You don't hear as much about offshore software development these days, but don't fool yourself: It's still lurking out there, waiting to snatch up your software-development job.

Companies now realize that touting offshore successes makes them appear unpatriotic. And of course, they're not going to talk about their offshore failures. But there's still the relentless corporate push to save money, and programmers in India and other developing countries are still working very cheaply.

So if you are a U.S.-based programmer, or know someone who is, pay attention. In order to win this war, you must understand your strengths and your weaknesses. Your strength is your knowledge of your country, having American English as your native tongue and the experience you've gained while growing up here of how our economy and infrastructure work.

Your primary weakness in this conflict is really just your total monetary cost to your employer. That means that you actually have a chance to come out on top and keep your job because your strengths clearly outweigh your one major glaring weakness: your expense.

Here are five ways to help offset your higher costs for your organization:

	•		Be innovative. Indians, Chinese and the other offshorers aren't really all that innovative, at least in regard to developing systems for our country. Therefore, keep thinking outside the box for different ways to use the systems you're building and for new and unique ways to combine feature sets with each other to add more value. Use your knowledge to find shortcuts or use other software modules that have already been built when possible. If something doesn't have to be built, you're saving money. In other words, work smarter.
	•		Build only to the specifications of the application. By adding unneeded bells and whistles and adding unnecessary features, you're displaying your big weakness by increasing the overall cost of the project. One advantage you have is to ask your supervisor or project manager whether certain added features you've thought of really do add value -- but do this before you build them. Remember, every feature you add must be designed, coded and tested. This adds to the overall complexity and equates to dollars somewhere along the line.
	•		Delve into and fully understand the application's requirements and ultimate purpose. This is one of your big advantages over your offshore competitors, so it's absolutely imperative that you use it. Programmers overseas are just seeing words in the requirements documents and acting as programming robots in many cases. They rarely challenge requirements, usually because they usually don't fully understand the requirements. Offshore coders also don't have the luxury of talking with the owners of the application, just down the hall perhaps, to see what they are really intending to accomplish and explaining to them the various ways to achieve their goals.
	•		Work hard and don't complain. This suggestion shouldn't be necessary, but think about it. How often will anyone here notice someone in India complaining about some software feature or problem? Also, there might be the impression that developers far away are really working extra hard because the cost is so low, when in reality it's primarily because they're working for extremely low wages and it appears they're accomplishing a lot because of their low cost basis. They actually might require more hours to accomplish the same task as you, and they also might not completely understand how the entire system is supposed to work.
	•		Reduce your costs to your employer. No, I'm not suggesting that you ask for a reduction in your pay. However, there are ways for you to reduce your total compensation for your employer. One big expense for employers these days is health care costs. You can reduce your employer's health care burden by making sure that your spouse is signed up on his or her company's health plan if one is offered. Working from home online is another way to be efficient and provide extra value to your company.

The bottom line is that, eventually, your software-programming job is likely to be on the line, especially if you work for a Fortune 500 company. By playing to your advantages and reducing your overall costs to your employer, you might prove in the end to be a better value than the faceless programmers overseas.

About the Author
John Fox is vice president of professional services for Plymouth-based SWAT Solutions, which provides software quality assurance services. His e-mail is jfox@swatsolutions.com