Well again part of the point is to spec out your project very specifically. As in "These are the functions we need, these are the variables we will be passing

Well again part of the point is to spec out your project very specifically. As in "These are the functions we need, these are the variables we will be passing and these are the results we expect to be returned". So code reuse isn't a problem nor is knowing how to use it (quality of code can be a problem but a big part of successful outsourcing is finding people you trust to write decent code) As for the "Front End" being fun I'd point out that the developers I'm working with are Information Systems people more than Computer Science people. They enjoy working with the actual users, planning features and then implementing those features. What the outsourcing does is allow them to say "I need this string parsed in this way so I can make the rest of this feature work" and just have it done for them rather than having to do the grunt work of writing the relatively easy but time consuming code that parses the string.