When outsourcing goes bad, part 8 of 16

I blame you. You suck. You are the problem.

Jul 10, 2024

Then their morning session of meetings began. This was strictly between the leadership of AndersonRiskAssessment and the old Luganesk team, so I was not part of it. They all disappeared for a stretch from 10 AM to 1 PM.

I got busy doing some work. I also took some long coffee breaks and chatted with people in the cafeteria, since the goal of the visit was to socialize. (If I was merely going to write code, I could have stayed home.) The cafeteria was large, as this was still the headquarters of a decent sized regional underwriting firm, with about 200 people who worked at this office. The tech team was just a small part of the overall business.

Around 2 PM I took another break, got some coffee, looked out the window, and saw Lucy. There was a field behind the building, maybe 2 acres of land, running down to a creek, next to which were some red, wooden picnic tables, slightly rotten, with peeling paint, somewhat covered in leaves from the willow trees, newly green with spring-time vitality, that towered over them. Lucy was sitting at the furthest, rightmost picnic table, smoking a cigarette and watching something in the creek, perhaps fish. I took my coffee mug and went outside.

Lucy: I hope you don't mind me smoking?
Lawrence: You walked 40 meters away from the building so you wouldn't disturb anyone, and then I come over here and disturb you, so I'm the one who should be apologizing.
Lucy: I don't mind if you don't mind.
Lawrence: I don't mind.

In the clear running waters of the creek we could see the black flecks of igneous rock, the old bedrock of the region, mixed with mud, above which swam a school of tadpoles, more than a hundred. We watched them a moment, as a few broke away and allowed themselves to be swept down the creek.

Lawrence: So you went to India? I spoke with Daniel about the trip. Apparently he had a rough time?
Lucy: Daniel is a sensitive soul. I like him. I really like him. You don't always meet decent people at work, but he is one of the good ones. You should have seen him in Delhi. The dedication he had. Training those people. Working 16 hours a day. Staying late to answer questions. The depth of his empathy is a beautiful thing to see. He really wants to see everyone succeed. It pains him that so many of these people are failing. It tears him apart that he isn't able to save them all.
Lawrence: Right. I like Daniel. He seems like a good person. But I'm curious why this effort is necessary?
Lucy: What do you mean?
Lawrence: I'm confused about our current relationship with DevModeMax. At the risk of being undiplomatic, let me ask this directly. Why do we work with a team that needs to be trained? Why are we sending our people to India to run classes on basic stuff like how to write an if() statement? I mean, I get that we don't live in an ideal world. If we did, then every outsourcing firm would have a team of senior level engineers who wait around until we show up, then they spring into action. But in real life, outsourcing firms don't want to hire software developers until the outsourcing firm has lined up a client, so typically they first sign a contract with a company like AndersonRiskAssessment and then they go and look for people who can do the work. So that means they often promise experienced engineers but then they deliver a bunch of juniors who are just starting. I get all that. But still, DevModeMax seems like an extreme case. So why are we still working with them?
Lucy: That's a fair question. Part of the answer would be that we've many divisions in AndersonRiskAssessment. Some of the work is standard. DevModeMax did a good job there. They took over AndersonRiskAssessment's IT department. That's just basic stuff like setting up employees with the SSO access so they can get into all of our Microsoft software: Teams, Outlook, Word, Power Point, Excel, Project, all of that.
Lawrence: How many employees of DevModeMax now work for AndersonRiskAssessment?
Lucy: About 200. Maybe it's gone up to 250.
Lawrence: I see. But only 40 of those work for Luganesk? So we're just a small part of a much bigger scene?
Lucy: Exactly, and when it's just standard Microsoft stuff, DevModeMax is fairly good at that. Setting up new SSO permission groups, running some SQL Server databases, some Access databases, Sharepoint, all that basic stuff, that is their bread and butter. They are fine with that.
Lawrence: They just weren't expecting anything as complex as the Luganesk software?
Lucy: Right. They are totally unprepared for this kind of work. For them "custom software development" means "add a new trigger in SQL Server to validate a mailing address" not "reinvent the entire USA insurance industry."

Whereas Mack had been explicit about how he felt, I thought that Lucy was trying to be diplomatic, which was appropriate since she was part of the management team. I weighted her words with the knowledge that she possibly felt some obligation to put a positive spin on things. But having said that, she was really more honest than I had been expecting.

Lawrence: Okay, but is the leadership of AndersonRiskAssessment happy about this?
Lucy: Of course not. It's a bad situation. There are whole areas of commercial insurance which we don't yet represent on our platform. For instance, medical malpractice insurance, for when doctors and hospitals want to limit their exposure to lawsuits. We were supposed to enter that market last year, but we've been paralyzed for 8 months, unable to make progress.
Lawrence: But is the leadership at AndersonRiskAssessment worried enough to end the relationship with DevModeMax? I was surprised by Arwin this morning. He seemed upbeat, confident, happy.
Lucy: Don't be fooled. That's the way he is in public. But in private, he is different.
Lawrence: How so?
Lucy: He gets angry. He says that I'm mismanaging the relationship with DevModeMax.
Lawrence: Okay. He wants you to be more aggressive? Can you impose financial penalties? What are the formal methods of accountability in the contract?
Lucy: There are none.
Lawrence: None? He didn't negotiate for any formal milestones? No penalties for failure?
Lucy: No.
Lawrence: Damn. That's... uh... something that should have been done. Without those, what exactly does he want you to do?
Lucy: Push them harder.
Lawrence: How?
Lucy: Anger? I can scream and shout? He said that I should personalize my criticism of Deepika and Gujarat, that I should make them feel bad, suggest they failed.
Lawrence: That sounds like bad advice?
Lucy: I agree. It's not how I handle things. But Arwin gives me a lot of grief for taking a gentler approach. I feel like he's constantly telling me some variation of "I blame you. You suck. You are the problem.""
Lawrence: Who negotiated the contract?
Lucy: Arwin, but I was in all of the meetings. In retrospect, I should have spoken up then, and asked for more structure, and more well-defined milestones.
Lawrence: But Arwin can't put this whole thing on you. He's the CTO.
Lucy (a long pause): We will see. We will see how it develops.