Great post, and it can get even trickier. On one of my team projects, I had formerly modeled “insource” vs “outsource” as meaning “someone from our college does it” vs “we hire a contractor to do it.”
After telling my teammate to tell the facilities director to hire a contractor to have his team install some signs, I discovered just how wrong that is. This entailed four levels of outsourcing, not just one. And every layer of outsourcing makes the project riskier.
The sign installers do a bad job because neither we nor they are around. Their boss doesn’t check the work because he already got paid. The facilities director is slow and opaque because he did a bad job and doesn’t want it known. My teammate complains and points the finger because he’s more worried about his job with the college than getting the project done.
This also reminds me of the story where one hitman hires another hitman to do an assassination. That hitman hires another who hires another who turns them in to the police.
Great post, and it can get even trickier. On one of my team projects, I had formerly modeled “insource” vs “outsource” as meaning “someone from our college does it” vs “we hire a contractor to do it.”
After telling my teammate to tell the facilities director to hire a contractor to have his team install some signs, I discovered just how wrong that is. This entailed four levels of outsourcing, not just one. And every layer of outsourcing makes the project riskier.
The sign installers do a bad job because neither we nor they are around. Their boss doesn’t check the work because he already got paid. The facilities director is slow and opaque because he did a bad job and doesn’t want it known. My teammate complains and points the finger because he’s more worried about his job with the college than getting the project done.
This also reminds me of the story where one hitman hires another hitman to do an assassination. That hitman hires another who hires another who turns them in to the police.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2019/10/23/hitman-hires-hitman-hires-hitman-hires-hitman-hires-hitman-tells-police-10971438/amp/
So it’s not just a matter of “insourcing” vs. “outsourcing” “a task.” Every task has many parts, and when you outsource, there can be many layers.