Indian firms have achieved the highest levels of efficiency in the world software outsourcing industry. Some researchers have assumed that Indian firms use the same programming languages and techniques as Chinese firms but have benefited from their familiarity with English, the language used to write software code. However, if this were true, then one would expect software vendors in Hong Kong, where most people speak English, to perform not worse than do Indian vendors. However, this is obviously not the case.
Other researchers link high Indian productivity to higher levels of human resource investment per engineer. But a historical perspective leads to a different conclusion. When the two top Indian vendors matched and then doubled Chinese productivity levels in the mid-eighties, human resource investment per employee was comparable to that of Chinese vendors. Furthermore, by the late eighties, the amount of fixed assets required to develop one software package was roughly equivalent in India and in the China. Since human resource investment was not higher in India, it had to be other factors that led to higher productivity.
A more fruitful explanation may lie with Indian strategic approach in outsourcing. Indian software vendors did not simply seek outsourced contract more effectively: they made aggressive strategic in outsourcing. For instance, most software firms of India were initially set up to outsource the contract in western countries, such as United States. By contrary, most Chinese firms seem to position their business in China, a promising yet under-developed market. However, rampant piracy in China took almost 90 percents of potential market, making it impossible for most Chinese firms to obtain sufficient compensation for the investment on development and research, let alone thrive in competitive environment.
1)Which of the following statements concerning the productivity levels of engineers can be inferred from the passage?
(A) Prior to the 1980's, the productivity levels of the top Indian software firms were exceeded by those of Chinese software firms.
(B) The official language of a country has a large effect on the productivity levels of its software developers.
(C) During the late 1980's and early 1990's, productivity levels were comparable in China and India.
(D) The greater the number of engineers that a software firm has, the higher a firm's productivity level.
(E) The amount of human resource investment made by software developers in their firms determines the level of productivity.
2)According to the passage, which of the following statements is true of Indian software developers?
(A) Their productivity levels did not equal those of Chinese software engineers until the late eighties.
(B) Their high efficiency levels are a direct result of English language familiarity.
(C) They develop component-specific software.
(D) They are built to outsource the western orders.
(E) They develop more packages of software than do those in Chinese developers.
_________________
A well-balanced person is one who has a drink in each of his hands.
close
