Not all projects are ideal for outsourcing. Any tasks involving proprietary knowledge, which can not be safeguarded with agreements, is not suitable for outsourcing. Very technical and complex tasks can also be bad projects, since the amount of communication needed may be so high that the cost advantage is eaten up by having to explain everything. Very small projects may also not be suitable either, since the time to prepare the specification might be more than the cost advantage. But apart from these exceptions, most projects or subprojects are suitable for outsourcing.

• Platform porting projects (like porting from DOS – Windows, Windows 3.11 – Windows 95/NT, UNIX -> NT.
• Application conversions.
• Database conversions.
• Transition of legacy systems to client/server.
• Web development, designing, programming etc. eCommerce-projects.
• Components like ActiveX, Objects, Reports, and Modules. Generally Object Oriented Programming is very suitable for offshore projects.
• Documentation, Producing of Windows Help file etc.
• Y2K and Euro conversion, double byte character conversion (internationalization).
• Testing.
• Installation, Administration and support programs.

To safeguard the development process there must be established practices where the offshore company keeps the outsourcing company informed about the progress on a regular basis. Also both parties need to follow a communication methodology wherein they acknowledge mails immediately and also ensure that emails are not lost or left unanswered. This email communication plays a vital role as most of the dialog between the engineers and the client is done through this mode.

It is also important that clear specifications are made. Based on the specs, engineers from the offshore company ask questions and get answers to get a full understanding of the project. Good specifications result in good quality software and considerable savings in time taken to complete projects. In the case of research or in cases when the offshore company actually produces the specification this process of course has to be modified to suit actual requirements.

After this the offshore company should give a proposal. We work with both not-binding and binding estimates, fixed price or running hours. What is chosen depends on what the client is comfortable with and the type of project.