Jarosław Czaja

I am Jaroslaw Czaja, the author of this blog and the owner of this website.

I am also the founder and chief executive of Future Processing, a software development outsourcer.

I grew up in Poland and was very interested in computers and programming from an early age. When I finished high school, I studied computer science at the Silesian University of Technology in Southern Poland and then at Nottingham Trent University in the UK. After graduating, I worked as a software engineer in Britain – for an SME called Feedback Data. I then had a range of IT development roles in Polish and American companies before setting up Future Processing. My experiences have given me two very interesting perspectives on offshore software development: that of an outsourcer`s customer and that of an outsourcer.

My experiences on both the outsourcer`s and the customer`s side, my day-to-day work and my research, coupled with opinions from real CIOs, IT managers and software developers form the basis for this blog and the information on the website. I’d like to hear what you think of them.

Offshore Development Blog – Q&A with the Author

Why did you decide to write this blog?

I think through my work I get some valuable insights into software development and outsourcing and I felt that I would like to share them and that they might be useful to business people looking at offshoring their software development.

What do you hope to achieve with it?

I hope to share my insights and help others learn more about the Polish software development industry.

How long have you been blogging for?

I think I wrote my first post sometime in 2009.

What sort of topics inspire you to write?

I know it’s a cliché, but when I read or hear something that sets me thinking about offshore development,  or when I see a new trend, then  I might think about writing a post.

Why do you think the blog is so popular as a medium of communication?

I guess the fact that the people writing are often not trained journalists, just ordinary people like you and me is appealing.  They are also very immediate and can be on niche subjects, like mine, that you might not find in printed magazines.  In some cases the bloggers might be reaching a smaller audience than a magazine, but they know and understand that audience better than a publication with a more ‘mass appeal’ approach would.

What first got you interested in software development?

My fascination with computers started in primary school. I played around with 8-bit microcomputers such as the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64. I remember spending hours copying BASIC program listings from – at the time rare in Poland – computer magazines. However my adventure with software development really started when I got my first 16-bit computer, the Commodore Amiga 500. I spent months developing computer games utilising Amiga’s graphics coprocessors. It was amazing to be able to make the computer do what I wanted. Soon after I became interested in building more serious applications. One of my other hobbies was astronomy.  I wrote a programme that analysed digital images of the sky and matched objects found on them against a star catalogue. The objects that could not be matched might be asteroids or comets. I did not discover a new comet or, in fact, anything else but I fell in love with programming.

What made you want to start up your own business?

I think an entrepreneurial spirit was in from my youth. It started with the computer games and then the astronomy software. However it was not until I got my first job as a programmer that I realised that offshore software development could be what I was looking for. It was also my first experience of a real software company. I guess I wanted to build something similar and that was the beginning of Future Processing.

Has it lived up to your expectations?

When I started Future Processing my dream was to have an overseas customer and a team in Poland that would be able to deliver quality software. We achieved this with 4 people working on a project for a British customer. It seemed like a great success. I then thought it would be good to have more customers and a bigger team and a couple of years later we achieved this. The next step was to become the most recognised local software company and I think we are there. So on one hand Future Processing is where I wanted it to be a few years ago and certainly it exceeded my original expectations. On the other hand I now want to make Future Processing the most recognised Polish software company – definitely a big challenge. One thing has not changed though. I like working at FP as much now as I used to 10 years ago.

What do you think the biggest differentiator is for Poland versus other offshoring destinations?

That’s a tough one.  In Poland I think we are good at lots of things but perhaps what makes us stand out most is the skills we can offer, thanks to a good education system, coupled with a very positive can-do attitude – we’re not a country of bureaucrats.  I think our Western culture and values also plays an important role in building those vital relationships with clients.

What do you think the future holds for the software development outsourcing industry in Poland?

I don’t have a crystal ball but I do think that as a nation we will go from strength to strength with software development becoming an increasingly important part of our economy. However, I do think that in order to this we need to play to our strengths and keep delivering high-quality software, even though this can be harder to control in larger projects.  I hope that quality will be what Poland is always famous for.