Software Outsourcing India -
Guidelines for software development outsourcing
To sustain itself in the tough competitive field,
businesses need to be exceptionally good in quality, promptness
and accuracy; all the more in the case of software outsourcing in
India. With the advent of Quality System Standards, outsourcing
firms as well as the outsourcer have to accomplish different objectives
regarding the quality of the software.
(Like any other business, software outsourcing
in India too has its risks.)
To provide software development outsourcing one
should uphold the following views.
- Needs of the clients with respect to software quality, accuracy
and safety must be fulfilled. That is the benefit of clients in
software development outsourcing in India.
- Make the client confident that the prescribed software quality
standards are met continuously during the development process.
- Be confident enough about your software quality management and
accuracy maintenance.
Usually offshore software outsourcing in India
consists of:
- Product component outsourcing: Where a part or portion of the
overall system is contracted to be developed, mainly when the
client may neither possess the skill nor the technology required
for the development process.
- Process component outsourcing: Where allowing a part of the
function of one or more of their process steps or components is
being outsourced.
- Total outsourcing: Where each and every activity related to
software like design, development, testing etc. are outsourced.
Thus, offshore software outsourcing in India is
a contract / subcontract with an external service provider for purposes
like development of complete or partial software products or projects
and the purchase of packaged or customized software products.
Advantages of Software
Outsourcing in India:
- Through software outsourcing in India, one can make use of one's
own valuable time by concentrating on his / her core competencies.
- Software outsourcing to India guarantees flexible technology
and service.
- Software outsourcing in India allows you to adopt innovative
skills and techniques while financial risks will be in the hands
of the vendor.
- Software outsourcing in India minimizes cost and facilitates
business transition.
- Joining hands with the professionals skilled at software outsourcing
in India (like in a joint venture) takes you to new markets and
opens a new world of profits with minimal effort.
Guidelines for software development outsourcing
The documents that are inevitable for a successful
deal in software outsourcing to India are the following:
- Requirement Specification documents.
- The Proposal Analysis document.
- The Contract Execution document.
- The Software Development Plan.
1. The Requirement Specification document for software
outsourcing to India contains,
- The aim: This document furnishes the basic objective, along
with details regarding the industry & software development team.
This facilitates fast & simple inferences about your software
project to find the well defined offshore software solutions required.
- The goals: Goals are set to bound a race. It is actually a list
of the required outcome to fit various stages in the true solution
and, must be specified clearly.
- The consistency factor: Issues dealing with compatibility has
to be approached at the initial stage of a project & steps
are to be taken to avoid complications. These issues come up when
the software that is under development forms a part of the existing
software or hardware system.
- Prominent characteristics: The diversified features involved
in the projects must be identified and defined, so that those
involved in the development process, will clearly understand the
various modules in the process.
- Issues related to "look and feel": The way in which
the people visualize the finished product is subjective and cannot
be well defined while developing e-commerce solutions. The revival
of user interface in later stages will prove to be expensive,
costly and will cause delay in delivery. Therefore, this must
be clarified in the initial stages itself.
- Support and maintenance: Round the clock support has to be imparted
to software applications that are being developed as a part of
the contract. Your outsourcing company must be maintained in such
a way that its excellent communication network is widely known.
- Complete Documentation: The whole development activities involved,
including logic & coding must be documented. A detailed user
manual has to be prepared; if one is dealing with upgrades of
software applications.
- Terms and conditions: As this is a contract it is necessary
to furnish all terms and conditions, lest it leads to controversies
in future. The people involved in this deal can make inquiries
in accordance with the completion of the document.
2. The Proposal Analysis document is actually a
refinement document usually proposed by the vendors of India. This
consists of the compromises and fade-offs made, so that the final
output comes out in accordance with your requisites. Time related
matters like the winding time for the project development are fixed
begore the commencement. This stage also witnesses, boith parties
making their views crystal clear to each other, about their ideas,
capabilities, risks, etc. This document furnishes:
- The overall scope: This entails the picture of your software
applications from the service provider's viewpoint, i.e. how he
has perceived your project and your requisites. It may also contain
the views, limitations and suggestions from the part of the provider.
- b. Payment criterion: The payment amount depends on two factors
namely time and money. Our offshore software development firm
in India follows these payment models:
- In India the provider charges for the man-hours spent on
software development.
- Both the outsourcing firm and the client agree on bulk payment
for the completion of the entire application. Most of the
firms handling software outsourcing in India follow this method.
- Both agree to pay at various deliverable stages.
3. The Contract Execution document
If the proposal is accepted by the client, the
next step is to execute the contract. The Contract Execution Document
includes all the details about the Intellectual property rights,
delivery date, deliverables, and responsibilities of each party,
terms and conditions concerning nondisclosure, payment terms, and
functional specifications provided by the client.
4. The Software Development Plan.
The project manager (preferably the vendors) maintain
the basic project development plan. Both the parties must sign this
document before software outsourcing to India. This consists of
three steps which are explained as follows.
-
Software Development Outsourcing plan
A detailed plan of the offshore software development
outsourcing gives an indication that your work is being executed
finely.
The software development outsourcing plan may
contain the details of the human resources involved, their skill
sets and the time of completion of work at each stage.
This software development outsourcing plan
reveals the complexities and basics that may occur in the course
of the project development and will help corrective measures
to be taken, if required.
Software Development and Design Specification
Software development and design specification
is peculiar to software development outsourcing companies in
India. The vendor after creating a whole range of diverse alternate
sophisticated design must, give the client an exposure to these
designs. Later the provider can carry on the application design
process and mould the design specification.
The Software Design Specification followed
by the software development outsourcing firms in India are discussed
under the following titles.
- An overview
- Requisites for the system
- Naming conventions and Database conventions
- Diagrams and Parameter passing
- Design priorities
- Programming tools
- Handling errors
- Storage and description of data records.
All the functionalities of Functional Specification
are included in this.
Quality Assurance Plan.
The quality assurance plan goes along cycles
like Alpha criteria, Beta criteria, Final code submission criteria,
Acceptance criteria and Alpha entry. Some of the salient points
of the Quality assurance plan are as follows.
- The vendor agrees on an alpha entry criterion
- The vendor supplies quality assurance for Alpha submission
- The QA engineers follow the acceptance test plan and report
bugs to the software development engineers.
- QA engineers further continue regression testing to ensure
fixing of bugs
- The incorporation of minor feature enhancements in the software,
as agreed by the client and the vendor is done.
-
Final Code Submission, where both client
& vendor agrees up on the final code submission.
-
Acceptance testing, the client performs
acceptance testing of the software as specified by the QA
test plan.
- Operation guarantees the client a warranty period of technical
support, which depends on the size of the project (normally
30 days).
-
Maintenance - Separate contracts are given
for fulfilling requirements of the software application
development like
- Adding features
- Fixing bugs
- Giving technical support to the client.
Project plan revised : The project plan
is being revised in accordance with the needs that arise
out of the design specification and Acceptance plan.
Terms & Conditions
Ensuring that both the parties involved
in the contract have agreed on the conditions & nothing
remains unclear between them.
Communication
The IT industry is more dependent on the
transfer of information and communication, than any other
industry in India. The software development outsourcing
companies in India are keen about maintaining a healthy
communication with their clients. Barriers of any form that
threaten to hamper the smooth flow of information at any
stage can be disastrous to the whole outsourcing process,
which may in turn lead to unnecessary negotiations and modifications.
The major medium used for the transfer
of information in outsourcing includes Internet, e-mail,
chat, videoconferencing, collaborate tools & project
management software.
Analysis has to be done by the client and
the vendor for the following.
- 1. Functional Specification, made by the vendor and
signed by both parties must containl;
- A description of all the components & deliverables
- Acceptance criterion
- Main objectives & special system requirements
- Overview of the application/system
- Client-vendor communication interfaces/protocols
- A method for negotiating specification changes.
- Responsibilities of parties, terms, conditions,
and assumptions.
- The Initial Design a. High-level design of application
/ system as a whole b. Description of user-interaction,
data flow & data storage.
- Development Proposal
- Final version of analysis proposal and
- The Executive contract
-
Risks Involved in offshore software development
outsourcing.
- Misunderstanding can arise between the vendor and the client
if the discussion regarding the software application is not
based on the final document.
- Misunderstandings may also arise, if the vendor representative
and the client are not close to each other, as it is virtually
impossible to explain all the finer details during the course
of the conversation/discussion.
- The possibility of cultural clashes between most of the
offshore professionals who are in the East and clients in
the West, cannot be overlooked.
- The difference in the time zones between that of the vendor
and that of the client could be yet another barrier. Mutual
adjustments have to be made in such situations.
To delete RISKS in software development
outsourcing.
Before software outsourcing in India, the client
and Vendor should sit for an open talk, stating:
- The original objectives and proposed solutions
- Organization and method of the project
- Comparison of estimates and actual results
- Successful aspects of the software application
- Problems involved and suggestions to avoid them in future.
The guidelines for software development outsourcing,
documents required, risks involved, etc,. has been discussed above.
For further technical, professional aid and software outsourcing
in India; do get in touch with us. At ITOI, we are eager to be of
help to you.
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