When a company makes a decision on software development outsourcing, one of the things they care about most is monitoring the development process lead by a third-party company. That’s clever; leaving a project without any control won’t make any good. This doesn’t mean you suspect a company-outsourcer has unqualified staff, or not enough technical expertise, or experience in software development. Project monitoring is a necessary part of software development outsourcing, it’s the way to ensure everything goes right, and to be able to notice any worrying signs and react in time.

So, speaking about software development outsourcing, how to arrange proper monitoring? Below there are four most commonly used means of project control:

  • Conference calls – It’s been said enough about the importance of communication; and conference calls are a convenient way to communicate regularly, and discuss the development process. If calls are set on a regular basis, like weekly or monthly calls, both a company-client and an outsourcer may better be ready for the discussion, having all necessary questions prepared.
  • Onsite meetings – Though not as frequent as conference calls, meetings are a means of monitoring software development outsourcing that gives clearer idea of how a project is progressing. This controlling means is also important for software development outsourcing, for it helps to know the company you’re dealing with, a bit from inside.

Apart from calls and meetings, regular reporting is also significant for monitoring software development outsourcing. Typically, the following reports are used:

  • Project progress reports – containing the information about the work done during a certain period of time (a week or a month, I don’t think daily reporting is a great idea). Thus the progress will be more visible.
  • Problem reports – Any occurring troubles should be mentioned in a problem report, containing the detailed problem description and its possible impact on a project.

Monitoring projects’ progress is a common practice in software development outsourcing. Conference calls, meetings, and reports help a company-client be in the current of the status of their outsourced projects. All these controlling means should be described and agreed in a contract, and (this is essential) should be used regularly.