Make sure that your company is ready for outsourcing. You have to make sure that your company has already defined processes for software development and maintenance.
Those processes should be as efficient and formalized as possible and ready to scale. Outsourcing is nothing else than a scaling tool.
Software outsourcing allows you to take the existing processes and scale them to reach the new level of effectiveness. It will enable your company to grow faster, educe time to market, gain new skills and save money in the process.
Before even starting software outsourcing, make sure the formalized processes are in place. If you are trying to solve your process/management problems with outsourcing, it will only magnify all those problems.
This means you have to set up the rules regarding all the stages of the application development
- application analysis and specification
- design and task definition
- development.
- QA
- delivery
- maintenance
It also includes a clear definition of the responsibilities, roles and communication channels between all the parties iIt goes down to the lowest process levels, e.g. how to handle communication between the parties, document management, source code management, creating rules and enforcing them. This all is easier when the appropriate tools are used (e.g. issue reporting system, source code management, etc.)
When all this is in place, you are ready to scale this system and adapt it to outsource.
Some or all of those responsibilities, roles and processed can be outsourced. Now it is up to you do decide what to outsource.
Are you able to outsource QA or software development, and keep the analysts and design in your company? Or do you want to outsource the whole project, including all the functions and processes (design, development, QA, delivery, maintenance,…)? Many different combinations are possible.
You have to define clear communications channels and responsibilities for your core team and outsourcers. These might change when scaling your original processes, so adapt accordingly.
The distribution of the tasks between your core team and outsourcers may wary. Define what is practical, so your outsourcing team can be managed effectively.
Make sure you do not spend all your time micro-managing outsourcing teams. Even though this might be sometimes necessary in the beginning, in a long term you have to let them do their job on their own.
This transfer of responsibility is crucial in making software outsourcing cut your costs in a long run. This is the point where you have to think strategically.
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