Strategy models for enabling offshore outsourcing: Russian short-cycle-time software development

  • Authors:

  • Jan Pries-Heje;Richard Baskerville;Galina Ianshina Hansen

  • Affiliations:

  • The IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen S, Denmark;Department of Computer Information Systems, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA;The IT University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen S, Denmark

  • Venue:
  • Information Technology for Development
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

Economic factors are driving software development projects onto globally dispersed models, as off-shore outsourcing becomes more common. Software development companies in developing economies compete for lucrative, job-creating offshore contracts on the basis of industry maturity, labor skills, technology infrastructure, and government support. Diffusion of technology is a key aspect of each of these determinants of competitiveness. This paper analyzes the development of strategies for the diffusion of short-cycle-time software development into and within Russia. Short-cycle-time development is sometimes called agile development or Internet-speed development and uses a number of techniques to move software quickly into production. These techniques are spreading rapidly among software developers worldwide. The benefits of these techniques are well known and provide a credible explanation for why this rapid diffusion is occurring. This paper explains how these techniques are spreading in a borderless fashion. Using the Kline model of innovation diffusion and the Greiner model of evolution and growth of organizations, we analyze the enablers and barriers to diffusion of short-cycle-time software development techniques in Russia. This analysis reveals a complex interaction of political, economic, and technical elements enabling and inhibiting the development of knowledge that supports the innovation diffusion necessary for companies to compete for offshore contracts.