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Offshore project management
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Offshore Project Management |
| Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources
to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.
Outsourcing
and
Offshoring
have been the biggest trends of the last decade in IT. As more and more companies take
advantage of the overwhelming benefits of reduced costs and increased flexibility, the trend
toward
offshore work
is likely to continue. Companies have been evolving and refining their project management
processes for
software development
for many years. Businesses that would like to outsource their
software development
and IT requirements are faced with a number of concerns. Their biggest concerns
are the risks involved with respect to
software quality,
on-time delivery and
return on investment. |
| Fairly large projects have a
dedicated project
manager
who interacts with the
offshore development team
and acts as a virtual bridge between the business and the
software developers.
We follow some simple tips mentioned below and manage your project quite successfully. |
| Define the goal every week: The complete lifecycle of the
software development process
can be divided into smaller goals which can then be communicated to the
offshore team
via email or by phone. It is a good idea to have a call with the entire team on Monday morning
and run through the list of weekly goals that need to be achieved and then call again at the
end of the week to evaluate if they have been achieved or not and what type of roadblocks were
faced by them. |
| Manage the time difference: Time difference is one of the factors in
offshore software development
projects which can become a pro or a con depending on how it is managed. It is imperative that
a "common" time zone is mutually agreed on by you and the offshore vendor. This time should be
used for communication and ironing out issues faced by the
development team.
Though it might take some time to get used to getting in to office at 7 AM, it pays good
dividends in the long run. |
| If there are issues, alert everyone in time: It is advisable that you keep a look out
for early warning signals and warn the team up front rather than wait for things to correct
themselves. Ninety percent of the time, the issue is not self-correcting but goes on to become a
real pain to the entire team before additional effort is exerted to get it on track. |
| If someone in the offshore team is doing well, comment on it: Encouragement and
motivation are required even when you have hired a team with an offshore service provider.
Motivating
offshore team members
with an encouraging email along with occasional gifts sent to them on regional festivals creates
camaraderie as well as doing wonders for the project. At the end of the day remember that
developers
are human beings and they do need an occasional pat on the back. |
Although a number of
onsite project managers
feel that
project management tools
are advantageous to the flow of a project, the core driver in a successful project will
always be good project and human resource management skills. The following project management
practices for offshore projects are designed to minimize these risks and alleviate our clients'
concerns:
- Confidentiality Agreement
- Development Coordinators
- Technical Coordinators
- Development Team
- Administrative Assistant
- Deliverables
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| Require more information about how our Offshore Project Management practices and Offshore
Development Team would help your Business? Fill the
Free Project
Evaluation Form,
to reach us. |
