The Contractor’s Attitude

When IT work is outsourced to contract labor, there a lot more to that than just turning over some coding to someone not on the payroll. Very often entire portions of a software development project are outsourced such as testing, R&D or documentation. If that is the case, you will see situations where the freelance contractor or employee of the company handling the outsourced work meet and interact with on staff personnel.

For one thing, few IT systems are freestanding. Almost all software systems interface with the rest of the IT infrastructure in some way. An HR program will have to access the employee data base. An online sales program must be able to access product and fee information and exchange data with order processing computer systems that may be legacy software under the care of staff IT personnel.

So much of what it means to be a successful contractor is how you interact with the company who is using your talents and your attitude about working with existing staff. So it is a good idea for contractors to take a few minutes and study their true attitudes toward their clients and their client’s employees and for IT management to develop the ability to judge the attitude of those who would like to capture that outsourcing work. In that way IT can chose contractors who are not only well equipped to handle the technical challenges but have the “people” skills to work with local subject matter experts to make the project a success.

There is a real temptation for those recruited to come into a company to do software development to put off a superior attitude. After all, in most cases the company outsources the work in theory because the existing staff does not have the time or the technical skills to do the particular unit of work being contracted. So the first “attitude” adjustment any contractor who wishes to be a success building alliances in the client business is to, to be blunt, “check the hot shot attitude at the door.”

Just because the business brings in outside talent, that doesn’t mean the existing staff are not valued and skilled systems developers as well. And the one thing long term staff of a business’s IT department often has it an in depth knowledge of legacy systems, data base structures, network organizations and existing contracts for services. This information is of great value to any contractor looking to interface the new software being developed with the in house systems. So you should look at staff developers as skilled and valued peers, not as “the locals”.

Staff in companies working with outsourcing companies can tell if the contract workers are aloof or not skilled at working with the employees of the company. A good contractor enlists the aid of existing staff and works to build a team relationship and to encourage friendship with the staff at least on a professional level. This doesn’t mean you have to buy lunch for every programmer in the business. In fact, they will be suspicious of your intents if you try to bribe them.

Show respect for the individuals you must interact with that are on staff with the business using you as a contractor. By being a “good guest”, you will be able to tell when the staff begins to respond to you and you being to enjoy a true collaborative partnership with the staff that will lead to great success for all involved. And that success will result in additional projects and more work for you because management comes to trust contractors who can work with their teams and that means a more prosperous future for the contractor and the company supporting the outsourcing as well.