How to Fail an Offshore Project?

I am a Sales guy in my present life. Before that I was a project manager, project lead and a developer. In the last 15 years, I’ve been part of many software projects in various capacities; seen some success stories and seen a fair share of failures as well. I’ve been asked to write this article based on my experience with various projects, clients from different geographies. Before I started to write this, I thought of Googling what other people have said on the same topic. I was overwhelmed by the number of articles, studies and research papers I saw. Wow! I wondered if there is anything new for me to say that has not been said already. When in doubt, go to the BOSS (who is always right). He reminded me to write my experiences. So, here I go.

 Before I actually start on the reasons, let me share one peculiar thing that I found in my study of already available material. Most of the articles and studies available on the subject, focus majorly on the reasons for failure on the vendor’s side. In my experience, I have seen that both the clients and vendors can work very hard to fail the project. So, here’s my angle to attack this story. Developing of software product is a journey that starts from idea to Go Live to maintenance. The cause for failure can be inducted in this journey at any stage by any stakeholder. 

I’ve said earlier that right now I am a Sales guy. Every now and then, I get a chance to talk to a new potential client. I get to hear about their ideas for the development of new softwares. In today’s world softwares are not only developed by companies to help in their operations, but to be used by end users directly. These softwares can be in the domain of social applications, entertainment, e Commerce, education and what not. Many a times the client is just a person with an idea and not a company trying to develop something......

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