Acism's Offshore Outsourcing Guide > Summary

Here are the learnings summarized:

1. Outsourcing your software development work to offshore can get you a price advantage, a skill advantage and a risk reduction.
2. The challenges to this activity are (a) specific needs on clear, concise and disciplined communication, (b) timezone differences. There are ways to beat these challenges provided there is a willingness to do so.
3. Software development life cycle (SDLC) recognizes the different activities done in the software development: Requirement analysis, Design, Coding, Testing and UAT/ Deployment. The first and the last require a dialog between the software vendor and the client.
4. Chaotic software development model and Waterfall model are two extremes of software development approaches, both having serious limitations. A number of iterative development approaches (Agile and otherwise) try to provide practical solutions to these limitations. Their approach can be interpreted as the workable middle path.
5. Effort is measured in person-days, and is a product of number of persons who work and the number of days they spend. Scope is proportional to the effort. Three important things to keep in mind are: (a) Limitations of the calculation, (b) Stretching – working hard, (c) Rework.
6. Software project estimation process has many challenges because of various unknowns and other complexities. The timelines/effort therefore are not deterministic, and are sensitive to requirement scope and detailing which needs to be borne in mind.
7. The recipe to success is a balanced approach. One-shoe-fits-all approach is not correct. Depending on the project realities, the right process orientation and the right communication needs to be chosen; and the right level of trust and control need to be exercised.