Distributed Agile Outsourcing. An Overview of Methods and Success Factors

Seminar paper from the year 2017 in the subject Computer Science - Commercial Information Technology, grade: 1,0, University of Cologne (Seminar für Wirtschaftsinformatik und integrierte Informationssysteme), course: Hauptseminar, language: English, abstract: IT outsourcing (ITO) engagements have become one of the prevailing IT strategies. Moreover, agile software development (ASD) approaches tend to replace traditional, sequential methods. Injecting ASD into ITO leads to agile global or distributed outsourced development (AGOSD/ADOSD) projects characterized by using agile methods within distributed environments rising the challenge of facilitating coordination and collaboration between teams. Especially communication between client and external vendor became one of the major critical success factors. Consequently, my study examines communication practices within global IT projects. (1) I conducted a structured literature review to extend the list of communication practices provided by prior studies. (2) I consolidated and categorized them. (3) By having performed expert interviews, I deployed a ranking pointing out their practical relevance.