The following section depicts the key risks and mitigation steps as identified by “Managed Service Provider” for typical engagements. The key risks will also be a part of status communication at various levels with the client team.

Scope change during project

• Clearly defined baseline scope prior to commencement of engagement
• Clearly defined procedure for scope change management
• Regular and periodic planning of the development workload in advance to minimize load fluctuations

Inadequate understanding of applications/systems/business processes

• Regular Knowledge transfer between functional team & “Managed Service Provider” development team.
• Involve “Managed Service Provider” in functional team if possible
• Formalize procedure for assistance from functional team in specification and test plan reviews
• Continuity of key “Managed Service Provider” resources during the entire engagement

High onsite presence requirement might lead to lower cost benefits

• Have a proven onsite-offshore balance for this engagement

Lack of clarity of roles and responsibilities and unavailability of key client resources

• Clear mapping of roles and responsibilities
• Clear documentation of Operating Procedures to define flow of work between various parties
• The resource requirement would be communicated to clients at the start of the engagement
• Not meeting project requirements due to delay in connectivity set up and bandwidth issues
• Start connectivity set up as soon as contract is signed
• Plan for redundant network connections (“Managed Service Provider” standard practice to use VPN’s, etc.)
• Propose a faster link in order to have faster connectivity between offshore development centre and client network. The bandwidth requirement needs determined during planning stage or before and to be reviewed periodically.

Cultural Differences

• Key client personnel to attend cross cultural workshops
• “Managed Service Provider” resources to undergo ‘Cross cultural sensitivity’ training

Informal incident and issue resolution process

• During initiation, formalize issue resolution process
• Identify most frequent types of issues/problems and agree upon resolutions for these

Attrition Risk

• Please refer to Section 3.6 for our approach to mitigate attrition

“Managed Service Provider”’ Project Management methodology has been created and fine-tuned on the basis of several thousand years of project experience. The Project Management methodology draws on industry standards and best practices. “Managed Service Provider” Project management process is an integral process that spans the entire project life cycle.

The approach revolves around Methods, Tools and metrics designed specifically for effective management of large scale, global programs. Our approach is consistent with the Project Management Institute (PMI) body of knowledge on project and program management. Our methodologies are designed to manage six core program processes:

• Scope Management
• Program Planning
• Cost Management
• Quality Management
• Resource Management
• Risk and Issues Management

This toolsets enable management and control of these processes. Key features include:

• Collaborative partnership with Service Recipient and SAP for effective governance.
• Methods, tools, and metrics that are designed specifically for effective management of large scale, global programs.
• Consistent with SAP’s ASAP Methodology and the Project Management Institute (PMI) body of knowledge on program and project management

Testing Tools: Some of the test tools we have used for different types of testing as part of our SAP engagements are Load runner, Mercury Test Director, Rational Test Studio, Rational Performance Studio, Win Runner

Communications Methodology

“Managed Service Provider” believes communication management for global delivery is extremely important and needs to be planned and executed for the success of a global delivery project. A typical “Managed Service Provider” communication management plan for the project will consist of:

• Communications Planning

• Develop the project communications plan
• Identify  who needs to see what information, when and how
• Information Distribution
• Conduct ad hoc performance reporting
• Conduct regular project progress reporting
• Close PMM phase/ASAP Roadmap phase
• Close the project

• Performance Reporting

• Administrative Closure

The plan would also cover requirements for global delivery:

• Differences in language (if any)
• Time zone differences
• Dependency on tools, software, etc. for regular communication

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