Overcoming Requirements Engineering Challenges: Lessons from Offshore Outsourcing

With outsourcing on the rise, every relation between an outsourcer and a vendor calls for collaboration between multiple organizations across multiple locations. As part of a global IT-services organization with high process maturity, we have had many opportunities to understand the requirements engineering life cycle related to global software development. RE is a software project's most critical phase; the RE phase's success is essential for the project's success. Case studies from an Indian IT-services firm provide insights into the root causes of RE phase conflicts in client-vendor offshore-outsourcing relationships

[1]  Brian R. Gaines,et al.  The effects of communication media on group performance in requirements engineering , 2000, Proceedings Fourth International Conference on Requirements Engineering. ICRE 2000. (Cat. No.98TB100219).

[2]  Daniela E. Damian,et al.  The impact of stakeholders' geographical distribution on managing requirements in a multi-site organization , 2002, Proceedings IEEE Joint International Conference on Requirements Engineering.

[3]  Rafael Prikladnicki,et al.  Requirements Engineering in Global Software Development: Preliminary Findings from a Case Study in a SW-CMM context i , 2003 .

[4]  Edward M. Roche,et al.  Global Software Teams , 1999 .

[5]  Ian Sommerville,et al.  Requirements Engineering: Processes and Techniques , 1998 .

[6]  Leszek A. Maciaszek Requirements analysis and system design: developing information systems with UML , 2001 .

[7]  Graeme G. Shanks,et al.  Stakeholder viewpoints in requirements definition: A framework for understanding viewpoint development approaches , 1996, Requirements Engineering.

[8]  Rafael Prikladnicki,et al.  Requirements Management in Global Software Development : Preliminary Findings from a Case Study in a SW-CMM context , 2003 .

[9]  John A. Hrones,et al.  Defining Global Requirements with Distributed QFD , 1993, Digit. Tech. J..

[10]  Line Dubé,et al.  Virtual teams: an exploratory study of key challenges and strategies , 1999, ICIS.

[11]  H. Keith Edwards,et al.  Analysis of Software Requirements Engineering Exercises in a Global Virtual Team Setup , 2005, J. Glob. Inf. Manag..

[12]  Rafael Prikladnicki,et al.  Requirements Specification in Distributed Software Development – A Process Proposal , 2005 .

[13]  Jo Hanisch,et al.  Requirements Engineering During Global Software Development: Some Impediments to the Requirements Engineering Process: a case study , 2004, ECIS.

[14]  Line Dubé,et al.  Global Virtual Teams , 2001, CACM.