engineer, an innovator, a competitive advantage? Are you going to be an Oscar or an Albert? Our country needs Alberts. And by the way, if that's your chosen direction, we're hiring.
-J
