Rating system for software outsourcing arrangements

The market for outsourcing of IT services constantly grows with one of the major outsourced services being software development, often to emerging economies. Even though the benefits of outsourced software development can be an important incentive there still exist great risks especially for smaller businesses that generally do not obtain the necessary experiences to manage or even find an adequate provider. Thus, the objective of our study is to compile a holistic framework that covers all relevant aspects in the evaluation of a software provider in the context of outsourcing of software development. In order to reuse already proven evaluation concepts the paper identifies nine useful models for evaluating performance or service quality. Based on those, a dedicated model is developed which takes further practical factors in consideration. Through a survey with outsourcing experts the relative importance of the included dimensions and factors were determined.