DigitalEditingSoftware.net - digital editing software

In areas of China and the Asia Pacific, most of software outsourcing projects are accounted at a fixed rate, and this contract mode brings a mistaken concept to firms that it will cause inconvenience but have no effect on project investment because of this project delay. In fact, any delay of project not only causes inconvenience but also affect operation and benefit of firms. If a new business can’t be put out into marker by reasons of not ready for its software or information related, and others occupy the opportunity, how it will affect the firm. Or a project is developed for simplify internal workflow and improve work efficiency, then delays of the project will prolong the operational choke point and increase operational costs. All these affect a lot on benefits of company directly or indirectly, not merely on the matter if investment will increase or reduce?

However, in Europe and America, outsourcing projects are mainly accounted by actual numbers of work days, so it will impel to overspend if project is delayed.In this case, to avoid project delay is an important target to judge management capability of project manager. Project managers have to monitor schedules and risks of outsourcing project effectively to avoid delay of project and extra development charges. We can learn this management idea to manage outsourcing projects in China to guarantee that project can be achieved before deadline.

1. Establish Our Own Project Plan

As a project manager, you can not adopt project plan of outsourcing provider completely and chuckle to yourself to pass over project planning. Even if it is an outsourcing project, you have to make a full project plan by yourself, then you will know exactly about the whole workloads, evaluate the price to negotiate with outsourcing provider, ensure technicians who will be involved, judge if outsourcing provider can provide sufficient resources and if the promised time is feasible.

Having made the project plan, firms should require outsourcing provider to provide a full development plan before starting the project. In order to avoid numerous paperwork, some outsourcing provider usually claim that the plan provided before signing contract is the whole project plan. This tell us that they have no system of integrity on development management and project management?and their project manager is not suitable for his job. Any employable project manager should realize that the preliminary plan for delivering the project made in period of contract negotiation can’t be all-around, and it needs modification to be a feasible plan according to actual contents of the contract, add actual workloads, assignment of resources, and time required.

After getting the project plan from outsourcing provider, we need compare and check it with our own plan carefully to understand if it tallies with requirements of the project, that is workflow of the whole project, contents, estimated workloads and arrangement of resources. It is necessary to clarify timely and make it acceptable to each other if there are obvious difference. The project will be started formally after the project plan of outsourcing provider has been confirmed, and now it’s time to monitor the project.

2. Concerned On Evaluating the Schedule

Outsourcing contract should ask outsourcing provider to provide schedule reports regularly. I have seen many project schedule reports, and they are different a lot in contents, however, most of them explain definitely which parts have been completed, which parts are going on, which parts will be taken up in next report period, and whether the work has been completed on time or not, even more, some use different colors such as red, yellow and green to show status of progress.Basically speaking, all these information can only allow directors to see the project roughly?but can’t make the project manager hold the schedule of the project in hand.

In my opinion, the best way is that we should know how many tasks have not been finished, how long they will be complete, which parts have not start and will they start as scheduled, and is there any change on planned resources. If answers are different from original plan, we are supposed to question ourselves immediately, find out main reasons why the task haven’t been finished or why not start according to the schedule. Consequently we can discuss it with outsourcing provider, how to bring the project into normal schedule. Such finished tasks have become history to us and they have little effect on the schedule of the project. The parts haven’t been completed or haven’t start are the key of project, and they are in need of monitoring in particular

We need confirm the schedule reports offered by outsourcing provider to make sure if tasks have been actually finished as planned. The best way is when each program module is finished, we need let outsourcing provider to list original codes and testing results of the program. And let technicians and user representatives check the results to confirm that work provided by outsourcing provider has been finished in fact. This procedure of confirmation doesn’t mean we do not trust outsourcing provider. We simply want to confirm if the schedules of the project have been finished as planned, and ensures the person in charge is able to report to boss about the accurate status of the schedule.

3. Closely Associated When Checking and Accepting

The biggest risk of the software outsourcing project is not in development progress, but appears after the project has been finished.Many of them often turn up problems in program logic or editing range of data entry during checking and accepting period, which result in differences between testing result and real requirement, outsourcing provider cannot but modify a lot to result in project delay. Sometimes, outsourcing provider complains that it ’s not their fault. Avoiding these risks, you’d better check and accept the project at the same time of developing, but not to do it until tasks have been closed.

It is not a proper idea that some firms put it as a last work to check and accept. Checking and accepting of project should be on it?s way, begins and ends at the same time of project development, and then can make sure the final procedure of checking and accepting successful. Another mistake in software development is to ask developer to create testing data for module testing and system testing.

Technician have limited knowledge of business operation, and only users know ranges of these datas and what information of the data is accurate. Therefore, an experienced project manager usually asks user representatives to assist its module and system testing in project process, and establish testing data for technician testing. Testing data of every module are offered by users. To prevent us from disputing, outsourcing project is suggested to test with this method. When outsourcing provider delivers original codes list and testing report of each module, users and technicians of firm check it together, and guarantee the results consistency between testing and users’ data, and at last check and accept the system successfully, and cause no fatal delay.

4. Distributing Time in Reason

It is more complicated to manage an outsourcing project than develop it internal, and more milestones are necessary to be established to monitor the schedule of the project.More communication and negotiation are needed; firm members should cooperate with the schedule of outsourcing provider constantly and supply with data needed for testing, all these will be handled in extra time.

Generally speaking, it supposes that an internal project will be completed in 500 workdays, 50~75 workdays are for project management, about 10%~15% of the entire workloads. And the same 500 workdays of outsourcing project needs another 75~110 extra days to manage this project. In other words, it takes 15%~22% of workloads for firms to manage outsourcing provider. Certainly, these data are only for reference for software development outsourcing projects, every project and outsourcing provider have difference management requirements. However, it is an unchangeable rule of project management, we can not think that outsourcing allows us have no management requirement .

Ten years ago I started my first online business venture out of the basement office of my home. I put together a Web site selling scrapbook products on my wife?s suggestion that scrapbooking was emerging as a hot niche in the crafting industry.

Keeping up with the day to day chores of running my own business challenged me to manage my time wisely. Preparing my email newsletter each month consumed many hours of my time. I wrote the sales copy and made sure all the links in the newsletter worked correctly. Cleaning my mailing list of email addresses I dreaded the most.

I wanted to make sure that all unsubscribe requests got properly removed from my list. The software maintaining my list had no reliable way of accomplishing this task so I did it all manually. I broadcast my newsletter to my squeaky clean list but how much time did it take me to keep it that way? Answer: Way too much time.

Penny wise and pound foolish means being cautious with small amounts of money but careless with large amounts. What large amounts of money was I being foolish with? My time. Time is money and being cautious with my money by purchasing inexpensive email marketing software (penny wise) resulted in using way too much time (pound foolish) because the software woefully lacked features I needed.

Building trust and relationships is what email marketing is all about. A big part of that trust is built upon how well I managed my subscription lists. When someone on my list asks for removal, I want to respond accordingly. Not complying with these requests puts my business reputation at risk. But there are additional concerns.

Domain registrars are taking spam complaints more seriously and many openly provide complaint forms on their Web sites. Too many complaints reported to my domain registrar could give them reason to disable my domain. I didn?t want to have my thriving online business suddenly brought to a standstill because my domain got shut down.

Also, the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 dictates that email sent to the requestor’s email address must stop within 10 business days. Each violation of CAN-SPAM provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Ouch!

After several software trials, I found that Mailloop 7 from Internet Marketing Center met my needs of processing subscribe and unsubscribe requests automatically through a list of filters and rules. Now I maintain as many lists as I need to keep up with the demands of my business. But most important, I will never again worry about marketing to anyone who unsubscribes from my list as the software automatically maintains a ?Master Unsubscribe List? to make sure of that.

Another part of my online marketing strategy is using an autoresponder to cut down on the daily chore of answering frequently asked questions. Though I?ve provided the answers in a convenient FAQ, I still get email inquiries on a daily basis.

Autoresponders use my customers’ desire for instant gratification to my advantage. A single autoresponder frees me from the tedious task of responding to each and every request?such as manually sending out purchase confirmations?giving me time to focus on more profitable areas of my business. But that’s not all.

Unlimited sequential autoresponders enables me to send a personal response instantly; and then a personalized follow-up message a few days later; and then a friendly reminder a week later; and on and on! Using this method of communicating with my customers greatly increases my sales.

Cheap alternatives for email marketing abound on the Web but the question remains: “Are you being penny wise and pound foolish?” Think of a carpenter who frames houses for a living. Is he using a hand saw or a power saw? Is he using a hammer or a nail gun? If the carpenter doesn’t take advantage of the tools of his trade that will boost his productivity, he will soon find himself looking for a new career.

If you are still using inferior software to help you maintain your subscriber lists, it’s likely that you’re wasting lots of precious time trying to maintain a competitive edge in your field. Find a robust software solution that is well worth the money invested in its cost. Compare it with other email marketing solutions in its class. Ask if it has spam checking, statistical reporting and my favorite, unlimited autoresponders. If you do your homework and invest in good software, you will save hours and hours of time that could be better used in more important matters of your business?and you won?t be accused of being penny wise and pound foolish.