Offshoring and SLA: Notes from my talk to PMI’s GTA IS group
Here are my eclectic thoughts on interactions with managers and executives in the Toronto area during my presentation on “Managing Offshore IT Outsourcing Projects”
The organizers, PMI’s Greater Toronto Information Systems Local Interest Group, brought their Project Management expertise to the fore in coordinating the logistics and organization. Right from the time my proposal to speak was accepted, Ed Streich did an excellent job of keeping me updated of the event and logistics.
One of the more interesting questions was on "cultural impact" and SLAs: whether the varying business practices and culture in different countries impact the definition and enforcement of Service Level Agreements in offshored IT projects.
I will not claim to be an expert on the legalities of defining SLAs but the significance of having a common understanding of the project tasks and deliverables cannot be undermined. Defining and ensuring adherence to Service Levels is among the more critical aspects of governance that Program Leaders focus on. The adherence could be looked at from various dimensions including conformance to Master Services Agreements (MSA) and individual Statements of Work (SOW). Project Managers typically don’t work in silos; they leverage the strengths of the subject matter experts and others in the organization and team. This holds true of the activities in defining SLAs, ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions, and in getting a successful sign-off of the work-products delivered.
Typical reasons for negation or renegotiation of SLAs include things that are “assumed.” Case in point: aspects of QoS -- Quality of Service, a.k.a Non Functional Requirements -- are sometimes overlooked because one or the other party (either the offshoring or the service delivery team) “assumes” that the requirements are “standard.” One could argue that good requirement gathering and definition would also address and resolve such ambiguities around functional and non-functional requirements. But what if they are not resolved….and the ambiguity impacts the SLAs of the end deliverable? Needless to say, this is a challenge that many IT project face, and not really specific to offshoring projects alone…. But offshoring can magnify the impact of such “gaps” in requirements, a “gotcha” that Offshore PM’s need to watch out for.
Bottomline: Work done by teams halfway across the globe have a way of exacerbating challenges too…hence the need for better governance and management.
ps: Drop me a note and I will be glad to share a copy of my presentation.
Comments
Would be delighted if you could send me a copy of your presentation.
"Cultural impact and SLA" is an intriguing question. I would love hear what was the specific question and any notes on the surrounding discussion.
Thanks.
Posted by: Shailesh Joshi | November 24, 2006 01:44 PM
Thanks Shailesh,
You are right, the topic of "Cultural impact and SLA" requires some introspection by practitioners (like us).
In the audience there was a mix of managers from different organizations in varying stages of sourcing and offshoring “maturity” One group of managers from a bank were from a PMO that was managing a large-scale offshoring initiative with a tier-one vendor. They had been through the offshoring learning-curve and could speak a bit on their experiences and challenges. A few managers in the group were just embarking on defining offshore sourcing strategy at their company and were inquisitive about the challenges here.
The challenge of SLAs goes to heart of client-vendor relationships even in co-located projects where vendors supplement client’s staff…and gradually increases in significance in turnkey projects, outsourced initiatives and becomes crucial for signoff of offshored projects.
ps: A copy of the presentation is already posted at PMI's (past) events portal
Posted by: Mohan | November 26, 2006 01:53 PM
I am captivated to see SLA being discussed in this forum. It interests me a lot to know how SLAs get re-defined/plays altogether different roles from risk mitigation to performance management as the client-service provider relationship grows from transactional to partnering.
Could I have a copy of the presentation?
Posted by: Saji Mathew | December 1, 2006 05:32 AM
Hi! I am in the process of gathering information to decide on the SLAs of offshoring projects to Mumbai. The discussions in this forum have been quite a good read. Can I have a copy of the presentation?
Posted by: Laxmi Iyer | October 18, 2007 05:25 AM
Hi,this helps. And I am wondering whether a copy of the presentation is still available to be sent out? I would appreciate to have one.
Posted by: Mika | July 4, 2008 12:31 PM