Frequenty Asked Questions
This section will try to address you queries and concerns on various aspects of outsourcing your software development offshore. This list has been compiled based on our past experiences.
After going through the FAQs if you still feel any of your queries or concerns remains unanswered feel free to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Please click on the following headings to view the contents or click on the '+' sign to expand and '-' sign to collapse a section.
A typical project startup phase will include a lot of Planning, Process Definition, Requirement Analysis and Team Development. The project start up phase can be anywhere from a week to months depending on the size of the project. This is a very essential phase of the project in which not just the technical requirements are understood but we try to find answers to the questions like
- What are the businesses needs which will get met from the development effort?
- What are the processes being used at customers end?
- Are all those processes required offshore?
- What sort of process customization is required?
- Who are the end users of the product / application?
- At what stage of development would they be involved?
- What are the project success criteria?
- Etc…
During the project start up phase we spend the required time in understanding customer needs not just from the technical standpoint but from the business standpoint as well. Take a look at what we try and cover under the project startup phase .
FDSC offers flexible pricing structure. For most of the software development projects it is either effort based pricing / time and material or Project based pricing / fixed bid.
FDSC offers you programmers at competitive rates. Price is important, but certainly not the only criteria that you should look at. Our programmers are skilled and can deliver quality.
FDSC believes clear and concise communication play a very vital role in success of outsourced projects. Due to the nature of the business model, its sometimes get very tricky to assimilate all project knowledge or communicate about issues, status etc die to disparate nature of the team and client. We have spent huge amounts to create systems or service, to minimize and eliminate such communicate gaps. Take a look at communication process.
We take following steps to avoid such a situation
- Encourage our customers to choose people on the team
- Feedback is sought on a regular basis
- Understand both customer and team/resource perspectives on a regular basis
In spite of the above if a situation arise in case where you are not happy with a particular resource we will replace the team member.
We can setup up the team's working hours to overlap with customer's time zone. We have a web based system in which issues can be logged. In case of emergency and if the team is working in a time zone greatly different than yours you could reach the team lead / project manager any time in your regular work day.
Yes. We have certified and trained internal auditors who can help in setting up and customizing the engineering processes. As part of the project start up phase we try to figure out what processes are actually required on the project, what processes are being used at customer's end and align the processes for the project accordingly.
- Try to follow a lifecycle which works best for the project like Agile.
- Try and deliver end to end functionality at the earliest.
- Get one workflow to work at the earliest.
- Get end users to test at the earliest.
FDSC and its project team usually sign an NDA with the customer to help intellectual property rights protection and follows standard procedures for physical and data security. If the situation demands then a dedicated facility with diskless nodes can be provided for additional physical and data security.
Most of the estimation techniques detailed requirements to be in place. The more detailed the requirements the better the sizing estimates which in turn are going to effect the time and cost estimates. The kind of information which is required is
-
Number of input screens
-
Number of reports
-
Number of users using the system
-
External systems to which the application would be required to connect to
-
Unique entities in the system
-
Workflows
-
How are the users going to be using the system?
-
What information would they seek?
-
Formulae / calculations required
-
Technology
-
Performance, Usability, Availability, Reliability, Throughput etc… requirements from the system
-
Etc…
Take at look at : How does FDSC arrive at estimates?
FDSC follows ISO 9001:2000 and SEI CMM level 4 processes.
Most commonly used are Agile, Iterative and Incremental methods. Take a look and the software development lifecycles for more information.
We always work towards catching issues as early in the development cycle as possible.The earlier the issues are found they would save time and cost during the later phases of development. This is done with having effective
- Communication Process
- Review Process
- Intermittent Deliveries
- Quality Assurance and Control
- Product verification and validation
80% of the software projects in the IT industry and maintenance projects. FDSC has experience in building as well as enhancing and maintain software products.
What kinds of tools can be used to streamline projects and make them run as efficiently as possible?
Some of the tools used for effective and efficient streamlining of projects are:
- XPlanner
- Trac
- Cruise Control
- Web Ex
Take a look at the project documentation section of our web site.
Rough order of Magnitude estimates (ROM)
- Wide Confidence Range of -25% to +75%
- Usually given at the initial stages to arrive at a Project Go / No Go
- Project Sizing techniques used at this stage to arrive at this stage are usually PERT, Direct Estimation, Three point estimation and Derived estimation techniques.
Detailed Estimates Fall into Two Categories Based on Accuracy
- Budgetary (Confidence Level of -10% to +25%)
- Defined (Confidence Level of -5% to +10%)
These estimates are usually given when the requirements have been clearly defined. The estimation techniques used at this stage are FP , use cases etc..
When the scope is fluid or flexibility is required we recommend our customers to go in for Time and Material based pricing
- Status review meetings
- Status Reports
- Web Based Tools