Outsourcing - worth it?

[famousartguy]

Has anyone done any design or coding outsource? My question rises from wondering if it is as profitable as many (that I have heard) make it out to be. I made a list of a few areas of concern. Any feedback would be appreciated.

1. Quality
2. Future work/revisions with same Indv. or group (the good, the bad, and the ugly)
3. Price - have you got what was expected?
4. Time frame
5. Communication - did it exist?

[ryanhellyer]

I'm more likely be the one being outsourced to! I've seen some pretty shonky freelancers doing fairly poor work for top dollar though.

The price depends quite a lot on how good the person who is doing the work is. Some people who outsource work seem to go for the cheapest possible, but in most cases I don't think this is a good option. Usually those who are outsourcing work are doing it because they don't know much about the area themselves and I think this makes it difficult to choose the good from the bad coders. Design is a little easier as you don't need to be an expert designer to recognise a very poor design from a very good one, however coding is an entirely different kettle of fish.

[BigAlReturns]

I've been outsourced to for coding several times, and I'd like to think I've always done a good job for a (usually less than) fair price. The problem for me, which is your benefit!, is that there are many many decent coders out there, who, for most tasks can do a satisfactory job, at a good price. I'd always ask to see some code samples first, and would probably post them somewhere like here to ask for an opinion (with their permission - a good freelancer won't have a problem with this).
Design is more difficult, because I think it is a rarer skill, and elements of subjectivity come into it so much. At first I would probably go with a contest - SitePoint contests is a good place for this - so you can see many designs before making a choice, from many different designers. AFter this, you may well form a relationship with a designer you like, and use him for firther work.

[knupNET]

You have to find the right person/company to outsource. if you don't - you will pay

[BigAlReturns]

Originally Posted by famousartguy

1. Quality

Just to expand on this, I think quality work should mean not only a full functioning script, or attractive design, or whatever else the product may be, but also the ease with which it can be understood. Often, small improvements may need to be made in the future, and without good clear coding, and comments where necessary, this can be very difficult for anyone but the original developer. If you want to see some great examples of poor coding and commenting, have a look through the archives of www.thedailywtf.com - there are too many examples of variables named $variable1, $variable2 etc etc!

[ryanhellyer]

Good point BigAl. That probably applies to programming in particular. HTML/CSS should be fairly easy to understand if it was coded well in the first place so it's not quite as critical there, although basic comments marking out where the major parts of the page are is quite important for future editing.