Lessons from Offshore IT Outsourcing in India -
Spinning success
The Quality Mantra
India, which for long has had the reputation of
being an underdeveloped, poverty stricken and populous nation is
now metamorphosing into a "Software Super Power". It has become
a world leader in offshore IT outsourcing services, grabbing about
80% of the market. The leading players Infosys, Mastek, Satyam,
Tata & Wipro are familiar names in the Indian markets, for the
very fact that they are doing massive business in the global market
for offshore IT outsourcing and software development.
In a recent study McKinsey found that the Indian
firms ranked at CMM level 5 generating 96% quality improvements
and 75% productivity gains whereas U.S. firms ranked at level 2.
To quote Nandan M. Nitekani, Managing Director
and Chief Operating Officer at Infosys, "the fanatical attention
to quality has been the key to India's recent success in software
development"
India's software lobby, the National Association
of Software and Service Companies in New Delhi, estimates that the
annual revenue for India's Software Industry will grow from $6 billion
this year to $87 billion by 2008.
Rigorous quality control has been the key mantra
of leading Indian software companies. They have clear-cut quality
controls to achieve the International requirements.
A good number of these companies strictly follow
the CMM (Capability Maturity Model) Level for software, besides
the quality awards like ISO, which were established by US software
guru Watts Humphrey at SEI in 1987,
Factors favoring the Indian invasion in Global
IT market at a glance.
- High competent trained workforce
- Low labor costs
- Appreciation for software development disciplines
- Wide spread use of English Language
- Good practices for documentation, communication, sign offs and
revision Scalability, guaranteed delivery underlined by stringent
quality standards.
- Quantitative as well as qualitative process tracking mechanisms
to keep an eye on code size, number of modules completed, number
of defects found and tests completed.
Understanding the key to India's spinning success
in the recent trend of offshore IT outsourcing and imbibing its
quality mantra will go a long way in staying ahead...
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