More and more organizations opt for outsourcing and offshoring of software development to reduce their costs. Nothing wrong about the idea but there is no 100 per cent guarantee of the result.
After having listened to all those sales talks and having considered the offshore costs, some decision makers come to conclusion that they could hire five offshore software developers at the cost of one in-house. And as a result lower costs, better implementation and faster time to market.
However, you should watch out for several costly and time-consuming obstacles to be overcome on the way to the desired gain:- Ramp-up time or knowledge base transfer period – sometimes it takes very long to get the newbie familiar with details of a system or a project.
- Offshore outsourcing overhead and remote team management – outsourcing often requires a different type of management or coordination as compared to the one you practice in-house.
- Remoteness – the factor that teams don't work face to face also generates some overhead.
- Different time zones – different time zones can add on a set of restrictions to a working environment. Time for cooperation is often insignificant and often solving of simple problems requires some days to complete.
- Traveling expenses – trips to your offshore partner can be either expensive, and troublesome and time consuming.
- Operation processes changes management – Its not a trivial matter to streamline the processes of two different companies.
- Avoiding cultural biases – The problem of cultural bias is central not only to outsourcing activity but also to social and human sciences and requires time for cultural adaptation.
