6.1 Conclusion and Contributions
This research empirically assessed the critical success factors for offshore software projects using multi-method approach. Then, investigated to what extent SMEs (ICT) of Pakistan are equipped with technology infrastructure and latest software tools, models and techniques empirically assessed by conducting questionnaire survey. Then narrowing down the research, the crucial component of software development industry, human capital is assessed from two dimensions. First, Glocal experiment is done to investigate the local software developers capability required to develop global software systems. Second, field experiments conducted to investigate the human capital capability against the software process improvement practices globally accepted. The MikMak Theory of Entrepreneurship & Innovation is one of the contributions for SMEs startup that is based upon the findings. In investigating the research problem, this study found that national software development firms employ limited use of documentations, etc and extreme engineering model is effective for small software development firms. The researcher argues that current study has vital contributions and implications to theory & practice as well as policy development:
6.1.1 Contribution #1 This study has investigated the critical success factors using the case studies approach that comprised of 06 small and medium software development enterprises. The investigated critical success factors is an implication to theory and identified CSFs includes the understanding of the goals of venture/project, clients culture awareness, high context culture and leadership skills, top management, customer involvement, employee empowerment, technical capable team and established IT infrastructure. The findings will be fruitful for software project managers, software engineers, programmers, system analyst in their project plan and its completion. The software development firms may plan, organize, and control their resources based upon the findings. This conclusion determined that offshore software project may leads to failure unless firms have policy to share the information among employees about critical values and factors required in the project development.
6.1.2 Contribution #2
A valuable outcome of this study was that small firm’s top management or senior management actively involves and commitment was guaranteed. SMEs have fast communication, customer involvement and no political factors. Therefore, these firms can win the loyalty of customer by completing projects within in time, budget and specification. This
6.1.3 Contribution #3
The investigated capability of software development firms showed that national software industry is equipped with latest technology, software tools, software models and software engineering techniques to facilitate the local as well as global clients. The NSI can be globally promoted as new destination for offshore information system or software system development work after equipment of its human capital with project management, analytical skills and software engineering skills.
6.1.4 Contribution #4
The research provided positive signals to the government and entrepreneurs that offshore software development valuabley contributed to the economy of country by generating wealth and creating employment as well as profit to entrepreneurs. Therefore, it is useful for government policy maker to develop separate policy for offshore software development firms to attract potential entrepreneurs and foreign direct investment in the country.
6.1.5 Contribution #5
The research contributed a new method of comparison i.e. The Glocal Experiment. This valuable contribution is not only specific to software development industry but it can be applied in any industry to evaluate small, medium enterprises. It will be helpful to investigate the gaps exist between global and local business environment, competence skills and other factors etc and will provide guidance for corrective actions.
6.1.6 Contribution #6 This is the only study that has investigated small and medium software development firms in Pakistan. This study described that small and medium enterprises are vitally contributing to create entrepreneurial culture to launch software firm.
6.1.7 Contribution #7
It is determined that SMEs lack documentations practices, training culture and separate quality assurance practices. There is need to concentrate on these practices by medium size firms while small firms should care these activities when they become enough capable from financial, employment and infrastructure perspective. The challenging output will support small firms to avoid waste of resources on these practices and will advise medium size firm to go for implementation of these practices. Agile Development Methodology is recommended for small firms while CMM can be implemented in medium firms.
6.1.8 Contribution #8
The extreme engineering model is proposed by the research as an effective means for small and medium software development enterprise. In knowledge economy, the gap between the customer and developer will generate gap in the specification and its conformance. The extreme engineering model encourages employee empowerment, customer involvement and support of top management till the final product. The model leads to reduce the communication gap to zero% and would be helpful to produce defects free products. The firms can utilize this model for the betterment of customer, employee
and the firm itself. 6.1.9 Contribution # 9
This study has implications for academic institutions. They have to establish incubation centre for software development venture and students may require doing a 6 months house job in that incubation centres under the supervision of qualified faculty members. Moreover, they need to add courses to their degree program curriculum like Problems Analysis, Project Management and Leadership, Entrepreneruship etc. However, it is suggested that computing faculty may take assistance from management faculty for such courses like leadership, entrepreneurship. 6.1.10 Contribution #10
The researcher proposed a MikMaq2 entrepreneurship & innovation theory based upon this comprehensive research. The said theory will act as road map for new entreprenerurs & SMEs owners to equip themselves before launching new small or medium enterprise in knowledge economy.
6.2 Recommendations to SMEs
The researcher has made the following recommendations for small and medium firms for the offshore development projects:
1. Before initiating offshore projects, ensure the capability of IT professionals profile should include: Analytical, Project Management, Software Engineering, Technical and Communication Skills.
2. The offshore development team should concentrate on the following critical success factors: Understanding of the goals of Project, Clients Culture Awareness, High Context Culture and leadership skills in development teams. The inconsistency in practice has generated inconsistent project results and has given software development a bad reputation (Birmingham 1666; Sweeney Research 2003b).
3. The small and medium firms should confirm the support of the top management, customer involvement, employee empowerment, technical capable team and established IT infrastructure before entering the globalization.
4. The Pakistan Computer Society (PCS) should promote a professional certification scheme named Certified Software Professional at national level. PSEB, PASHA, and PCS should be promoted awareness of the CSP as an international certification, then IT professional should apply latest adopted practices in software development, software engineering and software processes to enhance the quality of offshore projects.
5. Academic Institutions should launch incubation cenre for the training of new graduate in computing as well as launching a new small business venture. They should also offer certification and short courses on entrepreneurship and small business management skills.
6.3 Limitations of the Study
The current study was not without its limiations. First, it is limited to small & medium firms (software industry) registred in PSEB of ICT sector. The time required for the study was limited to time provided by the COMSATS Institute of Information Technology for the completion of PhD degree. There was financial limitation because research was self sponsored by researcher.
Future directions in research
As mentioned in previous chapters, this work has opened many possibilities for further research. The research can be extened to corporate entrepreneurship in multinational enterprises. Moreover, the limited application of software process development can be extended to large business enterprise to investigate the CMM certification capable firms. The future research should concern how the growing popularity of the CMM & CMMI will impact on the future espousal of ISO 15504 and other quality standard. The future research may explore the competitiveness of small & medium enterprises in other industries like textile, education etc so that entrepreneurial inititiave can be taken in the country to flourish entrepreneurial culture.
6.5 Concluding remarks
In summary, the research explored the critical success factors for offshore software projects/venture. Then it investigated the extent to which SMEs adopted the best practices about software development tools and techniques, software engineering methods and models and technology infrastructure required in globalization. Further, human capital competence is testified. In last, standard software process (SSP) adoption level in small and medium enterprises was investigated. To achieve the research objectives, case study, consultative approach, survey of the software industry, GloCal experiment followed by field experiments were executed. The researcher identified critical success factors for offshore software development and ranked them on significance basis using consultative approach. Then, it was inspected that software development firms in national software industry are equipped with technology infrastructure. After that, IT professional’s competence level determined that they are well equipped with technical skills, soft skills (communication skills), partially equipped with software engineering skills but not equipped with project management skills and analytical skills. Following on from this, a detailed investigation for standard software process i.e. CMM adoption level in small and medium software development firms was carried out. On the basis of above finding, researcher proposed MikMak Theory of Entrepreneruship & Innovation. The researcher commits that researcher objectives have been achieved and transmission of this research will assist Entrepreneurs, IT-professionals and Business Consultants, academic institutions to undertake successful offshore projects execution. It will also provide guidelines to entrepreneurs, individual professionals to equip themselves with the required competence that needed to be benefited from globalization.
