Managing Outsourced Software Development: 10 Steps To Success
Yesterday I hosted a lunch for entrepreneurs and colleagues on how to manage outsourced software development. The lunch sparked a lot of discussion on what is a very relevant topic.
I am a huge fan of outsourced and off-shore software development. I also think the Internet is enabling a very radical and disruptive shift as people use Skype, GoogleTalk, IM, Wikis, online shared bug tracking and the like to do development anywhere.
The real change is that now everyone is suddenly in the business of writing product specifications. This is because development can be done so rapidly and at a markedly different price point. Just as when the personal computer went mainstream everyone became their own secretary and printer, now everyone can and should write their own product definitions.
The leverage is in understanding what customers want, being able to define it, and knowing how to drive usage and adoption. To do this effectively, you must have an efficient and integrated definition and communication infrastructure (for definition, communication, and collaboration from customer/user through to developer), combined with a very high trust relationship between local and remote.
There were a ton of great thoughts shared yesterday by those who attended. People also mentioned tools that they find very helpful:
Basecamp for project collaboration
Mantis for bug tracking
And I am happy to add more to the list as they are suggested.
One simple yet incredibly compelling idea that was mentioned was that the more you can integrate the feedback process the better off you are. For example, if customers can report bugs and feature requests directly from within your web site or product, and those reports are directly viewable by the product team who can then tweak and sort them directly into mantis or another bug tracking system, that hugely increases efficiency. It also integrates a sort of CRM of product feedback, since the bug/feature is associated directly with a particular end user/customer who you then know to go back to directly once the change is made.
So much of selling the right product is having the right product to sell, one that users/customers love. The more integrated the process becomes, the more efficient you become and delivering something people actually want to use.
Here are the outsourced software development slides.
I am a huge fan of outsourced and off-shore software development. I also think the Internet is enabling a very radical and disruptive shift as people use Skype, GoogleTalk, IM, Wikis, online shared bug tracking and the like to do development anywhere.
The real change is that now everyone is suddenly in the business of writing product specifications. This is because development can be done so rapidly and at a markedly different price point. Just as when the personal computer went mainstream everyone became their own secretary and printer, now everyone can and should write their own product definitions.
The leverage is in understanding what customers want, being able to define it, and knowing how to drive usage and adoption. To do this effectively, you must have an efficient and integrated definition and communication infrastructure (for definition, communication, and collaboration from customer/user through to developer), combined with a very high trust relationship between local and remote.
There were a ton of great thoughts shared yesterday by those who attended. People also mentioned tools that they find very helpful:
And I am happy to add more to the list as they are suggested.
One simple yet incredibly compelling idea that was mentioned was that the more you can integrate the feedback process the better off you are. For example, if customers can report bugs and feature requests directly from within your web site or product, and those reports are directly viewable by the product team who can then tweak and sort them directly into mantis or another bug tracking system, that hugely increases efficiency. It also integrates a sort of CRM of product feedback, since the bug/feature is associated directly with a particular end user/customer who you then know to go back to directly once the change is made.
So much of selling the right product is having the right product to sell, one that users/customers love. The more integrated the process becomes, the more efficient you become and delivering something people actually want to use.
Here are the outsourced software development slides.
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