Dynamics of the Amount of Control in Offshore Software Development Projects

This paper investigates changes in the variety and intensity of formal and informal control mechanisms in offshore software development (OSD) projects. Based on a comparative case study approach our results confirm existing findings such as that the amount of control varies across different projects stages, but also contribute with new findings. For example, we found that particularly the quality of project deliverables in early project phases will lead to an increase of the amount of formal control. However, these quality problems do not necessarily lead to an increase of informal control. In return, an increase in quality of deliverables will subsequently decrease the amount of control. An important finding is that in contrast to prior studies our results do not support that the amount of control is directly related to project success. Altogether, our study contributes to the further understanding of the dynamics of the amount of control, its influencing factors and its relationship to project success.