Global IT Outsourcing: Software Development across Borders

by Sundeep Sahay , Brian Nicholson , S. Krishna

• ISBN13: 9780521039482
• ISBN10: 0521039487
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-08-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book offers key insights into how to manage software development across international boundaries. It is based on a series of case studies looking at the relationships between firms from North America, the UK, Japan and Korea with Indian software houses. In these case studies, which have typically been compiled over a 3-4 year timespan, the authors analyse the multi-faceted challenges encountered in managing these Global Software Alliances (GSAs). These challenges range from the conflicts that managers face when dealing with distance, to the tensions of transferring knowledge across time and space, to issues in trying to establish universal standards in a context of constant change, and the problems of identity that developers and clients experience in having to deal with different organizations and countries. Throughout the book, the authors draw on their extensive research and experience to offer constructive advice on how to manage GSAs more effectively.

Table of Contents

List of figures

List of tables

List of boxes

Foreword

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

Introducing the phenomenon of global software work

Globalization and global software work

Globtel's GSA programme In India

The Globtel-Witech relationship: a 'standardization' perspective

Global software work: an identity perspective

The Globtel-MCI relationship: the dialectics of space and place

Managing the knowledge transfer process: the case of Sierra and its Indian subsidiary

The case of Gowing and Eron GSA: power and control

Cross-cultural communication challenges: GSAs between Japanese and Indian firms

Reflections and synthesis on theoretical insights

Managerial implications

Index

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