When you think about the black market, I’m sure the majority of you will think of prohibition days.  When alcohol was made illegal, it did two things: It made the bad guys more money, and it put the average joe in a dangerous position while trying to acquire it.  Bring in the 21^stcentury. Sure, there still is a black market… but come on, who is afraid of mobsters anymore? Today, we have a gaming black market. It has been around for years, but will it survive? With more and more games moving towards auction houses, could game companies “tame” the gaming black market?

In the old days of gaming on the internet, we spent most of our online time playing hearts, spades… whatever we could do while connected to the internet. As the years went by, better and better games came about. Then, suddenly, interactive multiplayer games came into the picture. These interactive games, mainly MMORPGS, allowed for characters to pick up and keep randomly generated objects known as “loot”. This evolution of gaming created the black market.

In the eyes of the software companies, the game is only being leased/rented by the end user. You don’t actually have any rights to the game. This is where the market becomes black.  The software companies don’t want you making money of “virtual” goods that are housed on the software or servers of the game you are playing on.  The software companies, at this point, started to get smarter.

Where there is a demand…

In most business circles, the question of whether or not a website truly helps a company's business has become somewhat moot. Simply put, a website is a necessary evil, like it or not. The question is no longer, should a company have a website, but rather, is the website optimized to ensure the best potential results. Of course, it is important to understand what is meant by "helping a company."

Many businesses are under the assumption that a website is going to turn into cold hard cash for the company. Well, that could be the case if the organization is using a type of e-commerce platform to buy and sell goods. Many businesses are service oriented and as such, the website serves an entirely different purpose.

If you are a software developer looking for a slight change, then you have several options available. The process of software development requires multiple types of resources. A software developer performs the construction and delivery of software programs. An experienced software developer gains business knowledge, analytical skills, team management skills and communication skills. All of these skills can be used to divert your development career into a related and slightly varied role in software development.

Production Support Engineer
A developer can easily switch to the role of a Production Support Engineer. This role entails working with customers and technical teams to report, track and resolve production issues. For some, this might be an exciting opportunity to see the software application from a user’s point of view.

Engineering Manager
If you have experience in leading a team of developers, you could take the role of an Engineering Manager. This role requires managing a bigger team of developers. The Engineering Manager is also responsible for ensuring the delivery of software products and meeting the deadlines set by Product Management. You will get the opportunity to develop software, if you are inclined to do so. However, you will also take new responsibilities such as performance management, infrastructure management and vendor management.

Partner Engineer
This role requires some amount development as well as coordination with partners such as vendors and customers. The job of a Partner Engineer is to act as a middleman to help the integration of services with partners via application programming interfaces (APIs). For example, companies such as Twitter and Facebook employ Partner Engineers to integrate their services with customer websites.

Systems Analyst
Many companies offer developers with an opportunity to switch to Analyst roles. This role involves analyzing system requirements by working with business and technical teams. Many Systems Analysts also work on reviewing, developing and testing application code. This role is suitable for developers with strong analytical skills.

QA Automation Engineer
This role is responsible for automating test cases with the help of tools such as Java, Ruby and Selenium. This role is ideal for people with prior development experience. QA Automation Engineers work with developers and product managers to define test cases, and to automate and run the test cases. In this role, you will get the opportunity to work on back-end as well as front-end automation tasks. You will remain in touch with programming languages as well as database technologies.

Database Analyst
Most people gain significant amount of knowledge on databases while working as a software developer. This will help you to switch your role into a Database Analyst. A Database Analyst analyzes database issues, reviews performance problems, writes database scripts and runs queries. This role also provides a path to become a Database Administrator, if you are interested.

Deployment Engineer
This role is responsible for deploying the code developed by software engineers. You may not be developing application programs in this role. However, you will be responsible for code deployments, pushing the code into test and production environments.

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What is the most pressing problem in Project Management for a Software Project Manager?

Outsourcing IT needs in the corporate world has become extremely popular because it is cost-efficient and it gives IT resources to companies that may not otherwise be able to afford them. Another positive side effect of IT outsourcing is that it has brought many technology jobs back to the United States.

As convenient and patriotic as IT outsourcing has become, it also have several limitations that have caused many companies to re-think the idea of funding their own internal IT group. It is important for a company to be completely familiar with these limitations before developing any kind of company policy in regards to IT.

The Customer Could Outgrow The Outsource Company

When an IT outsourcing company first takes on a new client, the relationship is beneficial to both sides. But things can start to get inconvenient for the client when the client's business starts to outgrow the capabilities of the IT outsource group.

An IT outsourcing company can become entrenched in the daily routine of its clients, which is great at first. But when the IT company can no longer keep pace with the growth of its clients, then the clients are stuck trying to find a new solution and keep track of its own IT assets at the same time.

The IT Outsourcing Company Lacks The Necessary Technical Expertise

IT outsourcing clients like to believe that their support company knows everything there is to know about computers and the Internet. But every IT support company has its areas of expertise and they have the technical areas where they are not quite as strong. If the client starts to experience needs from the areas where the IT outsourcing company is not so strong, then that can become a significant business issue.

This problem can be amplified if the client is a small business experiencing growth. An IT outsourcing company is not as likely to bring on new personnel for a smaller client, which leaves the client without a solution.

The Client Losses A Measure Of Control Over Its Data

No matter how large or successful an IT outsourcing company may be, there will always be the limitation of client security and the protection of critical customer data. All it takes is one rogue employee of the IT outsourcing company to compromise all of the client's critical data.

Some IT outsourcing companies have safeguards put in place to try and prevent client data compromise, but those safeguards are limited by how much access the IT company has to the client network. In most cases, that access has to be comprehensive for the IT outsourcing company to be able to do its job.

Outsourcing IT responsibilities can take a lot of stress off of a client and allow that client to operate his business by focusing on his core competencies. But there are limitations to IT outsourcing that could make it necessary for a client to do his own IT support and pay the extra costs.