It Outsourcing Risk Factor Identification Studies

With the development of economic globalization, communication and Internet technology, software outsorcing increases dramatically. Just as outsourced and multinational IT projects become more common, managing risks for these projects is increasingly important. For over 30 years, reports about framwork for identifying risks of outsourced IT projects have been brought forth by foreign scholars , without considering the type and period of outsourced IT projects. Meanwhile, these literatures are all from customer's perspective. As very few documents about this subject are appeared at home, It is significant that we must development a framework for identifying risks of outsourced IT projects , which are in line with China's national conditions.Through the review of past reseach, I proposed the framework for identifying risks of outsourced IT project ,from the vendor perspective,which is in light of my own 8 years practical experience on outcourced IT projects.To test the rationality of the framework, I conducted a case study method with 4 experienced project managers, all from outstanding domestic software enterprises. 10 different projects containing 4 types outsourced IT projects are provided by them, both the success of the projects also include the failure of the projects.For the in-depth interview the semi-structured programming method is used to collet data. The main conclusions are as follows:(1)I also identified a number of new risk factors, which conform to china's conditions, in addtion to all existing risk factors from the framework.(2) Four varieties outsourced IT projects are affected by different types of risk factors; The first two types of projects are more influenced by product dimension; Behind the two types of projects are more effected by customer dimension.(3) In various stages of outsourced IT project implementation; In the first and fourth stages, the success of the project is more influenced by customer and environment dimension;In the second and third stages, the success of the project is more affected by product dimension ; In the last stage, the success of the project is more effected by product and customer dimension.The conclusions offer references for formulating the strategies to avoid the risk, at a time when contractors are undertaking the outsourced IT projects.