Evaluating Your Project's Potential for Outsourcing

Topics: Outsourcing, PMO, Portfolio Management

Format: Report / Evaluation Assessment / Questionnaire / Evaluation Form

Concerns over rising costs when planning, developing, and maintaining IT projects amidst increasing pressures from new technologies and competition has led Information technology (IT) management staff to the need to outsource resources. But before jumping on the outsourcing bandwagon, companies are encouraged to first:
•    Understand the needs and constraints of the organization
•    Identify and prioritize the goals of the project
•    Identify and quantify the appropriate measures for offshore operations
•    Conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the outsourcing alternative
The primary motivations for outsourcing include: cost savings, the desire to avoid or defer high risk capital investments in new technologies, and the need to focus on the core business processes of the organization. Recently, more importance is given on outsourcing’s business benefits, the soft dollar (or qualitative) savings, and the strategic purposes of outsourcing selective pieces of the IT environment.

This extensive deliverable includes areas for a summary of evaluation requirements, identifying your company's goals and needs, and establishing your success criteria. It describes the factors that help determine outsourcing’s pros and cons as a project development option, analyzes its cost-benefit and risks, as well as other requirements under it.

What will you get out of this?

Completing this template will give you a much clearer picture of why your project should or should not be outsourced - based on objective criteria. This way you can be at the forefront of the process, versus letting the process happen to you.