So close and yet so far - how to achieve good cooperation in offshoring

[suchona.kani.z]

It sounds so simple: you recruit a team of employees through an offshore partner in India. You get the same performance for a fraction of the cost of an in-house project. But why does this ideal often not work? We want to shed light on this here by looking at some of the key challenges.

What is meant by offshoring? The Gabler Business Dictionary defines offshoring as the relocation of business activities abroad. Nearshoring (see also adesso Smartshore ) and farshoring are conceptually divided into outsourcing abroad, either geographically close or far away. The term outsourcing itself refers to organizational outsourcing and less to geographical aspects.

So what makes the whole thing so challenging?

Companies that outsource projects to offshore partners must be prepared for cultural differences and have realistic expectations regarding budgets and time horizons. They face numerous hurdles and challenges that can uruguay consumer email list​ cause the offshore project to fail right from the start. We want to address these challenges and deal with them honestly below.

Challenge 1: Quality requirements do not meet expectations
You hear horror stories about exploding costs and offshore partners who apparently do not deliver the same quality work results that you are used to from in-house projects. But why is that?

Employees at offshore partners usually have a comparable skill set in terms of training and certifications. When it comes to specific technical topics, however, it cannot generally be assumed that processes and technical business abroad are identical to the domestic situation; in some cases, there are even no comparable circumstances.

Solution:
The level of detail of the project-relevant documentation should be more extensive than in an in-house project, in order to leave less room for interpretation and thus possible errors. Specifications should be discussed with the offshore partners and open questions clarified in advance. Presentations, training courses and workshops can be helpful in conveying the necessary domain knowledge. Only when the offshore partner has understood what is required does it have a "fair" chance of meeting expectations.

Challenge 2: There is no transparency
In the classic software development model, projects are handed over and a finished result is expected - but unfortunately this is not always productive. Until the deadline, there is no clarity about what is happening with the offshore partner. This is where internal project management is required.