There Are Risks!?

Despite all claims to the contrary, distributed software development projects are riskier than development done by a small, co-located team. When part of this work is outsourced to a third-party the risk increases. When the work is done outside the US, the risk increases yet again. Anybody who has managed even a simple offshore project has learned this the hard way (e.g., look at this case study and this account).

Avoid All Risks Then!

You might be tempted to think that the alternative would be to limit all software development to what can be done by a handful of engineers in a shared office. However, in most cases, this is just not an option. Sophisticated, complex products that require a whole spectrum of skills simply cannot be done in any one location. Once your requirements get past what can be delivered by two or three engineers sitting in an office, the chances that you will end up with another team in another locale goes up exponentially.

What's the Alternative?

If you can’t avoid the inherent risks of outsourcing, the next best thing to do is to recognize and manage them.

Nearsoft leverages the proximity to our clients but we also succeed because we focus on minimizing risk and tightly managing every task.