Managing Global Software Engineering: A Comparative Analysis of Offshore Outsourcing and the Internal Offshoring of Software Development

In this article, the authors compare offshore outsourcing and the internal offshoring of software development. Empirical evidence is presented from a case study conducted in five companies. Based on a detailed literature review, a framework was developed that guided the authors' analysis of the differences in the challenges faced by companies and the patterns of evolution in the practice of software development in each business model.     

软件开发外包项目管理案例分析及探索

软件外包是一个非常大的市场,目前在国内有很多软件公司从事软件项目外包行业,或把自己的部分业务发包给外包方,软件项目外包管理随着近年软件项目外包的发展越来越受到重视,它与公司项目的内容管理既关联又存在差异,文章通过对企业实际外包项目的具体案例的风险进行分析,提出了相应的解决方案,并总结了项目实施过程中存在的问题及改进意见,为软件企业的外包项目管理提供了借鉴。     

外包软件测试项目的研究

本文主要从软件测试技术,外包测试和质量管理的概念入手,阐述了影响外包测试项目质量的因素和目前外包测试项中存在的质量问题。     

高校图书馆数据存储外包的探讨

数据存储作为信息技术业务外包中的一项重要业务正成行业关注的热点。该文在深入分析数据存储外包风险的基础上,提出适度地开展数据存储外包可以优化高校图书馆人力资源的配置、降低数据存储业务费用投入、提升服务水平的观点,还在文中提出规避风险的具体措施。     

Strategic innovation through outsourcing – A theoretical review

Competition in the Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry is increasingly moving from being motivated by cost savings towards strategic benefits that service providers can offer to their clients. Innovation is one such benefit that is expected nowadays in outsourcing engagements. The rising importance of innovation has been noticed and acknowledged not only in the Information Systems (IS) literature, but also in other management streams such as innovation and strategy. However, to date, these individual strands of research remain largely isolated from each other. Our theoretical review addresses this gap by consolidating and analyzing research on strategic innovation in the ITO and BPO context. The article set includes 95 papers published between 1998 and 2020 in outlets from the IS and related management fields. We craft a four-phase framework that integrates prior insights about (1) the antecedents of the decision to pursue strategic innovation in outsourcing settings; (2) arrangement options that facilitate strategic innovation in outsourcing relationships; (3) the generation of strategic innovations; and (4) realized strategic innovation outcomes, as assessed in the literature. We find that the research landscape to date is skewed, with many studies focusing on the first two phases. The last two phases remain relatively uncharted. We also discuss how innovation-oriented outsourcing insights compare with established research on cost-oriented outsourcing engagements. Finally, we offer directions for future research.     

南京市软件外包服务业人才需求及定制化培养

南京是中国服务外包基地城市和中国服务外包示范城市,软件外包服务是南京市软件产业新一轮发展的突破口,软件外包服务业的发展需要大量专业化人才,文章从调研南京软件外包服务业人才现状入手,探讨南京市软件外包人才的特性需求,提出不同岗位人才的定制化培养模式。     

A comparative study of important risk factors involved in offshore and domestic outsourcing of software development projects: A two-panel Delphi study

We investigated the risk factors of outsourced software development. Our first objective was to create empirically generated lists of risk factors for both domestically- and offshore-outsourced projects. Our second objective was to compare these two contexts: how do the risk factors change and which ones are most important in each. To address these objectives, we conducted two Delphi surveys to identify the important risk factors from a client perspective, in domestic and offshore settings. We qualitatively compared the results of the surveys to identify similarities and differences across their risk profiles. We identified three types of risks: those that appeared in both contexts; those that appeared in both but were exacerbated in the offshore context; and those that were unique to the offshore context. Our findings suggested that traditional project management risks were important in both contexts; however, the offshore context seemed to be more vulnerable to some traditional risks as well as factors that were unique to it.     

B2B Procurement and Marketplace Transformation

Emerging web technologies and systems have started a revolutionary path that will have a profound impact on procurement processes and systems, especially in the area of indirect procurement and the management of operating resources. In fact, what started as more narrowly focused procurement systems only a couple of years ago, has transformed into a web of technologies, markets, and business strategies that have ramifications well beyond the purchasing function. The focus of this paper is on the marketplace structure, functionality and capabilities of systems, and key factors that buyers need to take into consideration when transforming their procurement processes. Contents management, markets, standards, and outsourcing are important problems that are discussed in this paper.     

Understanding the outsourcing learning curve: A longitudinal analysis of a large Australian company

Outsourcing continues to capture the attention of researchers as more companies move to outsourcing models as part of their business practice. Two areas frequently researched and reported in the literature are the reasons why a company decides to outsource, and outsourcing success factors. This paper describes an in-depth, longitudinal case study that explores both the reasons why the company decided to outsource and factors that impact on success. The paper describes how Alpha, a very large Australian communications company, approached outsourcing and how its approach matured over a period of 9 years. The paper concludes that although a number of reasons are proposed for a company's decision to outsource, lowering costs was the predominant driver in this case. We also describe other factors identified as important for outsourcing success such as how contracts are implemented, the type of outsourcing partner arrangement, and outsourcing vendor capabilities.

The impact of process standardization on business process outsourcing success

What is the impact of business process standardization on business process outsourcing (BPO) success? This paper argues that there is a direct impact of process standardization on BPO success, due to production cost economies, and also an indirect effect via improved contractual and relational governance resulting from better monitoring opportunities and facilitated communication and coordination. This threefold impact of standardization on BPO success is empirically confirmed using data from 335 BPO ventures in 215 German banks.