Offshore Project Management
Project Success largely depends on the way it is managed. Project Managers (PMs) act as a virtual bridge between the business and the development teams.
Fairly large projects require dedicated PM's. But if your work does not require full time PM we at FDSC have a solution – We offer you an option of having a part time PM. We also provide PMP's for you to derive maximum benefits out of outsourcing offshore.
Risks
Five most common Risks and how FDSC counters them:
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Well-Known Risks |
FDSC's Solution |
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User needs not understood |
The most difficult part is not the act of recording what the users want; it is the exploratory, developmental activity of helping users figure out what they want. FDSC has well defined process for Requirement Analysis and skills to help you do just that. |
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Unreasonable Expectations |
FDSC manages expectations at all fronts including your stakeholders, users, developers, marketing teams etc. If all know what is expected of them then offshore outsourcing would be a smooth sail. |
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Inappropriate Planning |
We give a lot of weight age to all the planning stages. We do not rush through the planning phases and update our plans, estimates as the work progresses because software development is not static things change very frequently. We believe in planning and re-planning. |
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Not enough communication |
We ensure communication at all levels and at appropriate frequency so that all concerned are in sync. More details on our Communication Process |
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Not testing early, often and the right way |
We encourage our customers to test as the development progresses and not to leave it for the end. The sooner the issues are identified the cheaper and easier it is to fix them. Learn more on our Quality assurance and control |
Offshore Challenges
Typical factors that make offshore tricky and FDSC's response to these factors:
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Well-Known Challenges |
FDSC's Solution |
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Language barriers |
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Time zones |
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Distance |
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Communication styles |
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Etiquette |
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Security problems |
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Quality discrepancies |
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Responsibilities
To mitigate the above challenges and risks the key responsibilities for our PM's are -
Before the work begins
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Stakeholder Identification: All people who have a stake in the project implicitly or explicitly.
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Process Customization: Analyse the process already in use onsite and how they can work offshore and customizing them accordingly. Including software configuration management, change control etc..
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Setting up Communication Guidelines: Meeting schedules, People to be involved in various meetings, Timings, agenda etc.
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Defining Milestones: Identifying and communicating the check points.
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Defining Roles and Responsibilities for the team, escalation process etc..
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Identifying risks and mitigation strategies.
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Defining the success criteria
During the course of execution:
- Keeping an effective communication channel between the stakeholders, offshore and onsite teams
- Planning, Tracking and control, Execution, Closure
- Keeping the wok within the agreed upon constraints (time, scope and cost)
- Manage expectations at all fronts
- Risk Management
In short they cover all the nine knowledge areas as per PMBOK - Integration, Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Human Resource, Communication, Risk and Procurement.
It’s unfortunate, that earlier sometimes people felt that PM's time is an unwanted overhead, but now the world is recognizing the relevance and benefits of having structured approach available which is one of the most important success factors. Having these standards, understanding and applying them creates an environment for success.
“FDSC built us a web-based payment system that we deployed as an ASP solution for large agricultural cooperatives. In addition to writing very comprehensive requirements documentation with just conference calls, they kept track of the overall project saving us the cost of a local project manager.”