subject: Article on best practices for offshore software development [print this page] Author: Rohit Chopra Author: Rohit Chopra
In the overall picture of offshore software development model, besides technology and probably more important, the other factor is the eSourcing relationship management between client and service provider. There are number of challenges which must be addressed to ensure a successful execution:
No formal criteria/methodology for clients to identify service provider
Critical success factors for the project/service
Maintaining a balance between changing requirements and project/service scoping
Transition of personnel, equipment, and knowledge between the client and service provider is often problematic
Ineffective status reporting by service providers
There are numbers of methodologies and frameworks available that provide guidance and tools to successfully manage the relationships between client and service providers while negotiating and executing offshore software development services and projects.
The eSourcing Capability Model by Carnegie Mellon
One of the well known models is The eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers (eSCM-SP) and The eSourcing Capability Model for Client Organizations (eSCM-CL) from Carnegie Mellon. eSCM for Service Providers provides 84 Practices, which are distributed along three dimensions: Sourcing Life-cycle, Capability Areas, and Capability Levels.
The eSCM-SPs Sourcing Life-cycle is different from other quality models as it includes delivery, as well as initiation and completion of contracts where many commonly encountered problems arise. The eSCM-SP offers a five-level path for service providers to enhance value and achieve excellence over time.
The eSCM-SP is designed to complement existing quality models (ISO 9001, ISO 20000-1, ISO 27001, the CMMs, COBIT and COPC-2000) so that service providers can capitalize on their previous improvement efforts, so it can be implemented in parallel with these other frameworks.
eSCM for Client Organizations provides 95 Practices which cover the full sourcing life cycle. This best practice model begins with the clients strategy for eSourcing, moving through initiation into delivery and, eventually, into completion activities. This results into client developing stronger, longer term, and more trusting relationships with their service providers.
Offshore software development needs
On the educational aspect, India has huge reserves of highly qualified and English speaking workforce with minimum education as bachelors and masters. The IT professionals are highly skilled and qualified in their respective streams. Some of the Indian universities are ranked among the top schools in the world.
With the internal market booming and the very favorable environment for offshore, outsourcing software development services; Indian software and BPO segment is expected to grow at a rate of more than 16 per cent to become a 132 billion-dollar industry by 2012.About the Author:
Rohit Chopra is a veteran in IT industry with a focus on offshore software development India(extendcode.com). Rohit has enabled solutions for Health Care, HR and Media verticals and written .
