Analysing Attrition in Outsourced Software Project

Information systems (IS) outsourcing has grown as a major business phenomenon, and widely accepted as a business tool. Software outsourcing companies provide expertise, knowledge and capabilities to their clients by taking up the projects both onsite and offsite. These companies face numerous challenges including attrition of project members. Attrition is a major challenge experienced by the outsourcing companies as it has severe impact on business, revenues and profitability. In this paper, attrition data of a major software outsourcing company was analysed and an attempt to find the reason for attrition is also made. The data analysis was based on the data collected by an outsourcing company over a period of two years for a major client. The results show that the client initiated attrition can have an impact on project and the members quit the outsourcing company due to client initiated ramp down without revealing the reason.