Managing Offshore IT

Though not exactly a ‘project management challenge,’ it is certainly the responsibility of the managers to ensure strong processes around source code management. As the Software Guru Martin Flower in his article  “Using an Agile Software Process with Offshore Development” states: I always advise teams to check their documents into a version control system so people can easily get the most up to date material. This is particularly important when you are doing remote work. Mark Murphy also articulates the "The Challenges of Remote Collaboration" in his blog, highlighting some key challenges:
Social issues also come into play. If the teams adopt an us versus them mindset, they might well wind up working at cross-purposes, with Team A being slow to adopt Team B's work due to distrust or outright disdain for who Team B is and what they are working upon. This is exacerbated by time zone and language differences that make real-time communication difficult.

A few version control tools - CVS, ClearCase, SubVersion, Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (and a remote access solution for VSS, SourceOffSite) come to mind. Of course, one can begin with a Wikipedia scan  or Software_Configuration_Management

Technology and nature of code and artifacts being versioned will determine selection of the tool, and of course a preference based on existing framework would be a key driver. But what tool is appropriate for Offshore development, or multi-site application development? Answer may be “it depends,”  especially since most offshore software development will also leverage remote access to common servers or repositories. This said, tools that have built-in remote access, tracking and management capabilities may lead the pack.

Before I open this thread for debate, here is an input from James Farley, a Principal Architects:
In terms of the client's requirements, I'd advise them that "automatic merge capabilities" are a pipe dream.  In my opinion, there's no such thing. It's almost like asking for a tool to automatically merge two documents edited by two people. Some person is going to have to do the merge, with assistance from the tool in terms of delta views, etc.

Well, is the client going to get a), b), c) and d)?