At the IBM Rational Software Development Conference last year the main hurdles experienced when outsourcing or offshoring projects to countries like China and India was a hot topic of discussion. One that came to the forefront was Communication.
Communication is one of the most important issues for any offshore outsourced project but the differences in culture will more often than not prove to be a stumbling block. So also could time zone differences. The Rational Conference panel advised outsourcers to use the Rational ClearCase version control tool, and the Rational ClearQuest bug tracking tool among others to help them through this. They advise that these tools can be used to facilitate communicating and coordination with the service providers.
Rational ClearCase allows the outsourcer to revise controls and configure management of the source code and other software development features. It is capable of handling projects with as many developers as there may be. It can be configured to support a large number of SCM (Supply Chain Management) needs. However it can turn out to be pretty expensive for small enterprises.
Rational ClearQuest is a workflow automation tool, particularly its bug tracking system. It can be used to create ordered steps for resources assigned to specific goals.
Originally designed to track bugs in software development projects, it permits a company to organize tasks that are connected to new features.
Alternatively, since these software are pretty expensive, one could decide upon using open source software such as Geeklog, Wiki, Bugzilla and CVS instead. Although they are normally used in IT offshoring projects they could be used in other projects as well.