Outsourcing Location Selection with SODA: A Requirements Based Decision Support Methodology and Tool

Abstract

Abstract. This paper seeks to address the decision making problem in software development outsourcing scenarios in which a project manager is in charge of deciding about which software components will be outsourced and which ones will be developed internally. Therefore we propose a methodology and tool support which leverage the classification of a project's software components by means of a graph-based model of the components' requirements and their corresponding clustering. In the course of our design oriented research approach, a prototypical implementation of the methodology has been developed and evaluated. It illustrates the practical applicability of the proposed method. We thereby contribute to the location selection problem in distributed software projects and give guidance for in-house or external software production. The theoretical contribution consists of revealing an improved processing methodology for assessing software requirements and increasing the outsourcing success of a software project. Our contribution for practice is an implemented prototype for project leads of distributed teams.

Choosing Component Origins for Software Intensive Systems: In-House, COTS, OSS or Outsourcing?—A Case Survey

“…Different constraints can be defined, such as costs. For making a trade-off between in-house development and outsourcing Kramer and Eschweiler [17] propose to utilize clustering to group components and utilize requirements dependencies and priorities to make the choice. Kramer et al [18].…”

“…In several cases only a small sub-set of criteria was considered in decision making compared to the preparation (see e.g. Cases 4,5,8,17,and 19). That is, if the relevant decision criteria could have been identified earlier, this has a potential to save investigation effort in the preparation phase (such as pre-studies).…”

Supporting Strategic Decision-Making for Selection of Software Assets

“…Two papers focus on deciding between in-house and outsourcing [19,20] were identified. The model in [19] provides tool support for requirements clustering to find a cohesive group of requirements using a graph-based model.…”

“…The model in [19] provides tool support for requirements clustering to find a cohesive group of requirements using a graph-based model. In [20], the authors propose a decision model using decision tables.…”

Information Systems Outsourcing

“…Following Kramer and Eschweiler (2013), our work adopts a design science approach (Peffers et al 2007;Kramer and Eschweiler 2013). In the subsequent section, we step into relevant theories, concepts and existing approaches our method draws from.…”