What is the right way to start an outsourcing relationship, if you were to outsource software development? Do you know? At Flatworld Solutions we have been providing expert software solutions over the last 14 years. Over the years, we have chartered out our own approach towards getting the outsourcing relationship onto the right start. How important is communication? Should a joint workshop be conducted before the onset of the project? Should there be an onsite team? Read on to find out more about how to start a successful outsourcing venture.
We strongly recommend commencing an outsourcing relationship with an onsite workshop. A small team of 2 or 3 team members can travel to your site and understand your requirements for a period of two/three weeks. Everything from the communication model, the initial roadmap and the joint development process can be discussed in detail. You can share all the details about the product/software project and also get acquainted with the team who will be working on the project.
After returning from the onsite workshop, the team can begin training the rest of the team in accordance to what was learned in the workshop. This way, there will be accurate knowledge transfer to the offshore team. A ramp-up project can then be started to help the team understand the project. In this phase, everything with regards to the project, such as the communication plan, the testing environment, the tools, the procedures and the joint repositories can be tested out. If deficiencies are discovered, appropriate revisions can be made.
Here is a typical workshop plan that you can use:
1. Familiarize the offshore team with the software project/ product
- Explain the architecture and code structure of your software product
- Share details about the existing texting infrastructure, such as the coverage, test plans, environment and framework
- Tell them about the current development infrastructure, like the formats, the coding standers, the repositories and the tools
- Give explicit details about the access and control capabilities, the used frameworks and the tools
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