Trigent Insights newsletter - 7 Techniques for Successful Offshoring (Part 2)- Issue 04

This week, we're continuing our 5-part series on Techniques to make Software Offshoring a quick, painless and value-added proposition.

Technique 1: Ensure developers understand business requirements- The biggest gap observed by managers who have moved development to offshore teams is the lack of domain knowledge.

For example, a patient data entry system to be used in Europe may have needs that are very different from a system in the US, and the requirements of neither system are probably well understood by a developer in India.

How can product managers fill this gap?

During the induction phase of a project, dedicate time to train the team on the business domain. Follow this by an evaluation of the absorption level and repeat training, if needed.
Build clarity through requirements workshops.
Use collaborative mechanisms such as web conferencing and conduct interactive discussions with development teams.

The trend of writing up detailed requirements and simply 'shipping' them to the development team for implementation is a practice of the past.

A developer with a sound understanding of a requirement can come up with an effective implementation solution. And when hurdles or issues arise during implementation, the developer can provide alternative solutions to overcome them.

Technique 2: Get to an agreement on definition of "Code Quality"- At every stage of the product life cycle, ensuring code quality is crucial. High quality software needs less time to introduce new features and enhancements.

If code quality is neglected, there is a high possibility of code reaching the 'spaghetti' state, with architectural inconsistency littered across the application. Work with the offshore partner to define the parameters of 'quality code' and how to measure it.

So how do you reach an agreement on what "quality code" is?

Publish a living coding standards document.
Identify automated approaches to code reviews based on an agreed set of tools.
Define how code walkthroughs will be conducted and findings documented.

We'll be continuing this series next week with Technique 3: Develop automated build and regression test and Technique 4: Get the techies to travel. It's only a short wait away!

If you'd like to learn more about how we can help you with offshore software development, for either software products or service applications, please contact us at http://www.trigent.com.