Outsourcing software project management to seize the key points

Outsourcing is the common act of mutual trust and high cooperation between the employer and the outsourcing. In order to successfully implement outsourcing, for the employer, the enterprise has a certain level of technology, project management level, human resources and communication control capacity. For outsourcing, the enterprise has a certain cost, quality control capabilities, with international market development capabilities (including business capabilities, communication capabilities, packet channels and business reputation, etc.). In order to form the industrialization of outsourcing services, it also requires the formation of a good policy environment and market environment.

The following is a software project outsourcing as an example, from the employer and the outsourcing point of view, discuss the key factors of implementation outsourcing.

1. Project Requirements

Project requirements are the basis of project planning and proper implementation, in the implementation of outsourcing projects, if the customer often change the demand or new requirements, often to postpone the project or exceed the budget, both sides of the cooperation will be the goodwill and economic losses.

The project outsourcing analysis is usually carried out according to the characteristics of the outsourced project, and the project demand report is presented. Outsourcing in the implementation of the project should be in-depth understanding and excavation of customer needs, to some unclear needs and the employer to discuss, the implementation of the project in the process of change in requirements, the provision of treatment methods, and agreed to form the final requirements of the project.

In the demand analysis phase, outsourcing first carefully analyzes the needs of the employer, and then collects the customer's complete requirements through business modeling, talks, questionnaires, requirements meetings, etc., and forms documents, which are then repeated through customer discussions, customer reviews, and document revisions.

2. Project plan

Before the project is implemented, the employer usually presents a draft of the project implementation plan. The content of the project plan should be complete and feasible, and agreement should be reached on the project process, workload, resource allocation and project milestones.

Outsourcing to timely and comprehensive analysis of the contents of the plan, to be detailed with the company's plans for comparison and audit, so as to understand the outsourcing of the entire project process, content, estimated workload and resource arrangements are consistent with the requirements of the project itself. Clear differences require timely clarification and consensus-building.

The employer shall carefully analyze and further discuss the proposal of the draft project plan according to outsourcing, make the necessary modification and supplement, and form the final project implementation plan accepted by both parties.

3. Quality control

The quality of software outsourcing refers to the degree of software products satisfying users ' needs, including functional requirements, performance requirements, stability, security and advanced technology requirements, support and service requirements. To meet the customer's quality requirements is the basic requirements of outsourcing business.

Taking the software development project as an example, the commonly used methods of outsourcing quality control are as follows:

• Control requirements and design quality through repeated, multi-party reviews.
• Before coding, code specifications are developed and enforced to ensure the code is prescriptive.
• The quality of the code is ensured through a rigorous and complete testing process.
• Needs analysis, plan, System design, test plan, implementation plan and so on must carry on the internal review, through the internal review after the designated two parties joint review.
• A comprehensive test plan and quality assurance implementation process must be developed and reviewed.
• Before the system is delivered, it undergoes the quality inspection process such as unit test, integration test, System test and user test, acceptance test.
• Make implementation and maintenance plan, implement and maintain operation rules, record the operating procedure, and timely request the employer to confirm.

4. Progress Control

Progress affects the costs of both parties and may affect the business of the employer, and the progress may also affect the quality of the product.

Outsourcing should implement the project according to the project schedule, and report the progress of actual implementation in time. Comprehensive analysis of the factors affecting the progress of the project implementation process, and timely communication with the employer to propose solutions. The Contractor shall monitor the progress of the docking outsourcing.

The common methods of implementation progress control of software outsourcing project are as follows:

• Through scientific estimation, consider the allocation of resources to jointly develop a reasonable mutually agreed schedule.
• Subdivide tasks, develop more granular milestones, and conduct acceptance and assessment by milestone.
• Establish regular progress reporting system in order to keep abreast of project progress.
• Use rigorous processes to control changes in requirements.
• In the schedule, some of the larger work is being broken down to create more milestones.

5. Risk Control

Risk Management (Risk Management) refers to the scientific management method that the economic unit can predict, identify, evaluate, analyze and effectively dispose the risk on the basis of the lowest cost to achieve the maximum safety guarantee.

The employer shall, according to the characteristics and requirements of the outsourced project, make a practical plan, select the appropriate outsourcing, and closely monitor the implementation process of the project.

Outsourcing must be sufficiently knowledgeable about the project, including the project requirements, scope of work, methods of implementation and sources of expected economic benefits. For the part that has been completed, a reasonable evaluation method is needed.

The Contracting Party can control the risk in the following ways:

• Through the inspection of enterprise strength, qualification and service experience, strictly choose to connect outsourcing.
• Protect intellectual property and trade secrets through rigorous legal provisions and strict contractual audits.
• Control the quality and progress of outsourced operations through rigorous process control.
• Outsourcing can be used to control risk in the following ways:
• Carry out strict requirements management and control to fully tap customer needs.
• Strictly regulate the drafting, negotiation, review and signing of contracts, in the provisions of the contract to clearly define the outsourcing process of responsibility, rights, interest, intellectual property and trade secrets protection.
• Implement the project management and control of the specification, strictly control the quality and progress.
• Through effective human resources management to stabilize the team, set up a backup team and improve the team's technical ability and comprehensive quality.
• Establish and maintain a smooth communication channel.

6. Communication and communication

The implementation of outsourcing projects is the process of co-ordination and cooperation between the employer and the outsourcing. To ensure the smooth conduct of outsourcing business, we must establish effective communication channels.

The establishment of effective communication channels includes the following elements:

• Identify which communication tools you can use and what communication tools you should use (on-site communication, telephone exchange, fax, e-mail, online chat, etc.).
• Determine the timing and frequency of the communication, including the outsourcing submission progress report and the two sides to hold the project implementation Exchange.
• Determine the format of the communication (for example, the format of a weekly report).
• Determine the form of communication (on-site communication, conference call, both project contacts).

[Reproduced above] http://developer.51cto.com/art/201104/253917.htm

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Combined with the characteristics of the external project, to extract the various issues to respond, the main map is as follows:

Note: The key judgment in this diagram is to combine this project, for example, the requirements of this project are not clear, need to strengthen the demand management. Relative understanding of the opposite company, so the risk part of the reduction, while the progress and quality control ratio increases. Communication is also very important, so before the start of the project, be sure to confirm good communication methods and time.

XX Outsourcing Project

Demand Management (★★★★★)

Meet outsourcing with the client

Co-develop project requirements documentation

To discuss the change of project requirements and to do some early response measures.

Project Plan (★★★☆☆)

Make a good project plan

Project planning to prioritize priorities, high difficulty part

The project plan needs to include quality control plan, release plan

Quality Control (★★★★☆)

Design with full consideration of change and extensibility

To have code specifications, do regular code checks

Design documentation (required) for each module before development

Record important module flow, network structure, etc.

Test work must be done in advance before delivery, special functional test, performance test

Progress Control (★★★★★)

Set milestones for key points

Acceptance assessment by milestone

In time to join the progress control in the need of change

Key milestones publish progress reports and demos of packages

Risk Control (★★★☆☆)

Outsourcing personnel Change Risk

Technical risk of receiving outsourcing

Meet the outsourcing demand to grasp the risk

Communication and Communication (★★★★☆)

Establish a unified code management system

Set up recurring meetings, such as milestones, conference, monthly meeting, etc.

Weekly report on progress, available via email

Set up QQ group to communicate at any time, you can report the completion of daily and encountered problems

Periodically publish progress to the user or, in appropriate ways, to show the results

Finishing Work (★★★☆☆)

produce the appropriate documentation, such as the deployment instructions, operating instructions

Develop a data backup solution

Prepare acceptance Materials

Outsourcing software project management to seize the key points