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Exerpt from An Overview of Offshore Software Development, by Dr. Bernard L. Palowitch, Jr., President & CEO of Incoda Corporation.
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While many of the processes and practices for managing offshore outsourcing are similar to outsourcing to local suppliers, we have found that there are four major differences that are unique to offshore software projects.
Today, more than twenty countries are considered to be offshore outsourcing locations. And within many of the most attractive countries there are at least several hundred potential suppliers. The processses of identifying an appropriate set of potential companies, conducting meaningful RFI and RFP activities, and negotiating project arrangements are much more difficult and time consuming than evaluating outsourcing vendors within one’s own country. The diverse cultures, foreign language barriers, differing time zones, difficulty in understanding and interpreting the information received, and unfamiliar legal systems and contract provisions are just a few of the factors than complicate using offshore suppliers.
Customer requirements and design documents need to be developed with much greater accuracy and detail because the geographical separation between the onsite business users and the offshore team makes real-time communication much more difficult. Because of the physical separation and, in many cases, time-zone differences, the individual team members don’t have the luxury of getting answers and clarifications as quickly and easily as if their colleagues were sitting just a few seats away.
Moving work offshore also focuses attention on clearly defining the roles and responsibilities for each step in the software development process. While most of the common software development methodologies can be followed to guide offshore work, the activities and tasks need to explicitly assigned and modified, as appropriate, to take into account that the people and groups responsible for the various work steps are geographically separate. On most projects, team members will never meet face-to-face over the duration of the project.
Companies considering offshore development must recognize that offshore outsourcing presents a major management challenge and that the level of project planning, coordination, technical integration, and remote support for offshore projects is more complicated than performing software development solely in-house or with a local supplier. A huge hurdle is overcoming language and cultural barriers. For example, even in cases where the offshore supplier had an excellent command of the English language, we found that small nuances and slang terms in the requirements and in our online discussions introduced huge misunderstandings in the project outputs. More intermediate progress reviews should be conducted to make sure that the timetable is being met and test results should be constantly monitored.
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To learn more about Incoda's perspectives on offshore software development, please see:
To download the entire Incoda white paper, An Overview of Offshore Software Development, please visit the Resources Section of this website. Registration is required.
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This page describes key differences in the methodology, approach, processes and practices between local and offshore outsourcing for custom application and web software development.
