[OT] Shifting Resources

[Mike Duffy <md...@yahoo.com>]

I'd like to share with the Strut's community my response to an editorial in the January 5, 2004
issue of InfoWorld:

Ephraim,

As a Java developer who believes that designing systems and writing code is an artistic endeavor,
I found your recent editorial (Shifting Resources) to be very interesting; however, you missed a
major point.  Software developers should not feel threatened by the possibility of outsourcing to
third world nations.  The relatively low-level functions that these technology sweatshops provide
will soon be automated out of existence by the next generation of software development tools. 
Developers who have low-level skills and fail to master the new development tools will be
obsolete, no matter where they live.

The next generation of tools will significantly increase the productivity of developers through
the implementation of attribute oriented programming.  We will be able to go from a detailed
designed specification to system implementation with very few key stokes for coding in between. 
Software designers will specify the attributes of the system, the tools will generate the code.  

We are already seeing the emergence of these tools from both the corporate (IBM/Rational's model
driven development, Sun's Project Rave, and others) and open source (xDoclet most significantly)
communities.  At present, software development is on the same level as the automobile industry was
in the 1890s when teams of engineers individually crafted specialty systems using a limited set of
tools.  As the power of development tools increases, exponential gains in productivity will be
realized.  

Your editorial was correct in stressing the importance of design and management (getting the
attributes of the system correct is the essential first step).  In every industry, design is where
 the greatest value is added.  Your editorial was incorrect in predicting an increase in
outsourcing.  The low-level "keyboarding monkey" jobs are going, but they are not going overseas,
they're just going away.

The great danger in the near future will be that companies will be misguided by pinhead MBAs who
can not see beyond the bottom line at the end of the next quarter.  Companies that attempt to
slash costs by turning to outsourcing will be at a disadvantage when competing against companies
that invest in software designers who have mastered the latest generation of leading edge tools.

Mike Duffy
Austin, TX

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