1. Your Global
Application Development
Partner
September 2, 2010

2. Content Engagement Model
Offshore Software Development
Engagement Model
Project Intranet to support information flow and access
Several factors strengthen the business case for outsourcing
Offshore Delivery Model
US/Offshore Work Split
2 Types of Offshore Projects (Fixed-price or Collaborative/Agile)
Role of Onsite Coordinator
Offshore Outsourcing - No Micromanagement
Suggestions
Communication Tools
How To Share Knowledge
Project Development Approach
Project Iterations
Offshore/Onsite Testing

3. Corporate Facts People Financially Rock-solid
Offshore Software Development
People
Over 200 employees
Strong Leadership
Financially Rock-solid
$7 M in Revenues in 2008
Strong focus on fundamentals
Founded in 2001 in San Francisco, USA
2 continents, 2 offices, 2 offshore centers
Offerings
Top-notch services
Flexible Engagement Model
Quality
ISO 9001:2001
Infrastructure
State-of-the-art & fail safe
Disaster recovery & Business continuity
Clients
Global Leaders: France Telecom, Quest Software, InterContinental Hotel Group, Protective Life Insurance
Startups and mid-size product companies
Delivery Capability
Onsite-offshore model
High level of technical skills & Domain competency

4. Engagement Model Phase 1 – Assess Client Goals
Offshore Software Development
Phase 1 – Assess Client Goals
Prepare
Set a Baseline
Identify
Recommend
Phase 2 – Plan/Set Tuning Parameters
Goals
Time-frame
Milestones
Resources
Phase 3 – Launch Engagement
Execute plan
Phase 4 – Review and Correct
Pilot Project
Compare with baselines
Adjust team, approach
Phase 4
Phase 1
Phase 3
Phase 2
CLIENT
ENGAGEMENT
TEAM

5. Project Intranet
Offshore Software Development
Project Intranet to support information flow and access
Consolidated project status
Access to all project results, documents, interfaces
Collaborative environment for Client and Vendor
Distribution of information between project’s stakeholders (“active” information)
Centralized repository (“passive” information)
Access – in time, permanent, full volume
Security
Information (metrics, reports, documents for entire project areas)

6. Several factors strengthen the business case for outsourcing services in Russia...
Offshore Software Development
Factor cost differential – Wage costs about 20% of US levels; real estate costs about 30% of US levels
Time zone advantage – The nearly 11-hour time zone difference between US and Russia enables ‘follow the sun’ 24x7 coverage
Robust telecom infrastructure – Russia’s telecom infrastructure today is world-class and cost- competitive, with various long-distance connectivity options, high-bandwidth local loop networks and high-speed Internet access
Government incentives – Russian government is actively promoting offshore services, by setting up technology parks and other infrastructure, speeding up investment approvals and providing attractive tax incentives

7. Offshore Delivery Model
Offshore Software Development
Of course, the split of work between front and back offices may change!
Front Office
Customer facing
Back Office
Russia
Users,
Customers
Development
Center
2nd and 3rd Level Support
1st level Support
Front Office
Functional
Responsibilities
Back Office
Functional
Responsibilities
Common tools and Processes
Knowledge Base
Service Management
Quality Management
Technical Infrastructure

8. US/Offshore Work-Split
Offshore Software Development
Periodic face to face meetings
Service Delivery Manager monitoring operations
SolveITLabs Development Center
Client
SolveITLabs US Office
Client’s
Business Users*
Establish 2-way communication with user and work collaboratively till the ticket is closed 4 1
Log ticket
Manage Contingencies
Ticket assigned to Support Team
Ticket assigned
Client’s Helpdesk
Front Office
Support Team 2 3 3
Manage Contingencies
Access Client’s Applications for Problem Resolution
Client’s Systems US
Offshore

9. Types of offshore projects
Offshore Software Development
There are 2 main types of offshore projects
Fixed-price projects
Black box for the customer
Well-defined specifications
Not at heart of Customer’s Information System
Or highly risky if they are!
Collaborative/Agile projects
Moving specifications
IT teams on both sides
Possibly developers on both sides
Possibly Architects/QA on one side and development team on the other side
Minimal project duration required
For processes/tools/communications to set up on place
For people interactions to reach a satisfactory level
Can tackle complex projects (and with higher satisfaction levels)

10. Role of Onsite Coordinator
Offshore Software Development
Should take neutral position as much as possible
Handles administrative tasks:
Arrival/Departure administration (secure id card, /access account, intranet account, mailing lists, etc)
Organization of visits (identification of requirement, dates, agendas, people) in both directions
Visa handling
Infrastructure for offshore team:
Infrastructure coordination + improvements (monitor performances, tune tools) - with help from customer’s IT team
Organizational Role:
Weekly technical and management conf calls with all the teams (dev team +Customer team) + follow up from these calls
Management Status Meetings
Communication facilitating + related communication improvements
Crisis escalation investigation + handling
Accompany Onsite members during offshore visits, ensuring success of agenda/visit.
Methodology/Expertise:
Definition of Project Development Process with “offshore in mind” and continuous improvements (e.g. short iterations
introduction, detailed planning, acceptance criteria for code delivery, intranet setup, etc).
Work inside the teams to implement the collaborative development process.
Quality suggestions + improvements (testing strategy / build improvements for quality + measurements)
Continuous build + testing + collaborative development processes
Architecture + implementation of regression testing

11. Offshore Outsourcing - No Micromanagement
Offshore Software Development
Developer
Developer
Project
Lead
Developer
Project
Manager
Local
Project Lead
Developer
Developer
Developer
onsite
offshore
onsite
offshore

12. Intranet (Build results, Issue tracker)
Infrastructure
Offshore Software Development
Intranet (Build results, Issue tracker)
Continuous releases
Source Repository
DMZ reachable from offshore
VPN over internet
firewall
firewall
firewall
Onsite
Offshore

13. Communication Tools Offshore Software Development
Travel: Every 2 months
“Word” docs: 1 every month
Phone: 3 calls per week
Intranet: 1 topic modified per day
several times per day
Through builds: every day, 2 times a week
Chat: continuously

14. Travels in both directions
How to share knowledge ?
Offshore Software Development
Travels in both directions
Especially before new subjects
Functional training for Project Leads
Have Project Leads do the business conception
As much as possible
Have Project Leads do the detailed design
Open chat channels with functional persons
Should have dedicated onsite persons. 1 per team => 1 person per 10 developers roughly.
decrease over the time.
Helpful to have onsite coordinators
Send functional tests along with use cases
Have separate team writing scripts and running them

15. Project Development Approach
Offshore Software Development
Owner: Sponsor
Owner: Product Manager
Owner: Project Manager
Owner: Project Team
Owner: Project Team
P4:
Design and
Prototype
P5:
Documentation
P2:
Requirement
Clarification
P3:
Project Planning &
Prioritization
P1:
Business Proposal
Approval
Process
Requirement
Approval
Project
Review
Design
Review
Owner: Operations
Owner: Project Team
Owner: Operations
P7:
Testing &
Quality Assurance
P8:
Deploy
P6:
Development
Acceptance
Review
Code
Review

16. P5 Finalize Product Spec
P1 Business Proposal
P2 Requirements
Clarification
P3 Planning
P4 Design/Prototype
P5 Finalize Product Spec
Offshore Software Development
Define Business Goals
Determine Project Expectations
Core Competency
ROI
Time to Market
Define Critical Success factors
Review Project Key Players
Estimate costs
Project Approval
Identify all Requirements
Define Project Scope, Objectives, and Budget
Design Business Flow Process
Evaluate business benefit and Project COST
Prepare Marketing Doc and Plan
Feature/Benefit
Positioning
Promotion tactics
Negotiate Contract
Define User Experience
Conduct User Focus groups
Project Approval
Develop Use Cases
Develop Conceptual Design
Infrastructure
User Interface
Create Project Plan
Document all assumptions
Define:
Issues
Milestones
Resources
Identify Content needs
Create marketing material
Plan Pilot, if required
Technical Assessment
Operational Assessment
Alpha
Beta
Create Visual Design
Build:
UI Prototype
Back-end Prototype
Finalize Content
Prototype Usability testing
Design Data Schemas
Detailed Application design
Identify API’s
Detail Infrastructure design
Define Data Elements
Define Images
QA for Content&UI
Create Test Plan and Cases
Develop Usability testing Protocols
Conduct Technical Assessment
Review:
Content Quality
Usability Quality
Operational SLA
Update P1 through P4 documents
Refine Project Plan
Time lines
Resources
Document
P6 - Front-end Development
Draft SLA
Rollout Programs
Security Audit
Integration Testing
HTML coding
Page Tagging
Page Validation Test
Compatibility Test
Functional Specification
Lessons Learned
SLA
Portal Validation
Performance Tests
Infrastructure Design Doc.
Remedial Plan
Operation
Procedures
Usability Tests
Regression Tests
Business Flowchart
Implement Biz Logic
Implement Database
Implement Interfaces
Unit Testing
Functional Testing
P9 Project Debrief
P8 Operations
P7 Release Mgmt & QA
Wireframes
P6 - Back-end Development
Prototype Mockups

17. Project Iterations
Offshore Software Development
Fixed iteration delivery dates (Must not be changed, content can change)
Iterations must list *all* tasks taking ½ day or more
To prevent misunderstanding
To allow easy progress follow up
To generate release notes automatically
Done using Issue Driven Development

18. Offshore/Onsite Testing
Offshore Software Development
Set up from offshore
Development platform
QA/Staging
Server
UAT
Environment
Production
Environment
Developer
workstations
Dev Server
- Unit tests (mocks)
- Some integration tests
- Integration testing (manual)
- Functional tests by developers (manual)
- Technical / Functional tests (manual)
- Performance testing (manual)
- Functional tests by end users (manual)
- Client customers

19. Suggestions Requires good onsite coordinators
Offshore Software Development
Requires good onsite coordinators
To solve communication issues due to language and cultural differences
To act as “harmonizers”, improve communication
To shield teams from the wearing effect of working from a distance
Requires a lot of travel, communication
Hard to work with someone you didn’t see - leads to misunderstanding
At all levels – Project Managers, Team Leads, Architects
Share activities between onsite/offshore
Not just development, but also
Business Requirements, Architecture Design, System Testing, etc
Allow offshore people to participate actively in the development process
Share the project knowledge among all project team members
Write functional test cases before development starts
Helps transfer business knowledge
Helps to catch misunderstanding early
Can be automated by QA Developers

20. Waterfall Development Model
Offshore Software Development
A waterfall model
with feedback can
be very effective choice
to design a system that is
clearly described. In this case
only a few minor changes can be
made in system design or its requirements.
Also Waterfall model creates completed results in each phase being done and forever.