>So I came into a new job where I will complement (eventually replace) an offshore outsourced team. I am working on one of their .NET websites. First of all, they are reading Excel data using Jet, which is good because it uses the .NET base libraries. However, I believe they thought they needed to open the Excel document using the Office components before they read the data, which is bad because it requires us to install freaking Excel on the web server. So I opened their solution and removed this dependency, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to actually roll out the new version. It appears they have 2-3 Web projects, all of which roll out to the same folder so the roots of the three projects are the same folder. There is no documentation. I can't request documentation because it's some sort of holiday in India.
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>GRRRRRR.
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>I blame the outsourced team for being stupid and not showing any sort of consideration (required Excel to be installed on the web server, using the same root, making the rollouts require manual steps) and my employer (not requiring higher standards).
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>I need a beer.

At least you will be replacing them instead of the other way around. I left one job a couple of years ago when all the developers were told all development would be done in India. They had done three projects there, all disasters, but only got more committed to the idea. I don't think that would have been the case if they had looked at the real cost (including overruns), not hourly rates. Not to mention quality. It was also a massive PITA communicating with them, not only the language issue but the 11 hour time difference.