Hi SKC:
I've participated there but never bought any work there. I think by and
large you are relatively safe but there are a lot of things that can go
wrong in this type of environment (anyone where you dont' know the people,
know people that have worked with them) even if eveyrone acts in good faith.
The biggest problem I've heard from this and all farming out of work
(whether domestic or abroad) is that you get exaclty what the specs
indicate, no more and no less. I know 3 people off of the top of my head
that farmed out work and then commented "The did exactly what the spec said
but nothing more , nothing less. You'd think they'd know that this doesn't
make sense and would have changed it..."
If the people do exactly what's in your spec, it's hard to blame them or
fault them. If they do what you tell them and you meant what you wrote,
they did a 'great' job. If they second guess you, even when it seems
'obvious' that its what you don't want or 'would never want', and they are
wrong, they stand to anger you, miss the deadline, have to do some rework
etc. If they are right, they get nothing extra so you can't blame the
contractor for this stuff. Now, if they didn't meet the spec it's another
story.
so the key is communication! And communicating throughout.. not just at the
end after its done.
Although I don't really want to discuss it here, I may well end up bidding
on your project and if you'd like, you can contact me at bill At Devbuzz.com
(@devbuzz.com) and I'd be glad to speak with you more about this. If you
click on this link
http://www.devbuzz.com/content/development.aspx (even
though it's not PPC) just fill in the comments and I'll be glad to get back
with you.
HTH,
Bill
--
W.G. Ryan MVP Windows - Embedded
http://forums.devbuzz.com
http://www.knowdotnet.com/dataaccess.html
http://www.msmvps.com/williamryan/