- What conditions and methods improve the chances that offshore outsourcing of systems development will be successful?
Several big companies have been resorting to offshore outsourcing for the past years making it one of the most successful industries today. Aside from additional business opportunities that the companies realize from the projects, it also reduces their overhead costs and completion of projects on time as these are contract bound.
Although several companies have been utilizing this industry, not all companies engaged in offshore outsourcing are successful. Several factors contribute to the success of offshore outsourcing. Improper management is one major contributory factor of weather the project will be successful of not. First, the company must be able to manage risks in terms of cost, communication, knowledge transfer, outsourcing and crisis. One of the major reasons for outsourcing is trimming down cost, so it helps to find a provider with no hidden costs and a provider with proven track record. As with any project, communication is vital to the success of a project thus, an enhanced and well laid-out communication plan and mechanisms with the offshore development team as well as improve the coordination between in-house and offshore teams can dictate the success of the project. In addition, the company and the provider must determine a timeline that will be beneficial to both parties. (flatworldsolutions.com)
- If the company is planning to use outsourcing services for a long time investing of relations would be beneficial as this will contribute to the project performance. Moreso, before a company hires a provider, they must be sure that the company is ready and organized because if not, and more often than not the project will fail.2) What are the criteria that should be applied when choosing among candidate application software packages?
Choosing candidate software packages can be tricky. Wrong decision can lead to waste of resources, time and effort for a company. The following criteria could help in evaluating if a specific software package would be beneficial to the company of not. First, the functional characteristics of the packages should be evaluated in terms of the overall functions it can provide, the platform, adaptability security and the like. Second, its software quality characteristics should be evaluated to include a check of the robustness, scalability, ease of use, data backup and other characteristics relevant to its capability of delivering quality software solution. Third, criteria related to the vendor must be checked like the services they deliver. Is training part of their package or do they provide consultancy? Fourth criteria has to do with the cost and benefits analysis. What are the license cost, maintenance cost, training cost or indirect cost? Lastly, evaluation must be done on the hardware and software requirements and capabilities aspect. Is networking possible or do the company need to buy required hardware or can they use the current hardware that they have? A standard template on how to evaluate the software hasn’t been devices but it will help to consider the criteria listed above. (Jadhav, 2008)
- What are the major trade-offs in a make-or-buy decision?
Cost and flexibility and cost and speed and two of the major trade-offs on buy-or-make decisions for a company. Usually, buying would reduces cost on the part of the company but the trade-off comes with the products flexibility. For example, a company may decide to buy a readily available software to support its daily operations, however, there may be trade-offs on the customizability of the software that sometimes leads to the point of either changing the business paradigms of the company to suit with the software or not using it at all. Other times, the company may able to speed up things and make a company more productive by buying resources instead of making them however, this may entail more budget from the company. (Amanet.org, 2006)
- Describe the role of the vendor for each of the three phases of the purchasing life cycle.
The vendors role in the three phases of the purchasing life cycle is very important. In the Pre-purchase, it is the role of the vendor to orient the customer as to what their product can do and provide descriptions that are verifiable. When the customer inquires something about the product, the vendor should tell the customer the truth as not to deceive him. During the purchase, it is the vendors responsibility to deliver the product according to specifications set by the customer during the pre-purchase. After the purchase, it is the vendors responsibility to give technical assistance with regards to the use of the product.(ucop.edu)
- Describe the importance of documentation under an SDLC methodology.
Documentation under the SDLC methodology is very important. There are two types of documentation, the software and user documentations. Software documentation is important to enable the maintenance person to know how the software is structured thus ensuring continuity of the systems as the original programmers of project members may have left the company. User documentation on the other hand is important to help reduce the trainings to be conducted in relation to the use of the system and therefore reduce also the number of calls that may arise asking for technical assistance.
References:
Amanet.org (2006). The Buy or Make Decision. Retrieved from http://www.amanet.org/training/articles/The-Make-or-Buy-Decision.aspx
flatworldsolutions.com (2013). How to Successfully Manage your Offshore Outsourcing Business Ventures. Retrieved from http://www.flatworldsolutions.com/articles/offshore-outsourcing-business.php
Jadhav, Anil (2008). Evaluating and Selecting Software Packages: A review. Information and Software Technology. Retrieved from http://www.orbi.uni-saarland.de/downloads/Seminar/Jadhav_Sonar.pdf
ucop.edu (2013). Systems Development Standards. Retrieved from http://www.ucop.edu/ucophome/policies/bfb/is10.pdf
