Mark Ehr in his weekly email newsletter column, "Network World on Outsourcing," shared a conversation he had with the VP of development for a software company that recently researched options for offhshoring development. This VP and his team looked into companies in India, Russia, Vietnam, Argentina and Uruguay. The research included visits to the countries.
As Mr. Ehr writes, "One of the key decision criteria for this company was that the outsourced development shop be able to support the Agile software development methodology."
Following each visit and analysis of the RFPs, the company scored each candidate on 10 criteria:
- Business profile (business model, stability, expertise).
- Customer base (history, type of companies, size of base).
- Management (maturity, sense of role, common theme, escalation).
- People (fit, escalation, training, cost/experience, language).
- Process (attention, quality, certifications, experience, and capacity to support agile development).
- Infrastructure (facilities, voice, data, and backup).
- Security (protection of intellectual property, procedures, ratings).
- Delivery (reporting, assignment, anticipated performance, hassle solving overhead).
- Operations (assurance of making deliveries, risk of shortfall).
- Chemistry (synchronization with management, working team, and environment).
To read the conclusions, visit this page on the Network World site. The column isn't posted yet, but it will be shortly. It's worth tracking down.
