What can go wrong during IT Outsourcing?

What can go wrong during IT Outsourcing?

July 21, 2020

There are thousands of things that can go wrong but if you are aware of them and can take preventive actions the risks are not so high. For each individual case we perform risk analysis to identify potential risks, their probability and impact. There are common things that can go wrong and from our experience most of them are related to miscommunication.

Language barrier

Language barrier complicates communication, and information can be easily misinterpreted, lost or incomplete.

Solution: We use English for all communication with our clients and all written documentation. Our employees have appropriate English level and continuously work on improving it. We have English courses available for all employees.

Too many communication chains

Sometimes it happens that there are too many communication layers between end-users, decision-makers, and development team. It makes the process of continuous feedback too long or impossible at all and results in delays or/and re-work.

Solution: Every development team works tightly with their Product Owner who has a full view of all aspects of the product. The team is cross-functional and takes responsibility for all aspects of the development process thus minimizing the need for communication. The whole Dev team participates in regular Demo and Planning meetings that allows to talk directly to all the stakeholders.

Cultural differences

We are located in Lviv, Western Ukraine in the East of Europe. There is only 1-hour difference in time zones with Denmark, 1400 km from Copenhagen or approximately 2 hours of flight.

The small difference in time zones makes meetings arrangement within business time easy. Our clients are always welcomed to visit our office, see how we work, and enjoy food in our restaurants.

We have regular team-building events where we do some activities outside the office. Some of such team buildings are in Denmark that really helps to build closer relationships and better understand the culture of each other.

Other risks

There are a lot of other risks of course, such as technical, quality or time-related risks etc.

We concentrate most of our attention on forming a competent Team and building proper communication with the Client. When we are successful with this then we can solve all other potential issues and focus on achieving goals.

Orest Mykhaylovych, Business Unit Lead at InterLogic