How to offshore?

Tips and guide for software project outsourcing to offshore location by Ken Shah

[This article meant for companies or individuals looking for software product development offshore, Dynamically Changing scope requirements projects execution offshore, dedicated creative or other resource requirements for long term or on going projects and for companies who wish to associate with an offshore development partner long term.]

For quality outsourcing offshore I recommend following things. Please note this is with a view to big projects or long term relation.

1. Prepare a detailed requirement study of your project and prepare document including business logic behind it.
2. If you are technical, make document of all requirements technically i.e. a kind of self system requirement study.
3. If you are not a technical person, hire someone onsite to do the system requirement study and to prepare document for you.
4. Once all requirements and everything are clear at your end, start the hunt for offshore development country, then company.
5. For company selection, search Google for your required expertise area company like, if you need portal development application or any complex product development company I prefer to use “Portal Development India” as keyword.
6. Once you think the result displayed via your search terms digs many companies site, you then proceed to review websites of various companies by referring portfolio, services and company profile section of companies.
7. Few of my recommended criteria for short listing companies, how long they are in to business, what is their strength, searching for company name for bad reviews ask for client testimonials and their contact to get feedback in your country our area etc
8. Once you short list few companies, prepare a general enquiry regarding your requirements and make sure to submit those enquiries via the company’s website’s feedback form.
9. In your general query you should ask to know more about company, whether they have done any similar project in your project area, what are their pricing and project execution strategies etc
10. DO NOT DISCLOSE your project documents until you are satisfied with the company and you further shortlist them. I recommend signing of Non Disclosure Agreement before disclosing by both of you i.e. final short listed companies (about 5) sign them. Make sure to mention jurisdiction which can bound both of you as in many countries having cross border agreement doesn’t work. Like for India you may write jurisdiction and laws applicable of Common Wealth Nations where India is a member country along with few developed nations.
11. During your further communication you should now able to pick two good companies or chances are you may choose a single company.
12. Prepare a complete statement of work in tandem with both companies or selected one company. Once all finalized make schedules, financials etc clear.
13. NOW prepare a draft of Agreement from your Lawyer or financial consultant. Send that to company for their views on each clauses. Update/amend on mutually agreed clauses.
14. After finalization of draft of agreement, I recommend you flew to company’s native office in their country. I recommend you to plan at least two days with the company or each company if you have two choices still open. During your first day spend half day with their management/representative team and half day understanding and learning their infrastructure and facilities. The next day you spend with your proposed team for about an hour and if you feel alright, sign the agreement on this day.
15. Now the chances are you have received the best team possible for your requirement and you can be assured of successful project delivery with great quality.
16. It is recommended that in Agreement you decide the communication method and appoint one point contact from both sides for technical detail exchange during production.

Please note my all above views/steps are indicative only and it may change as per your requirement and you may use this as guide but may use your own method of determining best company. However before concluding I would like to caution, NOT TO GIVE WORK TO AN INDIVIDUAL or SMALL GROUP if you think the project is long term duration and which requires full commitment from both side.

For those looking for small project offshore development work or outsourcing of very small work, please consider few b2b sites available in to market, including elance.com