A Review of Critical Success Factors for Offshore Software Development Projects

Abstract

Offshore projectsuccess is very much important to both customer and the vendor. Based on veryless success rate of overall software projects globally, critical successfactors (CSFs) for offshore software projects is gaining much importance. Inthe current study based on literature review, a total of 75 success factors foroffshore software projects are identified. Further based on their appearance inliterature 20 critical success factors from 10 CSF categories are identified.Finally top six most critical success factors for offshore software projectssuch as trust, efficient communication,cultural understanding, relationshipbetween client and vendor, contract type and efficient knowledge transfer are identified. The CSFs categoriesare prioritized in the order of importance. The important CSF categories foroffshore projects identified are organizational factors (both client andvendor), project factors, cultural factors and environmental factors.