Agile Outsourcing, from Idea to tested Software

Archive for May, 2009

Choosing a supplier: Talk to them (Part II) Christian S. 29 May 09

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Talking to the supplier and their references is crucial in understanding whether a supplier is suited for your project. Talking to the supplier’s sales contact is a start, but you also need to talk to the people who will work on your project.


Use behavioural interviewing (High) The basic idea of behavioural interviewing is this: future performance of a person is best predicted by understanding past performance in a similar situation. Focus is on experiences, behaviours, knowledge, skills and abilities that are job related. Ask the interviewee to use the STAR method to structure their answer. Using a combination of behavioural questions and the STAR method forces the interviewee to go beyond simple yes/no answers.

  • S – Situation; background; set the scene
  • T – Task or Target; specifics of what’s required, when, where, who
  • A – Action; what was done, skills used, behaviours, characteristics
  • R – Result; what was the outcome, what happened

More information here:
http://web.mit.edu/career/www/guide/star.html
http://www.career.caltech.edu/resources/handouts/STAR_Interviews.pdf


Talk to the whole supplier team (High) You want to talk to the people who you will be dealing with on a daily basis first; project manager, team leader or lead developer. But also talk to the rest of the team, if they are already known. Interview topics are: Past projects, technical understanding, project management process used and allow for a bit of friendly chit/chat. By using the STAR method, you should be able to get a pretty clear picture of how the team has approached similar projects in the past.


Do you get along? (High) This can’t be underestimated. If you don’t get along with the project manager or the team lead, request someone else to take the place. Sometimes it only needs is someone else who interfaces with you directly. During our search we encountered two project managers we were not sure about and raised our issues when talking to the references. In both cases our suspicion was confirmed and we went on to use another company.


Talk to references (High) Ask for several references, if possible in your country or area. Out of obvious reasons the supplier wants to connect you with a satisfied client, so asking for several specific references increases the chance of getting a more balanced review. Asking for a reference in our area helped us tremendously. We got honest feedback about suppliers and interestingly enough they got a mixed review. Follow up on all references; chances are that the work done in one of them resembles your own project. Make sure you get references for the type of application that you are planning and, if you already know it, for the technology you are using. Many suppliers are specializing in one technology but happily take other projects also. And again, ask the questions with the STAR method and you should get useful reviews.

Choosing a supplier: looking at the available information (Part I) Christian S. 15 May 09

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After discarding the bids that are not realistic, the next step is to compare the bids that are still on the table. Here are the criteria we used and the weight we gave them in brackets:


Reviews posted on the freelance market places (Low) should minimize the risk of engaging with a fraudulent company. But these reviews have several issues:

  • Reviews work best when the expectations of both parties are clearly defined: for example on Ebay, buyer expects delivery of the right product in-time and in working order, seller expects prompt payment. Deviations are penalized with a bad review.
  • Reviews on a freelance marketplace reflect more on the relationship between buyer and supplier. The ability to post a bad review declines the better the parties get along. But this is not equal to a successful project.
  • Writing a bad review is equal to admitting that you chose the wrong supplier in the first place.
  • Most companies don’t bother to write a review and the standard review questions are too general.
  • Suppliers can remove some of the negative reviews.


Profiles on freelance market places (Low) are sales brochures and have to be read as such.


Past work (Low – Medium) Most clients don’t give permission to use their applications as examples of work. Therefore advanced projects are hardly ever shown. Projects that have been developed a few months ago are often much more advanced than at time of delivery due to ingoing developement by the client. Sometimes really bad work examples are shown and that should acts as a deterrent.


Supplier Website (Low – Medium) If you are looking for graphical and user interface work to be done then the website can say everything. Just make sure they didn’t outsource it themselves! The website of a professional supplier company should contain information about who they are, where they are located and the services they offer. A quick call to the phone number in the contact us section can also be revealing. If they also offer completely unrelated products/services on their website, software development projects might not be their main focus.


Certifications (Medium) can give an indication of the processes used to deliver a project and certify the skill level in specific technologies. Certifications are only valuable if they can be verified and are recent enough. Skill certifications are generally per developer but are often used by companies. Certifications are indicators if you are looking for specific skills or process adherence like CMMI or similar.