What do you think is/are the reasons why the university decided to tapped in-house resources, was it a good decision?
In life all things comes with an opposition or a contrast such as black and white, high and low, poor and rich and in the IT industry maybe the most familiar contrasting words when it comes to software development purchasing is outsourcing and in housing.
In housing refers refers to the production of some commodity or service, using a company's own funds, staff, or resources, whilst, outsourcing refers utilizing outside or external resources. Both, in housing and outsourcing have their own benefits and drawbacks and as I understand it one can't judge on what technique is more advantageous since the effectiveness of such techniques depends on what company, situation, system to be done together with minor yet vital factors. Every factor must be considered, researched and be analyzed well before one can decide whether it is feasible to use in housing or outsourcing in that given situation. In a given situation implementing one technique without careful analysis can create huge problems or drawbacks for the company. For example, implementing in housing without further study on the current company situation and software to be done (which if studied appropriately would tend to use outsourcing) could cause the company to pay more than if they outsourced.
When the university decided to tap in house resources, I have mixed thoughts. In the issue between in house and outsource I have always been vocal about my support in outsource. I have read focused more on knowing what outsource is and I am interested with it which is why I was a bit muddled by such decision of in housing but upon hearing that the professors in our department were the ones who were chosen to do it I was elated. Being a student who was taught by those professors, I have known that they have excellent academic backgrounds which really makes them worth idolizing for me but knowing that the university itself recognized their abilities by choosing them to develop certain systems for the university and its students like me that was a different thing. Though I know that they are also commissioned by other companies it doesn't have the same effect as to when I knew that the university chose them. Maybe because I am now familiar to the system they will be doing or maybe its because I know that its difficult since it will cater all the students and records in the university. I felt really proud that I was a student of these great and skilled professors, it makes me feel like I am as great as they are. But then all of those are my initial reaction to the situation. I am not saying that I don't anymore feel proud of my professors, because actually me response to the people involved is still the same only me thoughts about the situation changed.
I cant really pin down or rank down the reasons why the university did it and I don't even know if a through analysis has been done (since we have different definitions of “through”) when the university decided to do in housing. Maybe its because they recognize that we have highly skilled and capable system developers and not using their talents for the university might be seen as a waste (totally agree in this thought), or they think that it is more convenient since the chosen developers know how the university operates, how things are likely to be done that is why they aimed in housing, or perhaps its because its more cheaper. Or maybe, just maybe no one from the outside would like to do the system with such time constraints. Any of those reasons given above if not all maybe the reason why the university to utilize their ''own” resources.
The university commissioning two highly skilled developers is a GOOD decision but whether in housing was a good choice I am still in doubt since these people had other responsibilities inside the school and for this reason, they cannot function and perform their respective duties well. Though I can't contest to their decision since they probably went through an ordeal of deciding between in housing or outsourcing and might even executed deep feasibility studies and analysis it just might be that they did the right decision. But for me being a third party member in this affair since I am a student in this university and a student of these skilled professors I have experienced the bad effects or to put it lightly the consequences of in housing. My professor who was chosen to be one of the system developers have to drop our class so as to concentrate in making the system in such “tight” time constraints. Such action required hiring a substitute, part time professor for us who like us, the students became confused with the time and scheduling of the class, and pick up where the past lesson left off. Since our past professor have a different teaching style to our new professor all of us where a bit taken back and needed to adapt to it. Aside from the confusion it has given to the students another drawback I noticed was that the cost of hiring a part time teacher must add up to the cost maybe making all the total cost of in housing bigger than if it were outsourcing (not sure though since I haven't done the mathematics and accounting of it all hahaha). Maybe in housing will amount less in the start but at the long run it might cost more and become a hassle not only for the developers maintaining it, or its users but also to the students in the university.
In the end, as I said before I can't contest to the decision of the university because I believe that they must have undergone a deep analysis of all things in consideration before choosing to do in housing so it means that in this case it is THE BEST decision than outsourcing. Though I am leaning more towards outsourcing the university may have found it with beneficial with all things considered even its drawbacks. But then again, whether they have chosen in housing or outsourcing, consequences or drawbacks from each choices will appear and the only thing left to do now is to face all of those.
