Exploring Failures at the Team Level in Offshore-Outsourced Software Development Projects

Abstract

Offshore-outsourced software development (OOSD) projects involvemultifaceted risks throughout the project execution, as they are handed over tothird-party organizations and thus are exposed to more risks than in domesticoutsourcing or captive offshoring. We concentrate on failed OOSD projects inthis paper and analyze the unique aspects of such projects at the team level thatlead to failures. Using the grounded theory approach, we conducted semistructuredinterviews with 19 project managers involved in OOSD projectfailures from the vendor and client sides, who are based in India or Switzerland.We developed a set of propositions regarding multiple teams in the OOSDproject context to explain failures. Integration of inter-organizational offshoreand onshore teams from the vendor and client sides was found to beindispensable in avoiding project failures. Six categories of unique aspects thatlead to OOSD project failures were identified and discussed in this exploratorywork. Abstract. Offshore-outsourced software development (OOSD) projects involve multifaceted risks throughout the project execution, as they are handed over to third-party organizations and thus are exposed to more risks than in domestic outsourcing or captive offshoring. We concentrate on failed OOSD projects in this paper and analyze the unique aspects of such projects at the team level that lead to failures. Using the grounded theory approach, we conducted semistructured interviews with 19 project managers involved in OOSD project failures from the vendor and client sides, who are based in India or Switzerland. We developed a set of propositions regarding multiple teams in the OOSD project context to explain failures. Integration of inter-organizational offshore and onshore teams from the vendor and client sides was found to be indispensable in avoiding project failures. Six categories of unique aspects that lead to OOSD project failures were identified and discussed in this exploratory work.

The Cross-Cultural Knowledge Sharing Challenge: An Investigation of the Co-location Strategy in Software Development Offshoring

“…Yet the achievement of a CoP may be critical to the success of software development offshoring. This is supported by Philip et al (2012) claiming that in order to avoid project failures, the onshore and offshore teams from the vendor and client sides should work as an integrated project team. The CoP framework (1998) provide a sophisticated theoretical explanation of working as such an integrated project team, without being a team in the traditional sense (Powell et al, 2004).…”

“…While, the suggested best practices in face-to-face meetings, temporal co-location, and exchange visits can give rise to benefits in trust, cohesiveness, and effective teamwork it is constrained by the extra costs (Šmite et al, 2010). In general, it has been argued that in order to avoid project failures that the onshore and offshore teams from the vendor and client sides should work as an integrated project team (Philip et al, 2012).…”