Conference PaperPDF Available

Outsourcing for software applications development: issues, implications and impact.

  • January 1998
  • Conference: Proceedings of the Sixth European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS 1998, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1998
Authors:
Rasha Abbas
Rasha Abbas
Rasha Abbas
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Philip Dart at University of Melbourne
Philip Dart
Fergus O'Brien
Fergus O'Brien
Fergus O'Brien
  • This person is not on ResearchGate, or hasn't claimed this research yet.
Edmund Kazmierczak at La Trobe University
Edmund Kazmierczak
Download full-text PDF
Read full-text
Download citation

Abstract and Figures

Information technology has become one of the fastest-growing, fastest-changingmarkets in the world. The high demand on software applications and servicesis forcing more companies to turn to outsourcing to meet their customerneeds. We define software outsourcing as contracting out software services,operations, products or development of applications.This paper presents an overview of outsourcing in software development.In particular, we attempt to isolate some of the motivating factors for ...
Figures - uploaded by Edmund Kazmierczak
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Edmund Kazmierczak
Content may be subject to copyright.
Content uploaded by Edmund Kazmierczak
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Edmund Kazmierczak on Mar 27, 2014
Content may be subject to copyright.
Outsourcing
Process
People Technology
In-HouseOutsourced
Software Application
Specialised Tasks
Not part of desired
competencies
Common Tasks
Not part of core
competencies
Specialised Tasks
In-House Development Outsourced Tasks
Control Tasks
Core competencies
Common Tasks
Core Competency
(Expertise not available in-house)
Outsourcer
- Bonding
- Monitoring
- Blending of Efforts,
- Benchmarks
Outsourcing Relationship Outsourcing Vendor
- Vendor selection and capacity
- Project plan
- Development processes & paradigms
- Identify core strategic specialities
- Resolve Ownership, IP, and liabilities
- Lines of authority for accepting changes
- change impact and propagation procedures
- Assurance that components meets technical
and operational requirements
- Components function correctly within
their intended operating environment
- Relationship
- Control
- Withdrawal from outsourcing decision
- Skills & capacity of vendor
- Delays on delivery time
- Changing requirements & environment
- Privacy and security
PLANNING
CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
- Availability
- Project plan
- Development processes & paradigms
- Specialities and expertise needed
- Resolve Ownership, IP, and liabilities
- change impact and propagation procedures
- Lines of authority for accepting changes
- Components function correctly
- Availability of required skills
- Changing requirements & environment
- Penalties
- Withdrawal of outsourcer
PLANNING
CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT
VERIFICATION & VALIDATION
RISK MANAGEMENT
VERIFICATION & VALIDATION
RISK MANAGEMENT
Instigate and Manage
Outsourcing Relationship
Application
Development
- Technical people
support
- Market survey
- Feasibility study
- Time
- Technology
- Control
- Trust
- Safety
- Expertise
- Cost
Alternative
(points inside reflect
technical inputs needed)
Uncertain
core
non
core
- Expertise
- Interest
- Technology
- Time
- Cost
In-house
In-house
Selective Outsourcing
Total Outsourcing
Selective Outsourcing
Strongly Coupled
Company’s Situation
* How strong is the company’s
competitive position?
* What are the company’s strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?
* What are the company’s key
competencies?
* How far does change is the industry
affect the company’s business?
* Which company’s are in the strongest/
weakest competitive positions?
*What are the industry’s dominant traits?
Key Factors
* Cost saving
* Time
(meeting deadlines, first to market,..)
* Human Resources and expertise
* Competition
* Globalisation
* Specialisation and focus
* Alliances and partenrships
* Technology
* Process
* Capability development
Key Questions
* Does outsourcing have good fit with
* Is there vendor/s that meet company
* Have all internal alternatives been
evaluated?
company’s strategy and situation?
requirements?
* Is it feasible?
* Will it improve performance/ time/ cost?
* Will it help build a copetitive advantage?
Key Criteria
Outsourcing Issues
* Capacity, availability, capability of
outsourcing vendors
* Scale/size of outsourcing (total/selective)
* Vendor Relationship
(strategic/ short term)
* Change, CM, and evolvability
* Performance measures
* Maintenance & system maintenability
reports, configuration mangement)
* Process visibility (documentation,
* Development paradigms
* System decomposition and interfaces
development tools, programming lang.)
* Technology (Platform, OS,
* Trust/ assurance
* Contract and conformance
* Ownership, IP, & location of source
* Frequency of use
* Bonding, monitoring, and coordination
efforts and resources
* Liability/ responsibility
* Flexibility and control
* Cost
Management
Technical
Drivers to Outsourcing
[ Yes/No, Who, When, What, Degree]
Taking The Decision
... Outsourcing of system development, integration, and maintenance is an important trend in IT services [2]. For a client, the outsourcer, contracting out work is a cost-effective way to hire expertise at a fixed price and get in return a system (or service) with a predefined quality, which includes timely delivery. ...
... A number of issues have to be resolved for successful outsourcing of systems, which in [2] are summarised as: control, ownership, development paradigms, assurance, and system decomposition. Typically these issues are addressed in the contracts and agreements. ...
Managing evolving requirements in an outsourcing context: An industrial experience report
Conference Paper
Full-text available
  • Oct 2004
We discuss several difficulties managing evolving requirements by means of an industrial case study conducted at LogicaCMG. We report on setting up a requirements management system in an outsourcing context and its application in real-life. The experience results in several lessons learned, questions to be answered in the future on how to manage evolving requirements, and solution directions. We propose a conceptual framework of requirements engineering system tailored for outsourcing environments, which captures the experience results.
... In achieving maximum benefits amongst the outsourcing companies, necessity is placed on the positive relationship between the vendor and the client (Nie and Hammouda, 2017). Different researchers have outlined the maintaining elastic vendor and client relationship and this has created business values when outsourcing software (Abbas and Dart, 1998;Betz and Mäkiö, 2008). In understanding the distinct relationship in the outsourcing process has meant that proper arrangements have been made and issues of dependency have been achieved. ...
Critical Barriers in Software Outsourcing Vendor Organizations and Their Impacts on Software Outsourcing Clients: A Systematic Literature Review
Article
Full-text available
Globalization and technological advancement have driven up the demand for software as many enterprises seek to gain a competitive edge through efficient business operations. Whereas software provides this capacity, the resources involved in software development sometimes provide a stumbling block, especially for startups and smaller businesses. Software development outsourcing or offshore software development offers a viable alternative for these enterprises. Software development outsourcing is a contractual agreement between a client and vendor organization (s), who then provide part or all of the software development related services at an agreed fee paid by the client. Despite the apparent importance of offshore software development, there is limited research literature that explores the general practices in software development outsourcing. Besides, identifying barriers that often present a significant challenge for client organizations has received a little interest from researchers. This paper presents a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of 68 research articles to identify the critical barriers for offshore software development outsourcing vendors. In order to increase the internal validity of the reported findings, the articles selected for the review were taken from three continents; Africa, Asia and Europe. The critical barriers established from the study included communication problems, cultural barriers and incompatibility with the client's requirements. From the findings, it is recommended that vendors address these barriers for an improved relationship between themselves and the clients. Moreover, addressing these barriers offer the vendors with an opportunity to position themselves strategically within the offshore outsourcing industry. Furthermore, the findings provide meaningful literature in the continuum of Software Development Outsourcing for Software project managers, researchers and other participants in the field. More importantly, the presented literature offers a starting point for generalizing the reported findings within the context of Software Development Outsourcing.
... " In the case of software outsourcing the business function is the software development and a thirdparty service provider is a subcontractor enterprise. So, a more precise definition for this practice is given by R.Abbas et.al (1998) ...
Software Development Outsourcing Decision Support Tool with Neural Network Learning
Article
  • Jan 2004
AFIT/GCS/ENG/04-16. "March 2004." Thesis (M.S.)--Air Force Institute of Technology, 2004. Includes bibliographical references.
Software Architecture for Collaborative Development: A Mobile Phone Network Simulation Example
Article
  • Dec 1998
Outsourcing and collaborative development are on the increase and in turn will have a greater influence in software development. Software architecture plays an important role in collaborative projects. We argue that the properties of the final system, and the collaborative work model chosen to develop it, are strongly influenced by the software architecture. We further argue that the choice of software architecture should therefore be based on both the software requirements and the outsourcing requirements. A simple mobile phone network simulation example is used to illustrate how these requirements can influence the choice of software architecture. We present a number of candidate architectures based on our example and discuss the impact each architecture will have on the system properties and work model in the context of a specific set of outsourcing requirements. Finally, we present some ideas on how the outsourcing requirements and desired system properties can be used to select a...
Software Engineering Economics
Article
  • Jan 1981
A summary is presented of the current state of the art and recent trends in software engineering economics. It provides an overview of economic analysis techniques and their applicability to software engineering and management. It surveys the field of software cost estimation, including the major estimation techniques available, the state of the art in algorithmic cost models, and the outstanding research issues in software cost estimation.
Team Risk Management: A New Model for Customer-Supplier Relationships
Article
  • Jul 1994
Team Risk Management is a new paradigm for managing programs for projects by developing a shared product vision, focused on results, and using the principles and tools of risk management to cooperatively manage risks and opportunities. This report will familiarize you with the concept of Team Risk Management by providing a description of the overall process that engages both the customer and supplier in a cooperative framework using explicit methods to manage project risks. Customer - Supplier Relationships, Risk, Team Risk Management
An Introduction to Team Risk Management. (Version 1.0)
Article
  • May 1994
Team Risk Management defines the organizational structure and operational activities for managing risks throughout all phases of the life- cycle of a software-dependent development program such that all individuals within the organizations, groups, department, and agencies directly involved in the program are participating team members. Through the adoption of team risk management, the government and contractor are provided with processes, methods, and tools that enable both organizations, individually and jointly, to be increasingly anticipatory in decision-making processes. This report introduces the team risk management approach for managing risks within a software-dependent development program.
if Yesterday is Tomorrow, This Must be Toronto
Article
  • Jan 1996
The author uses examples of Quarterdeck software to show that the puce of innovation in Internet software outstrips the ability of any single company or tool set to keep puce. While pointing out the validity of both standards based programming and technical innovation in advance of standards with the intent of achieving market advantage, that one must be prepared to make use of new (not necessarily home grown) tools, make alliances and yet one must also be on the lookout for the next coming set of innovations, and the tools to cope with them.
Software Pioneers
Article
This paper summarizes the current state of the art and recent trends in software engineering economics. It provides an overview of economic analysis techniques and their applicability to software engineering and management. It surveys the field of software cost estimation, including the major estimation techniques available, the state of the art in algorithmic cost models, and the outstanding research issues in software cost estimation.
The outsourcing decision
Article
Outsourcing is the process of transferring part or all of the information systems functions to an external vendor. Examples of how three organizations are using outsourcing are presented. Factors which impact the outsourcing decision include (1) personnel, (2) economic, (3) control, (4) data characteristics, (5) organizational characteristics, and (6) vendor and contract issues. Variables within each category are discussed. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing are summarized.