Business knowledge requirements and onsite offshore work division in Indian software outsourcing projects

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to find out the knowledge requirements and its effect on both onsite and offshore project work division for development, re-engineering and maintenance projects in Indian outsourcing software industry in different phases of software development. Design/methodology/approach – This study employs an expert interview approach in Indian software industry to find out knowledge requirement for project execution and division of work between onsite and offshore locations. The requisite data were collected through expert interviews and direct observations. Findings – The study found that the development projects require higher level of domain, strategic, business process and operation process knowledge in comparison to re-engineering and maintenance projects. So there is a need of higher onsite presence in development projects. The maintenance work is taken up at the offshore location in a phase-wise manner. Research limitations/implications – The implication of the study is in the development of a broad framework of knowledge requirements and work division in on-shore and offshore locations for Indian software outsourcing projects. As the study is based on expert opinion in the context of India, it cannot be generalized for outsourcing scenarios elsewhere. Practical implications – The software project manager can use the findings to get more insight into the project and divide the software team between onsite and offshore location. Originality/value – The study is novel, as there is little attempt at finding the knowledge requirement to execute various kinds of business software development in outsourcing environment in the context of India.

Knowledge management, sharing and transfer in cross-national teams and the remote management of team members: the onsite-offshore phenomenon of service EMNEs

“…The last two decades have seen an increased emphasis on technology and digital transformation. The bricks-and-mortar business presence model is being replaced with digital presence and digital payment options that allow businesses to operate 24/7 and offer their products beyond their domestic market (Mishra & Mahanty, 2015). The rapid pace at which this growth is occurring has left many firms unable to develop these technological skills within their organization organically, and they outsource these activities to specialist IT firms.…”

Opinion Analysis of Software Developers Working Onsite on Public Sector Software Projects: An Exploratory Study

“…Onsite outsourcing has been mostly researched and discussed in connection and as a delivery model of offshore outsourcing and global software development. The common research topics in this area with respect to onsite employees and teams are mostly focusing on knowledge sharing and codification [10][11][12][13][14][15], work design [16,17], project cost, project schedule, project cost [18,19] and cultural differences [20]. Betz, Oberweis and Stephan [10] discuss the best practices of knowledge transfer in offshore outsourcing and globally distributed projects, by considering both onsite and offshore project teams.…”

“…They argue that knowledge sharing and transfer among offshore and onsite development teams is an important issue and propose a model to address this. Mishra and Mahanty [14] try to identify the knowledge requirements and the effect of knowledge on both onsite and offshore project work division in the outsourcing software industry, concluding that there is a need of higher onsite presence in development projects. Vlaar, van Fenema, and Tiwari [15] investigate how knowledge and experience asymmetries between onsite and offshore team members force them to engage in different acts of sensegiving, sensedemanding, and sensebreaking, concluding that these acts allow them to jointly explore and generate value.…”

“…The demographic details of study participants are given in Table I. It has been observed that analogous number of participants have taken part in similar exploratory studies when semistructured interviews are employed: Betz, Oberweis, and Stephan [10] explore the problems and best practices of knowledge transfer in offshore outsourcing by conducting semi-structured interviews with 13 experts, whereas Mishra and Mahanty [14] by conducting semi-structured interviews with 14 experts try to identify the knowledge requirements and the effect of knowledge on both onsite and offshore project work division. Winkler, Dibbern, and Heinzl [20] have conducted interviews with a total of nine project managers to explore the nature of cultural differences in offshore outsourcing and to analyze the relationship between those cultural differences and offshore outsourcing success, with respect to onsite-offshore employment model.…”

A study of business knowledge requirements for software projects

“…Mishra and Mahanty (2015) suggested, on the basis of the literature survey, a knowledge-based framework of software development. Their findings were verified by the opinions of experts from India, who are involved in serving global clients in different capacities through multinational organizations.…”