“You will get exactly what you asked for, so you better
make sure you are asking for exactly the right thing.”
agement of the project, and the vendor’s capabilities.
The identified risk factors for each of these areas are
discussed next. Our discussion focuses on insights by
the panelists that highlight the factors’ significance to
offshoring.
Client-vendor communications. The panel was of
the opinion that most offshore projects are susceptible to miscommunications that can complicate the
transmission of the original set of requirements and
subsequent information exchanges and change
requests. These concerns were expressed in three
related risk factors.
Miscommunication of the original set of requirements (factor #2) was identified as a major risk
because, as a panelist pointed out:
“Language, environmental, and other factors play a
huge part in how people read and understand things.
No matter how specific the requirements, there is
often a window for assumptions to be made. This is
especially dangerous when you are talking about long-distance collaborations.”
Nonetheless, according to the panel, getting the
requirements straight is essential because “with less
opportunity for interaction with development
resources offshore, a much higher premium is put on
the quality of the requirements.” Another expert
identified a related danger associated with the highly
structured processes that are instituted by many vendors: “you will get exactly what you asked for, so you
better make sure you are asking for exactly the right
thing.”
Language barriers in project communications
(#3) also received extensive attention by the experts.
This is not surprising given the language and cultural
differences that exist in multinational teams and the
difficulties of remote collaboration [ 6]. As an expert
pointed out, such challenges exist even when all project members speak the same language: “even when
both parties speak English, there is a major chance for
misunderstanding because much of our language is
based on cultural assumptions.” Due to these differences, even simple information exchanges during the
project execution can become lengthy and complex as
“frequent give and take” is needed before the parties
understand each other.
The final communications-related risk was poor
change controls (#7). Ineffective controls can lead to
scope creep, a recognized threat that affects all types
of projects. However, the experts suggested that this
risk takes on a more prominent role in offshoring
because of the communications issues identified
above. Moreover, physical distance (and the lack of
informal interactions between developers and users) is
likely to affect the handling of change requests as “
offshore destinations, being remote and distant, do not
have the same sense of urgency as the client organization about the need for changes.”
Client’s internal management issues. Three traditional client-related risk factors (lack of top management commitment, inadequate user involvement,
and difficulty in managing end-user expectations)
were deemed important by the experts. In addition,
they identified two other risks rooted in the newness
of the offshoring phenomenon: the lack of relevant
project-management know-how, and the inability to
fully consider all relevant costs.
Consistent with prior research [ 9], lack of top
management commitment was ranked as the #1 risk.
Several panelists noted that for all types of IT projects,
offshore-outsourced or not, senior management support is essential. As a panelist wrote, “this issue is not
unique to offshore projects, but is rather a generic
project issue faced by all projects regardless of the
location of the different management and staff.”
Inadequate user involvement (#4) was also identified as a critical threat. Several panelists noted that
many offshore projects are frequently directed by IS
groups with inadequate user participation. Given the
significance of such involvement and its positive
impact on system acceptance and usage [ 9], it is
imperative to meaningfully engage users in the project. As a panelist pointed out, involvement is also
important because of its political value.
“Most offshore projects are stewarded by IT groups
on behalf of the users. If you think your IS department is far removed from the development work, you