Transcript Slide 1

Leveraging Offshore Software
Services
A Guide For Smaller Companies
September 5, 2007
www.synerzip.com
About Us (Synerzip in a Nut-shell)
1. Offshore software development partner for
small/mid-sized technology companies
•
•
•
•
Focus: A/B round funded technology start-ups
Deep experience in product development and testing
Full software development life cycle
Flexible engagement models: Fixed-Price OR DedicatedTeam
2. Actually reduces risk of development/delivery
•
•
Experienced management team
Light-weight but robust Agile process
3. Reduces cost – dual shore team providing 50%
cost advantage
4. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates)
taking offshore team captive
Confidential
Experienced Team
Team of seasoned professionals with extensive experience
in offshore software Product Development
• Hemant Elhence, Chief Executive Officer
–
–
–
–
Co-founder & COO of ECMi, venture funded software product company
Product-line VP at i2 – managed product portfolio with multiple offshore teams
Manager at McKinsey & Co, Consultant at TRG
Software engineer at Digital Equipment Corporation
– BSEE IIT Delhi, MSEE Univ. of Massachusetts, MBA Univ. of Chicago
• Vinayak Joglekar, EVP & Chief Technology Officer
– Co-founder & CTO of ECMi, lead offshore (India) development center
– 22+ years experience in software architecture design & product development,
has built and mentored 100+ teams, hired 1000+ software professionals
– Successfully delivered off-shore software projects for 20+ companies incl. AlfaLaval, First Guarantty, Cyberdrawer, etc.
– BSME IIT Bombay, MBA IIM Calcutta
Confidential
Our Clients
Confidential
Common Myths
FALSE 1.
FALSE 2.
FALSE 3.
FALSE 4.
TRUE 5.
FALSE 6.
FALSE 7.
FALSE 8.
Confidential
Only large companies/teams can leverage the offshore
advantage
Engaging with an offshore team means a significant IP risk
To be considered for offshoring, a project needs to have
completely detailed software requirements and design
You can easily engage an offshore development team at
1/10th the cost
To get the work started and offshore team productive need
significant commitment and involvement from local team
It is complex to make the distributed/offshore team
processes – source code control, issue tracking, etc - to
work via VPN etc.
Agile development model doesn’t work with offshore teams
Agile model cannot be used with a “fixed-price” project
Is Offshore For You?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Scale: size of software team,
incl dev, maint, QA
Talent Availability: how easy is
it to find good software talent
locally?
Engineering Discipline: how
disciplined is you in-house dev
and delivery process?
Engineering Leadership: do
you have a seasoned “VP of
Engineering”?
Company Culture: healthy
attitude and willingness to
accept “global” talent
Confidential
< 3 FTEs
> 20 FTEs
Easily
available
Tough – need to
interview 20 to
find one good
Ad-hoc – no
written req doc,
fluid release mgmt,
no QA
Disciplined –
well defined,
waterfall or
Agile
Missing engg
leadership, only
business savy mgmt
Seasoned VP of
Engg with next
level team
Insular and
insecure
Open minded,
healthy “global”
view
Mindset: The World is Flat
• An offshore operation will provide you a long-term
structural competitive advantage
• But, it is a bumpy road initially, in spite of best efforts,
plan to hit a few bumps along the way
• The important thing is to…
– Embrace offshore with a healthy attitude and spirit
– Do it with required long-term commitment and planning
– Follow good management hygiene of learning from mistakes &
good communications
• Remember, it is very easy to make the offshore effort fail!!
Confidential
Basic Principles
1.
2.
3.
4.
Start small – say 4 to 12 man-month well defined “project”
Match offshore team composition with needed work content – hire
heavy hitters for challenging work and vice-versa
Ensure proper infrastructure set-up for distributed development –
source code control, VPN, wiki, etc.
Follow management hygiene
•
•
•
•
•
5.
6.
7.
Over communicate (docs, email, wiki, video-conf, skype, etc.)
Over compensate for project mgmt
Define success criteria & track (results oriented metrics, avoid counting
hours!)
Clear management ownership with aligned incentives on your team
Learning cycles
Treat offshore team as “your” team
Maintain continuity of work & team
Get started with a partner, but preserve the right for own captive
operation later
Confidential
Pick the Right Model
“Fixed Price Project”
“Dedicated Team”
Client project is reasonably well
defined and “independent”
 We spend time upfront to
understand the work content
We spend time upfront to
understand the work content
 We assign a dedicated team, with
direct involvement from client
 We scope the work – resources,
time, $$, and assign team
 Client responsible for work content
planning and delivery
We deliver using “Incrementally
Priced Agile”
 For the first 3-4 months we actively
manage to ensure smooth start-up
 All scope changes negotiated along
the way in good faith
 Client retains option to “buy their
dedicated team” anytime they want
• Projects need to be well
defined and independent
• Will still require client
team’s ongoing involvement
• Client needs to have
engineering leadership
• Client needs to have longterm interest
Confidential
Fixed Price Project
Phase-0
Phase-1
Phase-2
Discovery
Scoping & Planning
Development & Delivery
Iteration #1
Iteration #2
Client Inputs
Project Description
Mgmt Considerations
Techology Reqs
Synerzip Deliverables
Open Questions
Assumptions/Risks
Rough draft docs
Engagement Proposal
Team Process
Light interaction level
Meetings
Conf-calls
Demos
Duration
2 to 8 weeks
Iteration #3
Req document - draft
Existing design docs
Dev guidelines
Responses to Synerzip queries
On-going respones to requirements related questions
Design doc reviews
Functional test case reviews
Software demo feedback
Req doc - completed
Priortized use cases
UI wireframes
Data model design
Selected design details
POC, if needed
Project plan for Phase-2
Acceptance test cases
Working software (demos)
Well documented working code
Fairly copius interaction level
In person meetings
Bi-weekly conf-calls
Document exchanges
Web-ex working sessions
Video conf-calls, if needed
Periodic conf-call/meetings for req, UI, tech design review
Working demo review and feedback at the end of each iteration
2 to 6 weeks
4 to 16 weeks (1 to 3 week per iteration, typically 3-4 iterations in all)
$5K to $20K Fixed
$3K to $15K per iteration, charged incrementally per iteration
Cost to Client
$0
Formal Project Kick-off
Confidential
Build Dedicated Team
Gradual, 2-Step Transfer
TRANSFER
TRANSFER
5
Offshore Team Size
20
BUILD
4
8-12 FTEs
15
3
20+ FTE Client’s
India Operation
~15 FTE Client
Team Hosted
@Synerzip
10
2
5 to 8 FTEs
5
1
Start of Offshore Engagement
with Synerzip (3-5 FTEs)
6
Confidential
12
18
Engagement Time (months)
24
Contact Information
•
Hemant Elhence (Dallas based)
– [email protected]
– Office Phone: 469.322.0349
– Cell Phone: 214.762.4873
•
www.synerzip.com
Confidential