Offshore Software and Web Development, Bulgaria! : Making the
choice and making IT work! - Advantage
This white paper is designed to assist companies who are looking
for Offshore Software Development partners In Bulgaria in particular
or in low cost countries in general. The paper covers the mechanics
of finding an offshore software development partner, setting up the
relationship and ensuring a successful and long-term partnership.
Benefits of Offshore Software Development in Bulgaria
Advantages :
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Significant cost savings, up to 50% in certain cases.
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The outsourcing company is able to release resources for high
value-added and priority work and can concentrate on their core
competence
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While it can be quite difficult to recruit the expected competence
in Western countries, it is a completely different scenario in
Bulgaria, where there are many qualified IT professionals with
good academic training.
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For temporary bursts of activity offshore software development
is beneficial as the outsourcing company can avoid expensive new
recruitment or the high cost of local consultants.
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Consulting and programming capacity is available at short notice
without increasing long term personnel commitments.
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Outsourcing company also reaps the knowledge gained by the offshore
software development and consulting assignments.
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Bulgaria has the necessary IT infrastructure to handle offshore
development with ease
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A pioneer in offshore software development the experience of
Bulgaria in various offshore software development methodologies
makes Bulgaria an ideal candidate
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Bulgaria's experience in offshore software development has helped
it move up the value chain. It has moved up from data entry, programming,
project management, QA &Testing to product development, ideation
and consulting. The Bulgaria banner offers all these services
and is a one stop shop for all IT enabled services
Some clients outsource their programming needs by getting programmers
from Bulgaria for short or long term projects to work on-site with
their own design team. Others send whole or parts of projects directly
to Bulgaria for offshore software development in Bulgaria.
Offshore Software Development Bulgaria, Disadvantages
Following are some problems, which may occur if both parties are
not aware of how the offshore software development process should
be set up.
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Language and cultural barriers
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Technical communication problems
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Lack of a repeatable process
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Bad management and inflexible organizations
All of these can be avoided, by choosing the right offshore software
development partner and working with proper and proven project management
processes evolved during the earlier offshore development assignments.
Sometimes the Outsourcing company overlooks these risk factors, and
looks at only the cost saving. In reality this could be a major trap.
Offshore Software Development Bulgaria, The Ideal projects
Not all projects are ideal for offshore software development. Any
task involving proprietary knowledge, which can not be safeguarded
with agreements, is not suitable for offshore software development.
Very technical and complex tasks can also be bad projects, since the
communication overhead may offset the cost advantage. Very small projects
may also be unsuitable, since the time to prepare the specifications
may dilute the cost advantage.
Apart from these exceptions, most projects are suitable for offshore
software development in Bulgaria. Some of the possible areas could
be:
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Platform porting projects
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Database applications, migration and porting
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Web enabling legacy systems and client server applications
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Web development, designing, programming etc. e Commerce - projects
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Technical Documentation, end user documentation and manuals
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Remote system administration
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Remote database administration
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Remote software maintenance and feature enhancements
Project Management - Offshore software development
To safeguard the development process there is a need for established
practices where the offshore software development company keeps the
the outsourcing company informed about the progress on a regular basis.
Both parties need to follow a communication methodology wherein they
acknowledge communication 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 via this mode. We have found that communication between the
offshore software development partner and the outsourcer through document
sharing intranet sites like www.intranets.com or www.groove.net enhances
value.
Email enables structured communication where as chat and phone should
be used for technical clarifications and should be avoided for business
communication.
It is also important that clear specifications are made. The specification
clarification is an iterative process and it is recommended that this
process be done with due diligence. Based on the specifications, engineers
from the offshore software development 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 case of research or in cases when the offshore
software development company actually produces the specification,
this process needs to be modified suitably.
Commercial agreements range from non-binding and binding estimates,
fixed price or running hours.
Generally one contact person should be defined on each side, to facilitate
clear coordination. Also, proper methods for testing should be defined
in the initial meeting or discussion.
Software Piracy and theft
The government of Bulgaria looks at software exports as one of its
key growth areas and has set up an environment, which very strongly
discourages any and all forms of software piracy and theft of software
in Bulgaria.
Ensure that your offshore software development partner signs an Intellectual
Property Right Pledge and a confidentiality statement / non disclosure
agreement as part of the initial stages of your partnership
Conclusions - Offshore Software Development Bulgaria
If you are careful in your selection process, we believe that you
can achieve great success with offshore software development projects.
Here are some key guidelines:
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Find a good software development partner
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Possibly send a pilot project to the offshore software development
company and evaluate the result
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Work towards establishing a long term relationship
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Visit your development partner (if possible)
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Establish good management practices
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Don't expect too much from the start. Offshore Software Development
in Bulgaria is profitable in the long run; not just for one-time
projects.