The second dimension is the degree of customer contact needed. This was defined .... Offshore software projects often require worldwide distributed teams, either ..... completely voluntary. You are free to answer, or not answer, any question.
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Investigating Decision Making in IT Outsourcing Rosine Hanna, Tugrul Daim Dept of Engineering and Technology Management, Portland State University, OR - USA Abstract--This paper describes a proposed methodology for research to provide an in-depth investigation on a conceptual model that helps realize the complexities of offshore outsourcing IT Knowledge and service work. This paper builds on a preliminary study that was executed by the authors. The model recognizes the essential challenges that such strategies entail. The model presents a sequential view of building organizational capability in offshore outsourcing in the IT service sector. In the preliminary study, authors examined offshore sourcing decisions at 3 IT start-ups organizations through interviews with senior business executives. A set of frameworks were developed to explain sourcing alternatives and assist managers in deciding which IT service processes to offshore outsource and which are to keep in-house. The proposed methodology will focus on big number of large and medium companies located in the Northwest of USA such as Oregon and California.
I. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROBLEM In the previous years, many companies used offshore sourcing strategy hoping to reduce costs, become more efficient, and achieve a little strategic advantage. However, contrary to popular perception, many companies had, at best, diverse results. 50% of the off-shoring contracts North America companies signed between 2001 and 2004 would fail to meet goals, according the predictions of both Gartner and Boston Consulting Group [1]. Moreover, half of the organizations that shifted processes offshore failed to generate the financial benefits they expected [2-4]. Although offshore labor costs as much as 90% lower than U.S. averages [5], some companies have found that the overall costs of the off-shored processes have surpassed prior inhouse costs [6, 7]. Language, cultural and time zone differences are clear problems that obscure offshore business processes management. But more subtle challenges also exist. If the off-shored business processes cannot be particularly defined and communicated, several time-consuming process change iterations may be needed to realize the necessary service quality level. This can be a problem for firms operating in dynamic service environments [2]. Businesses don’t make decisions about off-shoring with enough sophistication. Without a well established methodology for differentiating processes, most executives find it hard to differentiate between core processes that they must control, critical processes that they may acquire from best-in-class vendors, and service processes that they can outsource. II. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Successful outsourcing entails acknowledged processes to help resolve: 1) what projects to outsource and why, 2) how to locate the contractor that meets best with future plans, 3)
how to establish relationships and write contracts, perform the transition plan and assess results and take corrective actions as needed [8]. The focus of my research is to present an empirically validated outsourcing process model to answer the first question of “what processes” to outsource. The fast growth and frequency of offshore work has not been coordinated by theory-based insights that help us understand the nuances of the phenomenon. Therefore, we attempt to present and investigate a conceptual model of managing distributed creation and delivery of services through service and knowledge in offshoring processes. The model offer a straightforward yet powerful way to conceptualize off-shoring knowledge and service work and to recognize essential challenges that such strategies involve. The model parallels well established work in manufacturing literature to present a sequential view of building organizational competence in off-shoring.
Backside-Office Frontage -Office High
Knowledge enclosed in the service process
Core Solutions services
Core Solutions Services
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Frontage-Office
Operation Transaction Services
Operational Transaction Services
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Low Contact
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Degree of Customer contact needed in the service development process
Figure 1: Knowledge enclosures and service contact
The first dimension is the knowledge enclosed in the service process. The knowledge in part is tacit. Knowledge enclosed can be defined as the factor of learning that cannot be understood in repeatable routines that can be codified and transferred, and part explicit, learning that is easily transferable and understood. Thus knowledge enclosed provides a simple transaction process such as very basic coding at one end and more complex transaction process such as complicated new product development at the other end. The second dimension is the degree of customer contact needed. This was defined by Chase as the level of customer contact vital in creation of the service [9-11], which will influence the level to which service providers need to be worried about language and culture [12].
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PICMET 2009 Proceedings, August 2-6, Portland, Oregon USA © 2009 PICMET III. RESEARCH QUESTIONS • Which IT service processes offer the highest potential for offshore outsourcing and efficiency improvements? • Which IT service processes have higher chances to cost savings? • Which IT service processes include high risk of knowledge transfer? • What are the best practices to manage off-shored frontage office services that require significant levels of customer contact and involve high levels of knowledge enclosed?
Degree of Customer Contact Low Contact
Medium
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IT Strategy Maintenance of risk analysis engine Database management for: Claims administration
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New Product Development System Design Telesales Interactive Support Product Support Help Desk Order Processing Customization Bus. Process Integration
Frontage Office IT Support Help Desk Packaged software IT Sales calls Scripted Calls IT support call centers Scripted calls Automated Support Subscription renewals Application Maint. Code to specification Y2K Conversion Degree of Customer Contact
Low
Efficiency Improvement
Frontage Office Expected Cost Savings
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Corresponding hypothesis • Backside office processes that require low customer contact and have less knowledge enclosed offer the highest potential for offshore outsourcing and efficiency improvements • Backside office processes that require low customer contact and have less knowledge enclosed have higher chances to cost savings • Frontage office processes that require high customer contact and have high knowledge enclosed have high risk of knowledge transfer and low cost savings • Frontage office processes that require significant levels of customer contact and involve high levels of knowledge enclosed will require greater levels of commitment to knowledge transfer and hands on management from the home office than other processes.
High
Figure 2: Off-shoring service system design matrix
IV. PRELIMINARY RESEARCH A preliminary research was done to investigate the proposed model, we used a case study approach as the foundation of our overall research strategy because a case study is a potent and flexible technique considered appropriate for investigative research both prospectively and
retrospectively [13]. Yin defines the case study as “empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context, especially when the boundaries between the phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” [14, 15]. Our preliminary research examined three cases following Yin’s strategy for the design and implementation of several case studies [16].
TABLE 1: CHARACTERISTICS OF THE THREE SOFTWARE COMPANIES INTERVIEWED Company A B C Outsourced to Indian Indian Russia Type Offshore outsourcing Offshore outsourcing Offshore outsourcing No of employees 50-70 70-100 35 - 50 Managers interviewed General Mgr General Mgr Project Mgr, Technical Mgr, And Technical Mgr Tech. Mgr Product Mgr Product Mgr
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Preliminary Case Study Findings: Although the case studies represent a limited sample, our preliminary research showed distinct and recurring patterns of critical factors that can influence offshore sourcing relationships. There were numerous findings that could represent guideline for companies that are trying to decide on outsourcing plans. When managers where asked of how they identifies success or failure, they identified two types of projects: 1) Fixed-projects (fixed time, clear requirements, fixed cost) these projects were identified by the managers as low level of knowledge enclosed and requiring low level of contact with customers since its requirement are identified and fixed and time for project and cost are already identified and no changes are expected to exist. 2) Build-as-you-go are projects that requirements are not clear and not identified and each step has to be cleared out and accepted by customer and this kind of projects usually enclose tacit knowledge and need continuous contact with the customer and engineers. Such projects are typically labor intensive and critically dependent on frequent, intense client-service provider interaction in which the service provider persistently strives to understand clients’ business processes. “Build as you go” have high risk to fail, while “Fixed Projects” have high chances to succeed. This response verified our hypothesis as “Build as you go” projects were the worst candidates for outsourcing because there was lack of clarity and higher level of management and communication was required to constantly guide the project. On the other hand “Fixed projects” were the best candidates due to clear identification of requirement ahead of time. For the highly knowledge enclosed projects that need high customer contact, managing and transferring the explicit and tacit knowledge is a challenge. This IT service process is less likely to be offshore outsourced because it requires micro managing for the project to succeed. One approach to dealing with the high level of knowledge enclosed projects is to maintain hand-on control through using out-tasking instead of complete business process outsourcing as a type of control. This minimizes the savings and represents a hybrid between marked and hierarchy. This type used by Company A which was out-tasking specific activities where the person worked with internal employees almost like an employee of the outsourcing firm. When the project is big in size and needs high level of implicit knowledge and high level of customer contact Company B and Company C managers used the outtasking processes approach, but sustained overall management and knowledge of the work. Thus, the organizations procuring higher ratio of dependent labor has the supplier implement most of the work under the supervision of organizations’ employees. This permits the organization to have control of the processes and frequent inspection, thus protecting the tacit knowledge. Managers stated that the design of core new technology would be best appropriate for in-house control. While for
programming of application software, the organization would like to safeguard some control and knowledge so it is not dependent on supplier. Out-tasking and partitioning knowledge might be good options because the firm controls management of the process and some of the knowledge, while permitting the supplier to execute much of the actual code development. Because the organization is involved in the day-to-day activity, it can also monitor and assess progress closely. Managers agreed that front office service solutions require high levels of customer contact and entail high level of knowledge enclosed will need larger levels of hands-on management from home office than other processes. Whilst back-office processes that need limited or no customer contact but usually involve high level of knowledge of process itself, still require the continuous attentiveness of manager who needs to manage them. The requirement for control usually is connected to the fact that these processes entail some proprietary knowledge. However, some of the back-office enclosed knowledge can be divided into group of routines such as database management. These back-office processes can be learned by offshore outsourcing supplier and opens the door for possible cost savings. V. RESEARCH PROPOSED METHODOLOGY APPROACH IT Software associated tasks are greatly interdependent by their nature [17]. Systems development, basic support activities, and the provision of software services are all knowledge intensive tasks, described by sequential and reciprocal interdependence between individual team members [18, 19]. Offshore software projects often require worldwide distributed teams, either local service providers, which provide services from local operations in diverse developing regions [20, 21], or international offshore suppliers, which are major players in offshore application development based mainly in developing countries (contractor) [22]. Such projects are classically labor intensive and seriously dependent on repeated, intense client-service provider interaction in which the service provider persistently strives to understand clients’ business processes [23]. Managers that don’t cautiously choose which IT service activities to off-shore may be the cause the failure of IT services off-shore outsourcing projects resulting in more costs and less benefits [24, 25]. For this purpose we intend to conduct a qualitative methodology using case studies. Case study is a potent and flexible technique and considered appropriate for investigative research both prospectively and retrospectively [13]. Yin defines the case study as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context, especially when the boundaries between the phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” [14, 15].
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PICMET 2009 Proceedings, August 2-6, Portland, Oregon USA © 2009 PICMET The case study method is a frequent mode of research employed extensively in social science research and practice oriented fields such as management science [26]. As Yin articulates “it allows an investigation to retain the holistic and meaningful characteristics of real-life event, such as … managerial processes” [27]. Our focus will be on Northwest IT companies listed in the Fortune Global 500 for IAOP Global Outsourcing Leaders of 2008 [28]. The focus will be on large and medium companies located in the Northwest of USA such as Oregon and California for the following reasons: 1- US-based firms held the top spots on the list of IAOP Global Outsourcing leaders in the list. 2- Forty-four percent of the leaders are based overseas and mostly are based in India and Asian Countries. Extant Theory
Survey Questionnaire
Analysis
Interview Questions
Analysis
NO
Theoretical Satiation?
YES
NEW Theory
Figure 3: Research Design
A multiple case study design is suitable because the authors want to focus on more than one project that include a spectrum of companies and projects. The focus in our research is to understand why and how decision makers decide on outsourcing activities and why and how it affects the problems of outsourcing, who is involved in the decision making process and how the decision is implemented. Therefore, to develop an in-depth understanding of software outsourcing decisions, the past experiences are needed to understand the context of the outsourcing decision [29]. The case study offers a means of investigating complex social units consisting of multiple variables of potential importance in understanding the phenomenon [30]. A multiple case study approach seems the most appropriate because it is impossible to tightly control for research variables or for interactions between them [31]. Case study is a powerful and flexible technique considered for exploratory research both prospectively ad retrospectively [32]. Yin defines the case study as “an empirical inquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context, especially when the boundaries between the phenomenon and
context are not clearly evident” [33, 34]. Our plan is to choose cases based on “theoretical sampling” in which a number of cases represent polar extremes to compare different aspects of the company’s decisions [35-37]. Proposed Questionnaire Context for qualitative methodology is provided at appendix A. Interview methods are more appropriate because the interview provides maximum opportunity to complete and accurate communication of ideas between the researcher and the respondent. The interview is especially effective method for understanding the perception of participants or learning how participants come to attach certain meanings to phenomena or event. Since our research is directed at a very specific group and is aimed at getting answers to specific questions, interviewing seems to be the most appropriate method of collecting information. In case of surveys, it is harder to establish whether they really reflect the target population, in case if they are mailed out [34]. Furthermore, survey responses may not always be complete and the person conducting the survey is not able to observe the attitudes, opinions and experiences of the respondent. Observation, on the other hand will only give us a perception of the activity taking place without understanding the context and behavior in the group’s own words. Interviewing gives the interviewer a bit of leverage in obtaining answers through probing questions or wording questions in a way that would encourage accurate responses. Such an approach would not be possible through observation and surveys. Face to face interviews will also allow the interviewer to study social interpretations; i.e. what the subjects say as well as how they say it [34]. Semi-structured interview: Each interview will follow the same protocol. 1) Briefly explain the goal of the research. Each participant will be assured the confidentiality of their identities and their company’s identities would remain anonymous. 2) Researcher starts asking semi-structured questions. The participants will be asked to tell their outsourcing story and experience. This way the participants will have the freedom to convey their interpretations. Then participants will be asked the semi-structured questions which is designed to gather information on specific outsourcing issues which was not covered in their stories such as scope of the outsourcing decision, on what basis the projects are chosen to be outsourced, sponsors of the decision, subcontractor selection process, outsourcing problems, outsourcing activities management processes, evaluation process. 3) The plan is to use the question to asses the outcome in terms of “yes” or “no” – if they have a specific structure in selecting outsourced projects – when participants express their view point, they will be prompted to provide specific supporting details [30, 33, 34, 38]. Collect data through face-to-face semi-structured interviews with middle and senior management staff across period of time. First interviews would typically be between 40 and 75 minutes in length, whereas follow-up interviews would be 20-40 minutes if needed. Each interview would be
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PICMET 2009 Proceedings, August 2-6, Portland, Oregon USA © 2009 PICMET recorded and transcribed. In addition, collect published sources on the selected companies and the industry (the software industry in this case), including annual reports, organizational charts, budgets, requests for proposals, bid analysis documents, internal memos, press releases, and contracts. During collecting information, my research will be focused on understanding the context in which sourcing decisions were made and how it was executed, the chronology of events held to be important by interviewee, differing and regular interpretations of these events, complexities and issues [38-40]. Data analysis would follow four steps for interpreting transcribed interviews [39, 41]: 1. Researcher(s) explain the facts of the phenomenon, with facts here understood as socially agreed realities; agreed, that is, among all the interviewee (though checkable against other sources also). 2. Researcher(s) determine how interviewees assign meaning to reality by how interviewees recognize cause and effect. 3. Researcher(s) recognize themes across the interviews – 4. The large body of qualitative data needs to be interpreted in a concise and meaningful way to clearly communicate the findings: coding the text data along meaningful data “categories,” and cross tabulating these categories against an indicator of success based on “expected results” [42, 43]. However, the final interpretations of the study provide researcher’s views as to how the accumulated evidence can be interpreted, and whether specific patterns, themes and interpretations emerge from the rich data. As Lincoln & Cuba [44] and Craig Smith [45] specify that the validity and effectiveness of interpretive analysis defies quantification.
[4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
[9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
[14] [15] [16] [17] [18]
VI. CONTRIBUTION TO THE BODY OF KNOWLEDGE The fundamental nature of the processes considered for off-shoring, namely the level of customer contact it requires and the extent to which it entails enclosed knowledge components, essentially drives critical cascading choices that follow. Conceptually, the two dimensional analysis of knowledge enclosed and customer contact can be used to classify offshore process to understand the unique opportunities and challenges faced by offshore service operation. This research is expected to offer a conceptualized model within which the phenomenon and challenges of IT service off-shoring could be understood.
[2] [3]
[20] [21] [22] [23] [24] [25]
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[19]
R. Aron and J. V. Singh, "Getting offshoring right," Harvard Business Review, vol. 83, pp. 135-143, 2005. E. Ferguson, "Impact of offshore outsourcing on CS/IS curricula," Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, vol. 19 pp. 68 - 77 2004. M. C. Lacity and L. P. Willcocks, "An empirical investigation technology sourcing practices: Lessons from experience," MIS Quarterly, vol. 22, pp. 363-408, 1998.
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M. C. Lacity, L. P. Willcocks, and D. F. Feeny, "The value of selective IT sourcing," Sloan Management Review, vol. 37, pp. 13-25, Spring96 1996. C. A. Garner and T. Schwartz, "Offshoring in the service sector: Economic impact and policy issues," Economic Review (01612387), vol. 89, pp. 5-37, 2004 3rd Quarter 2004. R. B. Ferguson, "Bringing it home again: Hidden offshoring costs frustrate IT," in e-Week. vol. 21, 2004, p. 9. A. Golder, "Companies unhappy with results in 50% of IT deals," Supply Management, vol. 9, pp. 10-10, 2004. J. R. Carter and T. Yan, "The procurement function’s role in strategic outsourcing from a process perspective , 1, (1-2) , pp.210-226.," International Journal Procurement Management, vol. 1, pp. 210-226, 2007. R. B. Chase, "Where does the customer fit in a service operation?," Harvard Business Review, vol. 56 pp. 137-142, 1978. R. B. Chase, "The customer contact approach to services: Theoretical bases and practical extensions," Operations Research, vol. 29, pp. 698706, 1981. R. B. Chase and D. A. Tansik, "The customer contact model for organization design," Management Science, vol. 29, pp. 1037-1050, 1983. W. Youngdahl and K. Ramaswamy, "Offshoring knowledge and service work," Journal of Operations Management, vol. 26, pp. 212221, 2008. D. E. Perry, S. E. Sim, and S. M. Easterbrook, "Case studies for software engineers," in International Conference on Software Engineering, Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Software Engineering 2004, pp. 736 - 738. R. K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods, Third Edition ed. vol. 5. Beverly Hills, CA, : Sage Publications Inc. , 2002a. R. K. Yin, Applications of Case Study Research (Applied Social Research Methods) Second Edition ed. vol. 34. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications Inc., 2002b. B. G. Glaser and A. L. Strauss, "Discovery of substantive theory: A basic strategy underlying qualitative research," American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 8, p. 5, 1965. C. Cramton, "Relationships among geographic dispersion, team processes, and effectiveness in software development work teams," Journal of Business Research, vol. 58, pp. 758-765, 2005. D. Robey, "Traditional, iterative, and component-based development: a social analysis of software development paradigms," Information Technology and Management vol. 2, pp. 53-70, 2001. D. Harter, "Quality improvement and infrastructure activity costs in software development: a longitudinal analysis," Management Science, vol. 49, pp. 784-800, 2003. B. Cladwell, "Market focus: Offshore infrastructure outsourcing," in Research Report Gartner, 2004. R. Mirani, "Procedural coordination and offshored software tasks: Lessons from two case studies," Information and Management vol. 44, pp. 216-230, 2007. E. Carmel and E. Beulen, Governance in Offshore Outsourcing Relationships. Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press, 2005. E. Beulen, P. V. Fenema, and W. Currie, "From application outsourcing to infrastructure management," European Management Journal, vol. 23, pp. 133-144, 2005. J. Barthelemy, "The hidden costs of IT outsourcing," MIT Sloan Management Review, vol. 42, pp. 60-70, 2001. M. J. Leiblein, J. J. Reuer, and F. Dalsace, "Do make or buy decisions matter? The influence of organizational governance on technological performance," Strategic Management Journal, vol. 23, pp. 817-833, 2002. K. M. Eisenhardt, "Building theories from Case Study Research," Academy of management review, vol. 14, pp. 532-550, 1989. R. Yin, Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994. S. I. Fortune 500, "The 2008 100 Global Outsourcing," Fortune 500, vol. 157, pp. S12-S15, May 5, 2008. R. VanWynsberghe and S. Khan, "Redefining case study," International Journal of Qualitative Methods, vol. 6, pp. 1-10, 2007.
PICMET 2009 Proceedings, August 2-6, Portland, Oregon USA © 2009 PICMET [30] S. B. Merriam, Case Study Research in Education: A Qualitative Approach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1988. [31] R. K. Yin, Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1984. [32] D. E. Perry, S. E. Sim, and S. M. Easterbrook, "Case studies for software engineers," in Software Engineering, ICSE Proceedings, 26th International Conference on, 2004, pp. 736-738. [33] R. Yin, Case Study Research. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications Inc., 2002. [34] R. Yin, Application of Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications Inc., 2009. [35] L. Applegate, "Managing in an Information Age: Transforming the organization for the 1990s," in Proceedings of the IFIP WG8.2 Working Conference on Information Technology and New Emergent Forms of Organizations: Transforming Organizations with Information Technology: North-Holland Publishing Co., 1994. [36] A. M. Pettigrew, The Management of Strategic Change. Oxford, OX, UK: B. Blackwell, 1987. [37] B. G. Glaser and A. L. Strauss, "Discovery of substantive theory: A basic strategy underlying qualitative research," American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 8, pp. 5-12, February 1965.
[38] H. Anderson and T. Black, Multivariate Data Analysis, 5 ed. Upper Sadle River, NJ.: Prentice Hall, 1998. [39] P. Sanders, "Phenomenology: A new way of viewing organizational research," Academy of Management Review, vol. 7, pp. 353-360, 1982. [40] L. P. Willcocks and T. Kern, "IT outsourcing as strategic partnering: the case of the UK Inland Revenue," European Journal of Information Systems, vol. 7, pp. 29-45, 1998. [41] J. Lofland and L. Lofland, Analyzing Social Settings: A guide to qualitative observation and analysis, 3 ed. Belmond, CA.: Wadsworth Publishing, 1994. [42] A. Coffey and P. Atkinson, Making Sense of Qualitative Data: Complementary Research Strategies. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 1996. [43] M. C. Lacity and M. A. Janson, "Understanding qualitative data: A framework of text analysis methods," Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 11, pp. 137-155, Fall 1994. [44] Y. S. Lincoln and E. G. Guba, Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1985. [45] N. C. Smith, "The case study: A useful research method for information management," Journal of Information Technology (Routledge, Ltd.), vol. 5, p. 123, 1990.
APPENDIX A Proposed Questionnaire Hello, my name is Rosine Hanna, I am working on a project with Portland State University, Engineering and Technology Department at the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science. We are collecting data on how software companies arrange their outsourcing activities in a corporate manner and how it affects the various problems of outsourcing. Your company was chosen from (Fortune 500 list) and your name was referred to me by (my adviser, another source) would it be possible to set up a time to speak with you about how [your organization, your department] manage outsourcing activities? The interview consists of a set of open-ended questions and should take anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour. This research has been reviewed and approved by the Department of Engineering and Technology Management at PSU. Your participation is completely voluntary. You are free to answer, or not answer, any question. You can stop the interview at any point. Just let me know. Whatever you tell me will be kept strictly confidential and will not record your name on tape. With your permission, I would like to record our conversation to help insure that I accurately capture the information you share with me. I will use it to review my notes will then erase it. Background Here is the first question for background 1. Your name is __________________, correct? 2. Would like to keep it anonymous? 3. What is your exact title? 4. How long have you worked with your organization? 5. How long have you worked in this field? 6. Please briefly describe your roles and responsibilities at your organization? 7. Tell me a little about the organization your work for • Prompt for function, size (e.g. number of employees), regional distribution (e.g. one location or more?, in one area or more? About the department and outsourcing 8. Does your department outsource projects? 9. What type of outsourcing mechanisms do you follow in selecting outsourcing projects? 10. How did you choose the projects to be outsourced? On what criteria? 11. Do you follow the same structure every time you select outsourced projects? 12. What type of contracts? And the duration of each contract? Do you follow any mechanisms in negotiating contracts? 13. What are the major activities of outsourcing? 14. How do you measure the knowledge involved in the project? 15. How do you measure the customer contact needed for the project? 16. Do you follow the same structure when you execute these activities in all outsourced projects? 17. What are the most effective methods for communicating your project/company’s goals and objective to the potential offshore resource? 18. What are some methods to ensure that they understand the project importance and scope? 19. Do you follow up and trace that the contractor? How do you do it? 20. What are the main outsourcing problems your department faced in the past 3 years? 21. How did you solve these problems? Do you follow the same procedures to solve these problems in all projects outsourced? 22. What are the lessons learned in dealing with contractors? Finally: 23. Is there anything else that you would suggest to change or improve the quality of this research? 24. Any other comments or suggestions?
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PICMET 2009 Proceedings, August 2-6, Portland, Oregon USA © 2009 PICMET Thank you very much for your time and your answers. It will be a big help to the study.
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