6th Sense Analytics

Managing Success in Offshore Software Development

Contrary to conventional belief that complex processes should be kept onshore, software development is rapidly gaining favor as an outsource candidate. This according to a new study by Duke University and Booz Allen Hamilton. But as the pattern of offshoring moves from low- to high-end work, the challenges faced by management shifts from dealing with political and cultural issues to more operational issues like retaining managerial control and gaining operational efficiency. When high-end functions are sent offshore, they're put at significant risk. Offshoring introduces new physical, temporal, cultural, communication and organizational barriers that can wreak havok on software development. But properly conceived and executed metrics programs can help organizations reclaim the visibility and control they lose when projects exit their four walls. This is the thesis of a new whitepaper by 6th Sense, "Managing Success in Offshore Software Development: A Framework for Reclaiming Visibility and Control." This paper lends perspective on the challenges faced in offshore software development and provides a context for considering a metrics program as a risk management foundation for your offshore projects. Metrics matter whether you're an organization sending your projects offshore or an outsourcer seeking new ways to differentiate and win customer loyality. After all, you can't manage what you can't measure. And management matters more than ever when your high-end processes leave the building.

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Performance Metrics – Something to be Gamed? Part 1

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Performance Metrics: Something to be Gamed? Part 2