With the increasing demand for affordable software development services, outsourced software development is enhancing worldwide. Factors suiting offshore outsourcing are benefited by the huge workforce from the less wage-paying countries, there round their clock working environment, and easy access to other related resources.
With a motive of cost saving in the development of software, there are risks which well associate with the outsourcing trend. Such challenges include less skilled developers, communication gaps, and a lack of cooperation of them. But with the Goal-driven Software Development, Risk Management Model gives easy access and manages the risk in such product engineering services.
Offshore Software Development
Offshore software development is a fantastic business strategy that works with a motive to develop high-standard software at low production costs. Developed countries like the USA and other European countries outsource software development to low-wage countries. However, according to some researchers man leading firms were unable to take better advantage of such business strategies. The reason was poor risk management in outsourcing software development.
Goals in Offshore Outsourced Software Development
1. Successful Project Management
Outsourcing companies follow this strategy from proper initiation, planning, execution, and organizing of the given or present resources to fulfill the goal of software development within the assigned budget and time limit.
2. Customer Collaboration
In developing the software every company uses customer feedback for the product. This is done to benefit the business growth and enhance the quality of the product and services.
3. Error Reduction
Error Reduction is the prime goal of every outsourcing company. The value of the outsourced work will only benefit if the project is error-free. To reduce errors the company should Draw the requirements effectively and make them understandable to the vendor, Use agile strategy in the production process, and always focus on utilizing automated testing to save time and money.
4. Maintain both budget and time
Working on a budget and on time are very important factors for every outsourcing company. Timely delivery of the product from the vendor’s side helps the outsourcing company to properly test and verify the requirements of the final product.
5. Clear Milestone
The outsourced project is operated on a very tight schedule. Maintaining the proper budget and the schedule is dually important and it helps the company in achieving the milestone.
Risk Factors in Offshore Outsourcing Software Development
1. Blurred Business Process
Due to a lack of communication gap the vendor companies face this problem. They are unaware of the business process and this hampers the software development badly.
2. Lesser knowledge of Existing applications
Vendor companies tend to hire programmers and developers at lower wages and they certainly acquire less knowledge. Being less experienced and having poor skills in developing leads to poor development of the software.
3. Lack of Cooperation
This is the major risk faced in offshore outsourcing. Vendor companies with a lack of experience always get less support from the client. Especially when they face problems while developing the product.
4. Communication Gap
The communication gap between the vendor and the client becomes the major risk factor in outsourcing. Due to poor understanding and language differences, the client is unable to explain its requirements to the vendor.
5. Incomplete Requirement Specification
To get a product through outsourcing it is necessary to explain the requirements to the vendor. With the lack of communication, they are unable to explain their needs which leads to failure of the project.