Co-sourcing in software development offshoring - Research - Aalborg University

Software
development projects are increasingly geographical distributed with
offshoring, which introduce complex risks that can lead to project
failure. Co-sourcing is a highly integrative and cohesive approach, seen
successful, to software development offshoring. However, research of
how co-sourcing shapes the perception and alleviation of common
offshoring risks is limited. We present a case study of how a certified
CMMI-level 5 Danish software supplier approaches these risks in offshore
co-sourcing. The paper explains how common offshoring risks are
perceived and alleviated when adopting the co-sourcing strategy in a
mature (CMMI level 5) software development organization. We found that
most of the common offshoring risks were perceived and alleviated in
accordance with previous research, with the exception of the task
distribution risk area. In this case, high task uncertainty,
equivocality, and coupling across sites was perceived more as risk
alleviation than risk taking. This perception of task distribution was
combined with high attention to the closely interrelated structure and
technology components in terms of CMMI and the actors’ cohesion and
integration in terms of Scrum.