Product details

Jharna Software was a medium-sized Indian software developer with an offshore centre in the United States. The team in the United States usually performed systems analysis and design work at the customer''s site, while the rest of the development process was done in Indian development centres. Jharna Software was doing very well and had earned many prizes for export performance from the Indian government. It was, however, increasingly pressured by its main US clients to adopt the emerging agile methods to produce quality software in a shorter time and with limited budgets. This case builds on the fundamental concepts of software engineering such as the plan-based approach (eg, waterfall model) and the agile approach (eg, extreme programming). Although agile methods are seen as an improvement over plan-based methods, they have various requirements (eg, dynamic requirements analysis, frequent face-to-face meetings, lack of structure, strong emphasis on people rather than processes) that are difficult to meet in the offshore environment. Plan-based methods therefore are commonly used in offshore locations, and the case explains why.