It is difficult to align worker-incentives in large off-shore contractors with the client's needs. Someone mentioned that contractors don't write tests unless

It is difficult to align worker-incentives in large off-shore contractors with the client's needs. Someone mentioned that contractors don't write tests unless you explicitly tell them which ones to write. Well, even if they did, are you going to be able to promote them? That dev's manager is probably hyper-focused on spec completion and billable hours. Even if you paid more for test coverage you start paying for things like assert sum(1,1) == 2. High quality code often comes from people coding for "the job they want" not the job they currently have. In-house work usually has this carrot of a senior role that can be attained by taking initiative and thinking outside the spec for the missing pieces. This is a form of compensation and incentive missing in low end contracting work.