Sample Essay On Off-Shore Outsourcing Project Management

Managing an offshore project management team can be a lot, if not totally, different from managing an on-shore project management team. in a highly globalized world such as the one that we live in today, companies, particularly those that started in the west as in the United States and Europe, are quickly expanding their operations and services in emerging markets in Middle East, South America, and key points in Asia.
Unfortunately, in order to successfully meet their long term expansion goals and objective, these internationally expanding foreign companies must be able to learn how to manage projects that are executed on an offshore basis . Onshore projects, by principle and theory, are considerably easier compared to offshore projects because if problems appear, remedies and solutions can be easily and quickly processed because often, the human resources and other things needed to solve the problem can be accessed with much ease.
If for example a technology firm experiences supply chain problems with regards to managing a hardware upgrade project that targets an on-shore firm, such problems would be easier to solve because hardware products can be easily procured and then delivered to its target location domestically. The same can, in fact be true for project management teams that are dealing with software development technology projects.
The most important factor that a company that is planning to expand its operations on offshore markets via an initial offshore project would be its ability to build a high performing team and assign it to the target project or market . In fact, the same is true for on-shore project management as well.
If there is one different thing that I as the project manager of a software development project would do for an offshore-outsourced project that would be the process of ensuring that everything is already prepared before the project event gets started. In order to successfully do this step, the entire team has to carefully brainstorm and plan for everything that is needed so that by the time they are already going to the location of the offshore project, it would be very costly to correct the mistakes such as hiring additional team members because of poor planning and anticipation. This is also the part where contingency plans can be most valuable because they can considerably decrease the potential cost and expenses of an offshore software development project.
Now, when it comes to communication, this can be fairly easy because there are already a lot of wireless communications systems that the team can use to coordinate their efforts with each other. The only possible source of problem when it comes to this aspect of off-shore project management would be the unavoidable technical problems and the possible lack of compliance of some project management team members on the established communication standard operating procedures.
A good project initiation strategy in this case must be composed of a complete list of the project milestones including the complete list of resources (both human and technical) needed to accomplish the project from the point of engagement until the point of project completion. This can serve as a good strategy to avoid unnecessary expenses and costs that often come as a result of poor planning and anticipation.
Communication-wise, each software project development team members would be required to report to their managers and supervisors every four hours or even less depending on the demands of the project. This way, the project managers and supervisors would be able to keep track of the overall progress of individual team members and know immediately if there is a problem that needs solving or whatnot.

References

Gido, J., & Clements, J. (2014). Successful Project Management. Cengage Learning.
Kliem, R. (2004). Managing the Risks of offshore IT Development Projects Abstract. Information Systems Management, 22-27.