Algorithms Should Mind Your Business
Common to creating any business and scientific applications is the algorithm, "a procedure for solving a problem" in a finite number of steps that frequently involves repetition of an operation. The IT world struck "mathematical" long ago.
Jul 23, 2002
Orbiting a spacecraft requires daunting equations, but so does software to close daily ATM transactions in a 24/7 world or to design airplanes. Common to creating any business and scientific applications is the algorithm, "a procedure for solving a problem" in a finite number of steps that frequently involves repetition of an operation? (Merriam-Webster). The IT world struck "mathematical" long ago.
"Algorithmic thinking" means a methodical, meticulous, almost maniacal dedication to process flow integrity and to 100.00000% redundantly, superfluous, total, complete accuracy. After all, would you want to fly in an airplane built any other way! To write software to orbit a spacecraft, close any day's 24/7 ATM transactions or design an airplane, algorithmic thinking is essential, not a luxury.
There's nothing new about this idea. Using it effectively, however, is another matter.
Algorithmic thinking is not learned in a few months. Rather, it is a mental discipline that coalesces after years of repetition of operations called education and application. It coalesces from successfully creating and implementing complex algorithms again and again and again.
In its simplest form, algorithmic thinking advances a system from one viable state to the next, much like a chess player moves from one safe position to the next. Building and verifying a product step by step can be applied to making a fruit smoothie, painting a home, writing software to design an airplane or orbiting a spacecraft. Because algorithmic thinking is not commonly practiced in schools or at work in most countries, few companies are able to practice it at all. One technology research firm found that "73 percent of all software projects are delivered late or over budget or simply fail to meet their performance criteria."1 Seventy-three percent! Caution. Haphazard thinking at work.
Admittedly difficult to quantify, offshore outsourcing surveys should include some measure of a company's expertise in algorithmic thinking. Sure, obvious criteria like application knowledge, financial stability and competent management are important2. But isn't algorithmic thinking as important as application knowledge?
An offshore outsourcer with excellent application knowledge may spend 1,000 hours to write an application. An offshore outsourcer with similar knowledge but steeped in algorithmic thinking might do it in 400.
Russians are more passionate and obsessed with chess than any other people on earth. One can argue whether chess is an art, a science or both, but everyone agrees that chess is algorithmic. Russian universities like Moscow State University and Novosibirsk State University are known world-wide for the quality of the minds they produce. These minds are the very algorithmic thinkers we have been discussing.
Today's Russian business thinkers -- steeped in years of chess and educated in chess-like judgment, implement massive real-world projects from start to finish. Only one other country parallels those accomplishments. It's almost a birthright that Russian programmers can focus on real business goals, recognize inevitable project limitations, creatively overcome obstacles, and often attain a goal much larger than the one originally planned.
Yes, just like the game of chess, just like the game of business.
It makes perfect sense, then, for American companies seeking offshore outsourcing to add algorithmic thinking to their selection criteria. Consider the economics. For $10,000 a company can buy:
--- 500 hours of algorithmic think time from Russia
--- 100 hours of algorithmic think time from the US
A misconception persists that Russian programmers are "scientific," not business programmers. Let's take a look at that. Though their capitalist economy was born only 11 years ago, Russian programmers have been briskly constructing and expanding massive information systems to operate the Russian Federation's ATM, satellite, and reservation networks 24/7, among others; to manage auto production, airplane design, rocket booster design, electrical distribution systems that span nine time zones (America's span four), oil rigs, food production and distribution, media production, hospital management and more.
And before 1991, these same Russians had never experienced private ownership! Naturally, these huge successes aren't all from algorithmic thinking, but it certainly has been a rocket booster in generating their $800 million offshore outsourcing industry in only 11 years. Come to think of it, surveys don't show grit, determination and pride either.
1) Keri E. Pearlson, Managing and Using Information Systems, A Strategic Approach (2001, John Wiley & Sons, Page 217)
2) Offshore Development Group, Offshore Benchmark Report (April 2002, page 14.)
David Kramer is Managing Director of TerraLink USA. Thirteen-year-old TerraLink is one of Russia's leading offshore outsourcing businesses with offices in the US, Canada, Russia and Kazakhstan. David can be reached at [email protected], 303-989-7887, 1-888-736-2327.
"Algorithmic thinking" means a methodical, meticulous, almost maniacal dedication to process flow integrity and to 100.00000% redundantly, superfluous, total, complete accuracy. After all, would you want to fly in an airplane built any other way! To write software to orbit a spacecraft, close any day's 24/7 ATM transactions or design an airplane, algorithmic thinking is essential, not a luxury.
There's nothing new about this idea. Using it effectively, however, is another matter.
Algorithmic thinking is not learned in a few months. Rather, it is a mental discipline that coalesces after years of repetition of operations called education and application. It coalesces from successfully creating and implementing complex algorithms again and again and again.
In its simplest form, algorithmic thinking advances a system from one viable state to the next, much like a chess player moves from one safe position to the next. Building and verifying a product step by step can be applied to making a fruit smoothie, painting a home, writing software to design an airplane or orbiting a spacecraft. Because algorithmic thinking is not commonly practiced in schools or at work in most countries, few companies are able to practice it at all. One technology research firm found that "73 percent of all software projects are delivered late or over budget or simply fail to meet their performance criteria."1 Seventy-three percent! Caution. Haphazard thinking at work.
Admittedly difficult to quantify, offshore outsourcing surveys should include some measure of a company's expertise in algorithmic thinking. Sure, obvious criteria like application knowledge, financial stability and competent management are important2. But isn't algorithmic thinking as important as application knowledge?
An offshore outsourcer with excellent application knowledge may spend 1,000 hours to write an application. An offshore outsourcer with similar knowledge but steeped in algorithmic thinking might do it in 400.
Russians are more passionate and obsessed with chess than any other people on earth. One can argue whether chess is an art, a science or both, but everyone agrees that chess is algorithmic. Russian universities like Moscow State University and Novosibirsk State University are known world-wide for the quality of the minds they produce. These minds are the very algorithmic thinkers we have been discussing.
Today's Russian business thinkers -- steeped in years of chess and educated in chess-like judgment, implement massive real-world projects from start to finish. Only one other country parallels those accomplishments. It's almost a birthright that Russian programmers can focus on real business goals, recognize inevitable project limitations, creatively overcome obstacles, and often attain a goal much larger than the one originally planned.
Yes, just like the game of chess, just like the game of business.
It makes perfect sense, then, for American companies seeking offshore outsourcing to add algorithmic thinking to their selection criteria. Consider the economics. For $10,000 a company can buy:
--- 500 hours of algorithmic think time from Russia
--- 100 hours of algorithmic think time from the US
A misconception persists that Russian programmers are "scientific," not business programmers. Let's take a look at that. Though their capitalist economy was born only 11 years ago, Russian programmers have been briskly constructing and expanding massive information systems to operate the Russian Federation's ATM, satellite, and reservation networks 24/7, among others; to manage auto production, airplane design, rocket booster design, electrical distribution systems that span nine time zones (America's span four), oil rigs, food production and distribution, media production, hospital management and more.
And before 1991, these same Russians had never experienced private ownership! Naturally, these huge successes aren't all from algorithmic thinking, but it certainly has been a rocket booster in generating their $800 million offshore outsourcing industry in only 11 years. Come to think of it, surveys don't show grit, determination and pride either.
1) Keri E. Pearlson, Managing and Using Information Systems, A Strategic Approach (2001, John Wiley & Sons, Page 217)
2) Offshore Development Group, Offshore Benchmark Report (April 2002, page 14.)
David Kramer is Managing Director of TerraLink USA. Thirteen-year-old TerraLink is one of Russia's leading offshore outsourcing businesses with offices in the US, Canada, Russia and Kazakhstan. David can be reached at [email protected], 303-989-7887, 1-888-736-2327.