Nikolaus Schmidt

Beyond the Border: A Comparative Literature Review on Communication Practices for Agile Global Outsourced Software Development Projects

Software development is increasingly heading in the direction of combining agile software development practices and outsourcing software development to external vendors worldwide. The resulting agile global outsourced software development (AGOSD) projects are characterized by applying agile methods to distributed environments, which results in several problems for collaboration and coordination. Specifically, communication between the project participants has been found to be a major challenge in distributed environment. Therefore, our study investigates the problem of improving communication in distributed settings by identifying suitable communication practices for usage within AGOSD projects. Based on an extensive literature review, our study (1) provides an overview of adequate practices for usage in AGOSD and (2) points out differences to traditional communication practices of agile software development (ASD) projects used in collocated, non-distributed environments.

Mind the Gap: An Analysis of Communication in Agile Global Outsourced Software Development Projects

Many organizations are currently combining information technology outsourcing strategies with agile software development practices. The resulting agile global outsourced software development (AGOSD) projects involve joint virtual client vendor teams that apply agile development methods for delivering software, and are specifically challenging in terms of appropriate communication. Therefore, our study provides insights on this topic by evaluating agile communication practices for the usage within AGOSD projects. Our study (1) empirically identifies formerly unknown agile communication practices and (2) provides a practical relevance ranking of communication practices for the usage within AGOSD projects. With our results, we shed light on the as-of-yet under-researched topic of communication practices within AGOSD projects and therefore provide important knowledge for both theory and practice.

The Clash of Cultures in Information Technology Outsourcing Relationships: An Institutional Logics Perspective

The outsourcing of information technology (IT) to external vendors promises lower delivery cost while attaining higher delivery quality. Despite these positive prospects, many IT outsourcing (ITO) projects still fail. On key aspect for non-working ITO engagements are cultural differences between organizations, teams, and individuals. This study explores the concept of culture in the context of ITO relationships by identifying and explaining particular cultural differences in such relationships. Building upon data from focus group discussions, we identify specific cultural differences in ITO relationships on the level of national culture (macro), organizational culture (meso) as well as team and individual culture (micro). Based on this, we apply the institutional logics perspective as a theoretical lens to derive institutional logics in ITO relationships, which explain and reason the identified cultural differences. With our results, we shed light on the under-researched concept of culture in ITO based on a multi-level analysis approach.

How to support clients and vendors in IT outsourcing engagements: the different roles of third-party advisory services

The outsourcing of information technology to external providers has been a phenomenon for organizations around the world since decades. The main reasons for this trend are, for example, cost reductions through scaling, the temporary inclusion of specific skills in the own organization as well as the joint development of innovative solutions with an external partner. The client organization “RetBa,” a major private insurance company, was facing serious quality and performance issues in the delivery of the workplace services. Hence, in 2005 they decided for an outsourcing solution aiming at moving the responsibility for managing IT workplace services for over 50,000 seats worldwide to the external service provider “EuTu.” Over the years, the outsourcing project faced several problems due to the lack of performance and delayed delivery of services by the service provider EuTu. To solve these quality issues and avoid further failures, in 2011 RetBa appointed Scaleit Consulting, a third-party advisor. Scaleit Consulting had the responsibility to identify the causes for these issues, revise the workplace strategy, and support RetBa in the communication with the service provider.

Outsourcing 2.0: Towards an Innovation-Driven Process Model for Client-Vendor Relationships in Information Technology Outsourcing

While most ITO deals focused on cost-reduction through outsourcing of already matured services, tasks and systems, many ITO engagements are moving into new directions – the joint identification and exploiting of innovative, IT-based ideas to generate additional value for the organization and strengthen its market competitiveness. This paper proposes to investigate how the client-vendor relationship need to be modelled, structured, and managed to foster innovations within ITO. To answer our research questions, we conducted an explorative field study by interviewing 16 ITO experts from both client and vendor organizations. Our research results in an enhanced client-vendor relationship process model consisting of five process steps as well as corresponding categories describing management actions focusing on innovation generation within ITO client-vendor relationships. The contribution of our study is the development of an innovation-focused model for managing such relationships and the extension of our understanding of ITO management in times of increased digital innovation.

Understanding the Vendors' Needs: A Repertory Grid Study on Client-Vendor Relationship Quality in IT Outsourcing

The outsourcing of information technology (IT) to external vendors promises lower delivery cost while attaining higher delivery quality. Despite these positive prospects, many information technology outsourcing (ITO) projects still fail, often due to an unsuccessful client-vendor relationship. Most research to date has focused on investigating this relationship from the clients’ perspective, even though the vendor is equally important for success. This study empirically identifies 65 vendor-focused factors influencing the development and maintenance of a successful ITO client-vendor relationship by applying Kelly’s personal construct theory and the corresponding repertory grid (RepGrid) method. All factors were thoroughly analyzed and categorized based on an a priori conceptual framework for interorganizational relationships derived from organizational exchange theory. The analysis of the identified factors yielded client organization specifics such as top quality client team members, client involvement as well as client team member’s networks as especially important for ITO relationship success from the perspective of the vendor, while identifying age of relationship and prior experience with similar projects as less essential compared to prior studies on this topic from a client perspective. With our results, we shed light on the as-of-yet under-researched perspective of the vendor’s needs in ITO relationships and we provide indications for gaps in our knowledge on this important topic.

Identifying the Giants: A Social Network Analysis of the Literature on Information Technology Outsourcing Relationships

After more than 25 years of research on information technology outsourcing (ITO) in general and ITO client-vendor relationships in particular, an already comprehensive body of knowledge is available on this important topic and related phenomena. This study sheds further light on the existing knowledge on ITO client-vendor relationships by applying social network analysis and content analysis methodologies. Based on our approach, we were able to (1) evaluate key articles, authors, and journals covering the research topic, (2) analyse the development of ITO client-vendor related research in the last 10 years and, most importantly, (3) identify gaps in our knowledge on ITO client-vendor relationships. Specifically, our research identified several gaps in our knowledge on important ITO client-vendor relationship concepts such as trust, control, and knowledge transfer. In accordance to Lacity et al. (2010), our results show the need for indigenous theories on ITO as a next step in further enhancing our understanding of the topic. We emphasize further research on ITO client-vendor relationships and provide distinctive research directions for the research community.