Practitioner’s view of the success factors for software outsourcing partnership formation: an empirical exploration

Software Outsourcing Partnership (SOP) is a client-vendor relationship focused solely on mutual trust and dedication that achieves mutually beneficial objectives. Often, a well-established outsourcing relationship may be converted into outsourcing partnerships. The development of SOP depends on various success factors. The research method attempts to solve the problem following a two-step process of Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and industrial survey with 70 experts. The results obtained are disseminated and analysed based on ‘expert level of experience’, ‘company affiliation’, and ‘expert outsourcing role’. Moreover, from a client-vendor perspective, factors are classified according to their criticality. Based on Spearman‘s correlation test (rs =0.406 and ρ = 0.040), we argue that the survey results regarding the factors are consistent with the previously published findings of the SLR. The results of this study suggest that, in rode to successfully renew or promote outgoing outsourcing ventures, outsourcing companies should address all the identified factors especially the most critical one.