CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS OF OFFSHORE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Index

Classification
Comparison

In an effort to provide a substantiated basis for our research project, we first analyzed the state-of-the-art of research on IT outsourcing (in a broad sense), hereby developing an annotated bibliography on this topic (Amberg, Hoßbach, and Wiener, 2005b). In this context, in order to give an overview of academic activity in this research field, we selected key IS conferences and journals (compare Table 6), and scanned the corresponding conference proceedings and journals for key words like “IT outsourcing”, “IT offshoring”, “offshore software development” within the time frame from 1997 to 2005. To identify relevant publications within these data sources, we used advanced search methods including Ferber’s (2003) stemming approach. This approach refers to the mapping of words to their normalized forms (e. g., “outsourcing” to “outsource”).

Table: IS conferences and journals examined

The selected conferences belong to the top events in the field of IS research in the Western hemisphere. Whereas all of these conferences were founded more than ten years ago (AIS, 2005a; AIS, 2005b; ECIS, 2005), the HICSS can even look back on a history of almost 40 years (HICSS, 2005).

With regard to the selected journals, we chose the top five European IS journals according to a ranking by Mylonopoulos and Theoharakis (2001). This ranking is based on a survey, primarily among professors and doctoral candidates, on the contribution of altogether 50 IS journals to research in the IS field, and, in contrast to many other rankings of IS journals, is not limited to North American journals.

Based on the key word search within the mentioned conference proceedings and journals, we were able to identify more than 600 articles and conference papers related to IT outsourcing (in a broad sense). However, not all of the identified publications focused on this topic. Therefore, we reviewed the abstract and the introduction of all of the 600 publications in order to determine whether the content of a publication specifically deals with IT outsourcing (in a broad sense). Resulting from this additional manual search, we were able to identify 182 publications solely dealing with IT outsourcing (in a broad sense). The table below shows the number of relevant publications per IS conference and journal respectively within each year examined as well as in total.

Table: IT outsourcing publications in selected IS conferences and journals (1997-2005)

Concerning the number of the identified publications, it becomes apparent that the majority of these publications were published in conference proceedings (156 papers). Here, particularly the AMCIS provides a great number of papers in the field of IT outsourcing (in a broad sense) (74 papers).

In regard to the publication year of the identified articles and papers, a continuous growth in the number of publications per year can be observed. While in 1997, only nine publications focusing on IT outsourcing (in a broad sense) were able to be identified, in the middle of 2005, already 26 publications, dealing with this topic, were published within the mentioned data sources.

In a first step, the 182 publications identified within the literature review were classified into three different research fields: IT outsourcing (in a narrow sense), IT offshoring (in a narrow sense), and OSD. In a second step, the identified publications were compared to one another regarding their specific content by assigning them to eight content categories. Here, we found that some publications could be assigned to two categories. In these cases, we assigned the corresponding publications to both categories (one category as a first choice and the other category as a second choice).

Based on the classification and the comparison of the identified articles and papers in the field of IT outsourcing (in a broad sense), a classification matrix with the dimensions “research field” and “content category” was able to be developed (annotated bibliography).

For further analyses, the publications, identified within the mentioned IS conferences and journals, were classified according to the following three research fields:

1.      IT outsourcing (in a narrow sense): Handing over of an organization’s IT activities to a domestic IT service provider.

2.      IT offshoring (in a narrow sense): Handing over of IT activities to a service provider located in a foreign country.

3.      OSD: Handing over of software development activities and related activities to a foreign service provider.

In accordance with this classification framework, 151 publications were attributed to the research field of IT outsourcing (in a narrow sense), 18 publications to the field of IT offshoring (in a narrow sense), and 13 publications to the field of OSD (compare figure below).

Figure: Classification of publications by outsourcing research fields

Based on the classification of the 182 publications presented in the figure above, the following table shows the number of the identified publications by outsourcing research fields as well as IS conferences and journals.

Table: Classification of publications by outsourcing research fields and IS conferences/journals

When comparing the number of publications in different research fields within the selected data sources, it becomes apparent that only little research was carried out in regard to IT offshoring (in a narrow sense) and OSD. In the IS journals under examination, only seven articles dealt with these two research fields within the time period from 1997 to 2005. Within this time frame, popular journals such as ISR and SMR have not published any articles in these fields.

Table: Classification of publications by outsourcing research fields and publication years

Looking at the development of the number of publications within the three research fields over the time frame examined, a positive trend can be observed. From our perspective this trend is also likely to continue: Although, the data of the year 2005 is not complete yet, we were already able to identify more papers in this year than in the year 2002.

With regard to the development of the number of publications within each single research field, particularly the increasing number of publications in the research fields IT offshoring (in a narrow sense) and OSD, as of 2003, is remarkable. While in the years from 1997 to 2002, no article or conference paper was published which explicitly referred to IT offshoring (in a narrow sense), we were able to find at least five publications within the last three years.

In an attempt to analyze academic activity in the field of IT outsourcing (in a broad sense), we assigned each of the 182 identified publications to a specific content category. With regard to the applied content categories, we refer to the six primary research areas in the field of IT outsourcing (in a broad sense) identified by Chi-wai, Huynh, Lee and Pi (2000): Contract, decision, environment, organization, performance, and relationship. In order to ensure a distinct classification of the relevant articles to a specific content category, the content areas mentioned above were extended by the two categories “culture” and “strategy”, related to Fjermestad and Saitta’s (2005) strategic management framework for IT outsourcing projects. Here, it has to be added that strategic issues are also mentioned by Chi-wai et al. (2000) within their organization category.

The resulting eight content categories for the comparison of the identified publications in the IT outsourcing context are listed below in alphabetical order:

1.      Contract: Aspects related to the agreement on the project contents.

2.      Culture: Aspects related to cultural similarities and differences between the project partners.

3.      Decision: Aspects related to the selection of the provider, the project, the project location, etc.

4.      Environment: Aspects related to political and legal regulations.

5.      Organization: Aspects related to the coordination of the project.

6.      Performance: Aspects related to the controlling of the services rendered by the provider.

7.      Relationship: Aspects related to the interaction between the project partners.

8.      Strategy: Aspects related to the development of a vision, the setting of goals, the definition of a strategy, etc.

Articles and papers, which were not able to be assigned to one of the content categories listed above, were subsumed under the additional category “Others”. In the case of a publication related to two categories, we assigned this publication to both categories. Here, one category was labeled as “first choice” (the category which fit best) and the other category was labeled as “second choice”.

The following figure shows the allocation of the identified publications along the presented categories. In this figure, the dark-gray area illustrates the number of those publications assigned to the corresponding content category as a second choice.

Figure: Number of IT outsourcing publications by content categories

By assigning the 182 identified publications to the eight content categories, we found that there are three main categories of publications in the examined conferences and journals over the chosen time period from 1997 to 2005: Strategy, decision, and performance. Here, the content category “strategy” ranks first with 45 publications assigned. The categories “decision” and “performance” rank second with 40 publications both. In contrast, we were able to identify only five articles/papers within the content category “culture”. The small number of publications within this category may be reasoned by the fact that cultural aspects are particularly relevant in the context of IT offshoring and OSD, and that publications in these research fields are generally fewer in number than in the field of IT outsourcing (in a narrow sense).

The figure also confirms the adequacy of our developed content classification framework. According to Lange (2005), the adequacy of such a classification scheme can be measured by the number of publications which cannot be classified. Overall, we identified only seven publications which were not able to be assigned to one of our eight categories. These seven articles and conferences make up a proportion of 3.8 percent of not classifiable publications, and, therefore, confirm the adequacy of the framework applied.

The following table classifies the identified 182 publications by content categories and sources. Here, particularly the large number of publications provided by the AMCIS within the categories “decision” (23 papers) and “performance” (18 papers) as well as by the HICSS in the category “strategy” (14 papers) is remarkable. Concerning the selected IS journals, the relatively high accumulation of publications in the categories “performance” and “strategy” (ten articles in each category) is noteworthy.

Table: Comparison of number of publications by content categories and IS conferences/journals

By applying both classification dimensions , a two-dimensional classification framework can be developed. The following table presents the numerical allocation of the 182 publications within this framework.

Regarding the number of publications in the field of IT outsourcing (in a narrow sense), it becomes apparent that publications in this field mainly deal with the topics “decision”, “strategy” (both 38 publications), “performance” (36 publications), and “relationship” (29 publications). In regard to the research field of IT offshoring (in a narrow sense), the majority of publications deal with environmental (seven publications) and strategic aspects (four publications). In contrast to the other two research fields, in the field of OSD, no major research topics were able to be identified, which can be traced back to the little number of publications identified in this area of research in general.

Table: Comparison of number of publications by content categories and outsourcing research fields

The detailed classification of the 182 publications along the developed framework dimensions (annotated bibliography) is presented in Table 94 in the appendix.

In conclusion, it can be summarized that, up to now, only little research has been carried out with regard to IT offshoring in general and OSD in particular. For instance, in the selected IS journals, no more than seven articles dealt exclusively with these two research fields within the last eight years. This finding was also one of the major reasons for not restricting our more specific literature reviews solely to OSD.