Trigent Insights newsletter - 7 Techniques for Successful Offshoring (Part 3)- Issue 05

Last week we discussed the first 2 Techniques to make Software Offshoring a quick, painless and value-added proposition.This week, we're continuing our 5-part series with Techniques 3 & 4.

Technique 3: Develop automated build and regression tests- Product managers fear one thing every time a new release is made - "I hope my product is not moving backwards". And they dread the word regression.

Regression is a real threat. Fixing one issue can open others. Parallel development teams trigger regression issues that are unforeseen until integration testing is exhaustive.

Mature product teams address this by implementing build and regression test automation. You can go one step further - by measuring code coverage of these automated tests. Clinically measure code coverage for best results, and follow up with improving regression test suite and use code coverage as a metric.

Lastly ensure the build automation server is truly high end. A 60-minute build time on a low end server can reduce to 15 minutes on high end dual core machines. In summary-

Implement build automation
Dedicate high powered servers for build automation
Implement code coverage metrics
Invest in improving the regression test suite.

Technique 4: Get the techies to travel- Product development teams are inward focused. Their goal is to develop the product in the shortest possible timeframe, release it and move on to the next version. Teams often lose the understanding of the business environment and end user needs.

*Get the technical team to visit customer sites* This helps them gain far higher understanding of the environment in which the product needs to succeed.

Use these visits to build personal relationships and trust that will help the globally distributed team to work in tandem. Get the teams to meet at least once every quarter and slowly but surely teams start building mutual respect and confidence.

And lastly an undocumented tip - International travel does a lot for personal motivation and commitment, since it is often conceived as trust and importance placed on the employee.

We'll be continuing this series next week with Technique 5: Test continuously and Technique 6: Separate development and support teams. 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.