During my time in India I have learned one or two things about software development here on the subcontinent. I found that things are not always easy. Especially this holds true for software development in general, wherever it is in the world. But there are some specific things which I found to be true nearly always. There are many traits with software developers from India, which makes it hard to get to a good project ending. Some of those shortcomings are described in this article.

1) Do usually not care about the performance of a solution

It does not seem to be interesting how fast a solution is. Be it 0.3 seconds to load or 10 seconds…it does not matter…the only criteria seems to be if the solution is online.

(Example: A German customer goes to an online shop to buy a product. Now the solution programmed by the Indian developer takes 5 seconds to load. The German customer will not wait 5 seconds for the shop to load, he will simply abandon the shop. Someone from India might not be able to understand this. They usually wait for hours at government institutions and other places to get their stuff…“so why can’t the Germans wait for a few seconds?“)

2) No common sense

Sometimes, or even most of the times, its enough to use common sense, to find out that a proposed solution, or way of solving a problem is utter nonsense. Still the Indian developer will justify the solution on technical reasons: „yes, but the String Value allows only this way“, when common sense tells us: „the solution can never be in that way, because it will never be accepted by the end-user“.

3) Not much attachment to the client

Often times it seems that the client is only seen as a new way to milk the cow. There is not much recognition and empathy for the clients feelings. Question like the following do not seem to be asked:

• Is the client happy with the solution?
• Does he need more support from our side?
• What can we do that he is satisfied?
• How can we give him a solution which can be also used in the future?
• How can we make sure that he can build good relations with the solution, with his own customers?

4) Do not value their own time

Some developers in India do not charge additional hours for additional work. Because they think that this is a good thing to do, so as to make the client „happy“. What actually happens is that in the end the client as well as the developer will be unhappy. Usually the thing done for free, will lead to even more work. E.g. a plugin which has been installed for free, causes performance issues, which will lead again to the platform or solution to be re-worked.

In the end the developer from India will be fed up with all the work, and the client thinks that the developer is incapable of doing the work.

5) Lack of fundamental programming principles

It seems that an Indian developer usually does not make proper preparations before the start of programming. It seems more like they start developing right away, without giving proper care about programming principles, to ensure a flawless working of the solution, as well as a strong architecture.

The main reason for not taking care of those things is that, first of all the Indian culture does not give such a high value on quality. For example people in India are happy if they go into a restaurant and get some food. Even if the hotel looks like it has not been cleaned since the last 6 months, the toilet stinks like hell, and the kitchen is as black as midnight. These standards are very much unacceptable by American or European standards.

Another reason for acting like this is, that by starting to program right away, it will avoid additional hours for the client, and the solution can be delivered at a lower cost. (Thought process here: „Client from the west is looking for the cost advantage, we do not have the time to take care of a proper analysis“)

There are problems with the above mentioned two reasons (Lack of focus on quality and being considered cheap). When a solution is not planned properly, then in the end, the solution will have a disproportionate number of bugs in it, which will again take a lot of time to rectify. Sometimes the bugs are so deep within the system, that the bug cannot be resolved, but can only be somehow masked with some other shady type of programming. The other issue will be that the solution will be very slow. Usually it will take a lot of time to load. For an Indian developer it is acceptable that a solution is slow as a snail, because of the before mentioned reason: There is no attachment to the client, or the actual use of the solution.

This leads to the next serious issue about programmers from the subcontinent:

6) No idea about the end-client

Often times the developer has no idea about what the end-client looks like, or what his feeling or wants are. Anyways, that’s not really a fault by the developer in India. How can he know what, for example, a 15 year old boy in Munich, Germany wants?

7) No idea about the actual use of the solution

Example: If you would ask a developer in India to build a website for selling frozen chapati, he would instantly have an idea about the product and its use. Try to tell him, that the solution is about „market research at the point of sale“, and the developer will stand there and will be wondering „What the heck is that guy smoking?“

Coming back to the 15 year old boy from Munich: „Why does he need to buy leather trousers?“ (Ok, for some who are reading this, this is a little bit stereotypical, but it somehow illustrates the point).

Because the actual use of the solution is unknown, its difficult for the developer to find the proper solution, because there is no idea on how the end-result (the platform or system) should look like.

8) No idea about the phrase „Pixel Perfect“

A developer from the subcontinent has no issues if the image is stretched or blurred…“Anyways, it shows the picture, right?“. In Europe and America there is an obsession with flawless design. (To be honest, also Indians are that way, they just not see it properly. Only when they check their own smartphones, they will see that they do not use Indian smartphones, but one’s from Samsung or Apple, because they are flawless in design. Even if they use software, they use one’s which are programmed in a pixel perfect way and are high in performance.)

Also there seems not to be a good understanding what a good alignment of elements are. For someone who has lived most of his life in Europe, its pretty much not understandable why designs are so messed up in India. Even I, who is not a designer, knows where elements have to be placed, so that they are appealing to the eye. But this seems to be a distant idea for designers and programmers in India, even if they are highly educated, with many years of experience.

9) No importance given to communication

One of the things people learn in universities in Europe and the US is to exchange ideas and to communicate properly. Because any workplace or project needs proper communication. Often times this communication is the balancing factor for the success or failure of a project or team work.

In India, unfortunately communication is not seen very highly. Even in universities the professor in the front talks away, while everyone has to listen in admiration.

Actually I would need to write a complete essay about the importance of communication. But I will not do it this time. Communication is important, and that’s something which is missing in India.

10) No attention to detail

This is one of the most important things which differentiates for example an Indian and a German developer. Lets take a simple example: A database is copied from place A to place B. If 1’985’788 Files out of 2’000’000 Files are transferred properly from place A to place B, then the Indian developer will be happy, and tap himself on the shoulder. The German developer will meanwhile be more than worried and will ask himself or some team member:
„Where did the 14’212 Files go?“
„What can we do to get these files transferred as well?“
and most importantly he will ask:
„How can we make sure that this does not happen again in the future?“

11) Not in love with programming

A lot of programmers in India are in this field to make a living. There are not many which do it really for the love of programming and building really cool new products. „My son is an engineer“, that’s what people in India like to say. The ramifications for software development are serious

In Europe a lot of people start with programming, but as soon as they understand that its not for them, they will stop, and will look for other fields which are more suitable to them. In India people/ students are ashamed to stop their course of study to pursue something they like. They are programmed in such a way to please society. Thereby creating a pool of under par developers.

Conclusion

It is true that these shortcomings are often there. On the other side there are many software development companies in India which are more than successful. This means that these companies are just able to avoid the hiring of such developers or are able to find the right talent and train them properly.

Although this text is pretty much against developers from the subcontinent, there are, here and there, very exceptional and talented developers. With the right training they can excel at what they are doing, sometimes even better than their counterparts in Europe or the US.

Interesting link about the topic:
Issues when outsourcing to India

About the author: Sascha Thattil works at YUHIRO and helps business owners and businesses to get development teams in India. YUHIRO is an outsourcing company which provides development teams in India to small and medium sized companies in Europe.

I am always on the look out for good developers who can program quality software for our clients. Not only that, the developer should be also reliable (on time – keeps promises) and should have basic communication skills (I have found out that both: Very good programming skills and excellent communication skills do not go together well). So the big question is about how to find such a good developer in India. This article takes a look into the question, of what a good developer is, in which places these can be looked for and also different ways to find them.

The following questions came to my mind, when I thought about the question on how to find a good developer.

• Where are the places I have to look for these?

  
  

• Whom do I have to ask?

  
  

• Where do I get highly skilled developers?

  
  

• How can I know beforehand that this is a good developer?

  
  

• How long do I have to look for this special someone?

  
  

• Can I afford those developers?

  
  

I am sure there are some more questions. And I welcome everyone to write these in the comment section below.

This article deals with the above questions and what I think could be a good answer to those. Overall the question which has to be answered is „How to find a good developer in India“. For this, some good places to look for software experts and also ways to find these are mentioned.

What is a good developer?

Before we delve deeper into the question of „how to find a good developer“ we will have to define what „a good developer“ is. The following points are essential for an expert programmer.

Keeps deadlines

Of what use is a good developer if never keeps the project deadlines? Exactly. Not much. Time is for the most clients of IT projects more precious than having all features and functions implemented. Sometimes its better to deliver a product with only 30 percent of the most important features on the deadline, than delivering 100 percent of the functions at a delayed point of time.

A good developer understands this and acts accordingly.

Is responsive

A good developer knows that it does not make sense to keep programming, when the client raises a question per Email or through another channel. The bad programmer just keeps on programming ignoring the requirements by the client.

The expert programmer will give a quick reply (as soon as he or she sees the message) and will try to bring solutions or answer for this raised question.

Can communicate well

Software experts usually do not communicate as clearly as for example a marketing executive, that is definitely understood. An expert programmer would still try to communicate more and gives a good try at understanding the situation.

Takes up requirements properly

A software expert knows that the program is written for the client and not for himself. Therefore he will take utmost care in understanding of what the clients exact requirements are. He will analyse the given specification papers and will re-check whether he has understood it correctly.

Asks questions

Asking questions (the best are open ended questions: e.g. What kind of layout should the software front end have?) is the only way to understand a given task or problem. It is one of the most important criteria of a good developer. Because he shows through asking questions that he is not looking at things out of his own viewpoint, but from that of the client.

Gives input and suggestions

A software expert does not just take the requirements from the client and executes according to them. He knows that he is the expert on this, and not the client, and thus will give valuable input and suggestions on how to improve the project.

Speaks in a confident and definite way

A software expert does not usually use the words „maybe“, „I think it could be“, „possibly“, „might be“, etc. An expert will use words such as „I am sure“, „I know“, „I will finish it till…“, „I will“, „I can“. etc.

Some good and bad communication examples:

Bad communication: I think I could maybe finish this project project in the next time.

Good communication: I will deliver the finished solution till 12th December 2013 at 09:00 am.

Bad communication: Would it be possible to give me some more time.

Good communication: I just found a problem in the code, I will need more time for this. I can (instead of „could“) deliver the solution in time if we cut down on the current requirements.

Bad communication: May be we can try it this way.

Good communication: I will implement the solution with x, y, z specification. Questions: Is this ok with you? What is your opinion on this?

Keeps integrity and is honest

An expert programmer is honest with his client. He does not lie, state false facts, gives estimates which are too high. He keeps his integrity because he knows that is the way to success.

Satisfied clients who have been consulted the right way, had been given the right input will definitely come back for more.

Where to begin?

There are so many things which could be considered or written about when it comes to this topic of finding a suitable programmer in India. In the following passages I will focus on two things: 1) Which places these good developers can be looked for and 2) Different ways to find them.

– Places or Online Platforms to find good developers –

Stackoverflow

Stackoverflow is a website where developers can exchange questions and answers regarding software programming. Chances are good that it will be possible to find the very good programmers here. It would also be good to check for what type of answers they have given, to find out more about their expertise.

Specialized IT Forums

There are specialized forums for all of the programming languages (Java, PHP, .NET etc.). It will be necessary to engage, with some posts and input there, to find out more about the participants. Still it is a good way to find good developers because experts come there to exchange their thoughts, learn and help others.

oDesk, Twago, eLance

oDesk,Twago and eLance are platforms where IT project givers and potential freelancers and IT companies can meet and come into an agreement. There is an integrated review management system where it can be seen how the work was rated which they (the freelancers and the IT companies) delivered.

In my opinion it is quite hard to find the right developer from this pool of IT freelancers and companies as there are so many of them in those platform. When you place an ad for a IT project within a few hours many dozen people will reply to that request. But how are you going to find out which one can also deliver on their promises?

– Ways to find good developers –

From referrals of other good developers

Usually one very good developer knows other very good developers. I do not know whether that is true. But I certainly know, in my field of expertise, who the experts are. Therefore one can be pretty sure that these good developers can point out and refer other developers who keep high ethics and are expert programmers.

Through referrals of other friends and acquaintances who made good experiences with a certain developer

Sometimes a friend of yours might know of a good developer. This would be, of course only possible, if you had friends who outsourced to India before. They most probably refer you only to people who they are sure that they can fulfill the given task, because his own (your friends) reputation as a trusted adviser will be on the line.

Blogs – Good developers often write expert blogs

Check whether the developers, you are talking to about your projects, run a blog which deals with their area of expertise/ programming language. This is a good indicator whether the developer is really committed to this software language and is having his own thoughts about this.

Through specialized HR agencies

I would recommend HR agencies only if they are specialized in recruiting certain programming languages. A HR agency which has its „focus“ on the whole IT sector might not be able to ascertain the right programmer for you.

Through short test cases which can be sent to the developer in advance

Instead of hiring the developer immediately you could sent him a short test case in advance and find out about the quality of the work. If it is a larger task which is used as test case, then you could also pay for that engagement.

Its definitely worth the money, as you will get a first glimpse of whether this the quality and the response time you need. This method will be of course only feasible if you have enough time before starting the actual project.

Through interviews

Interviews are a good way to find a good developer. The questions should be regarding the programming skills as well as ethics and personality. When it is a developer from India, questions regarding cultural differences and cultural fit should be included.

Through interview code tests

Similar to the test case, the code test can help to find the right programmer. This is only feasible, if there is someone on your side, like a project manager or technical expert, who can also validate the results.

Through the right questions

This can be also a part of the interview. Asking the right questions will show you what kind of developer you have in front of you. How important are deadlines to the developer? What kind of work ethic has the developer? Why is he using this software language for programming? (Just out of coincidence or is he/ she really passionate about this language?).

Through referrals of companies which are known for high quality programming and processes

Sometimes its not possible to find a good developer itself. But most of the times its possible to find IT companies which provide high quality programming and have the right processes. These companies tend to have a larger proportion of able programmers.

How long do I have to look for this special someone ?

Finding a good developer or a good software development company is definitely not an easy task. This is becoming even more difficult when looking in other countries, especially in India. It might take a while till you find the special someone. And honestly: After you have found the first few good developers, that does not mean that you will find these in the future easily. You will always keep a constant effort to find the right programmer.

Interesting links on how to find great developers:

Joel on Software – Finding great developers
Mashable – How to hire a developer
Thenextweb – Non-bevelopers guide to hiring software developers
How to find Software developers on stackoverflow

How do you find good developers in India?

What are your experiences with programmers from India?

The author: Sascha Thattil is supporting companies worldwide to find the right developer for their software projects. He works at YUHIRO, a German-Indian company which focuses on implementing eCommerce solutions, CMS, mobile apps and software.