The Impact On The Product Development Process When Offshoring Or Outsourcing

This paper investigates the impact on the product development process when a company offshores or outsources a part of it abroad. Data was collected through interviews conducted in fi ve companies. The study showed that the impact can be both negative and positive. The key impact was the possibility of a more complex development process due to cross-cultural virtual communication and collaboration. This meant a spiral development process is harder to offshore or outsource than a generic one. However, this complexity can be lessened by making the process or product simpler and by codifying and documenting processes and tasks to provide a common frame of reference.