Comment I used to think this way (Score 1) 404
I do agree with a lot of points listed here. Rolling your own development team is not easy, nor cheap.
However, when you hire companies to do contracts this big, you end up with horrible horrible mess. First, you get to hide the bigest contractors available (because the project is big), like Accenture or similar. And they are the worst, and have the worst (cheapest) people available working for them. The only selling point they have is the headcount, not quality of developers. And they will assemble a new team for this project, from random guys, with flaky qualifications and skills, and often no prior experience.
And all those companies are for-profit. Which means they will find ways to overcharge you by A LOT. Like 10x-20x the cost of a good sized team for several years.
In the end, a project like this that has been outsourced to big IT companies is almost guaranteed to cost you a fortune, and end up a failure.
Now it's possible (and likely) to end up with a failed project with an in-house team, but choosing in-house development vs contracting is not as clear cut as you seem to suggest.
--Coder
However, when you hire companies to do contracts this big, you end up with horrible horrible mess. First, you get to hide the bigest contractors available (because the project is big), like Accenture or similar. And they are the worst, and have the worst (cheapest) people available working for them. The only selling point they have is the headcount, not quality of developers. And they will assemble a new team for this project, from random guys, with flaky qualifications and skills, and often no prior experience.
And all those companies are for-profit. Which means they will find ways to overcharge you by A LOT. Like 10x-20x the cost of a good sized team for several years.
In the end, a project like this that has been outsourced to big IT companies is almost guaranteed to cost you a fortune, and end up a failure.
Now it's possible (and likely) to end up with a failed project with an in-house team, but choosing in-house development vs contracting is not as clear cut as you seem to suggest.
--Coder