SDIT Offshore Software Outsourcing matrix

1) What is your main business?

A: Our business covers many fields. The main focus of our business is to provide software development, off-shore service and solutions to businesses in the area of e-business, finance and manufacturing.. We can also provide services in system integration, database solution, web application, SQA and Testing services, product maintenance and offshore development center.

2) What's your Offshore Outsourcing development process?

A: Our outsourcing development process usually goes as follows:
Requirement analysis. Our representative(s)/partner(s) or our CTO/CEO will discuss with you in person to make sure that we understand what you want and what we are going to do. A talk over the phone will do for a very small project (say a small static web site).
Design and development. We do this kind of work in Shanghai.
QA test. Besides test on our own, we may ask our client to test our software to get early information of our work in long distance..
Deployment. Either remote installation or installation locally in the US by our representatives/engineers.
Maintenance. If you need any help, feel free to let us know. We definitely provide technical support.

3) What is your technical staff availability?

A: It would be arranged according to the size of project. You should inform us in advance if the project involves more than five software engineers. We could initialize the project immediately for smaller projects within three engineers.

4) What is your technical strength?

A: We are qualified in .NET, J2EE. Many excellent developers gather in our company, some of them have more than 6 years experience in software-related fields. CMM3 standard is followed step by step for us. We also adopt Rup, Agile, Waterfall and other software development process methods, which can help us go the extra miles in meeting our clients` needs.

5) How do you control the quality?

A: Quality is the core expertise. For SDIT, quality is controlled by means in the development life cycle. The SQA team should get involved in the project as early as possible to control the process. We hold peer reviews in each stage of the lifecycle and attendees are SQA, requirement analysts (RAs), developers, PM, SCM, test engineers and personnel related.

After much communication, requirements should be clarified/confirmed with the client. Then an Issue List should be updated. Several peer reviews are needed for design and prototypes are delivered to the clients for verification. During the process of development phase, major modules will be sent to the client and modification should be made based on their feedback. Before the developed software is handed to the test team we perform unit tests and integration tests. Test teams then execute various types of tests, for example: load tests, performance tests, etc.

If necessary, bugs/defects found in the software should be documented, analyzed, fixed and then handed to the client.

6) Could you offer some case studies on your projects?

A: Yes, we have 18 cases altogether. Here are some of them.
School Web Creator Project
We have undertaken a European project to develop a web creator application. At first, the project created a web-based application that set up school information automatically. That way user’s could submit information online. This project was set up on the basis of the ASP.NET framework and its management process is CMM3 compliant. The project came out successfully, which proves the importance of concrete communication in Offshore Outsourcing between SDIT and its clients.
Online Course Delivery System
We help a leading continuing education company in the States develop their Online Course Delivery System. Their existing Online Course Delivery System includes course content management, user record administration, and billing and reporting functions. The Client wants to develop further to bring the entire education process online and provide better service to their customers. SDIT has assisted the client to migrate from the existing Online Course Delivery System using CGI/Perl/PostgreSQL to J2EE (JMS, EJB, JDBC, JavaMail) technology to satisfy the need of the fast-growing user group. We believe, the new system will deliver a more reliable and responsive solution.
Commercial Website
We helped a consulting firm in Maryland re-design their commercial website using ASP. ASP did a lot of work establishing an efficient and effective communication and quality assurance process between both parties. Our client was happy with the solution, which was delivered before the deadline.

7) What measures do you adopt to reduce risks?

A: we do exactly what the CMM3 process asks. RM (risk management), PM (project management), CM (change management), and SQA (software quality assurance) are very useful for us to minimize risks.

8) What are the Testing methodology & standards you adopt?

A: As for the beginning, on the application, the test team should gather all of the needed documentation through a test including business requirement documents, system requirement documents and design. Then they should start the testing process.
By these documents, the test team can get a general idea of the testing application and define the testing scope, such as the test aims, objectives, strategies, and etc.

Determining testing scope:

What are the main objectives and orientations of the testing application?
What are the major characteristics of the application?
What is the relative importance of each element in the software functionality?
What are the critical or high-risk functions of the application?
What are the testing priorities?
What are the general quality goals?
If both the test plan and test cases are finished, we then start the test process, bug tracking and fix, bug report, etc.

9) How do you protect the Intellectual Property (IP) rights?

A: The Chinese government paid great attention to the protection of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) as China joined WTO in 2001 and it has been considered as a part of the reform and opening policies as well as the build-up of the socialist legal system.
As we all know, IPR protection is of great importance to the promotion of technological improvement, cultural glories and economic development. SDIT also realizes this and does everything possible to protect our clients as well as our own IPR. We have learned many materials, such as: Trademark Law of PRC, Copyright Law of PRC, and Patent Law of PRC. Besides that, SDIT also follows the International standard protection of IPR, according to Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, and the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).

It is a fixed process to sign Non-disclosure Agreements between SDIT and our clients for the insurance of the profit of our clients. By doing this, information cannot be disclosed in an irrelevant circle.

10) Could you give the example of your contract clause with IP protection policy?

A: Here is a copy of one of the contracts between our business and one customer.
In addition you can add any reasonable IP protection clause as you like.

OWNERSHIP AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

1 Third-Party Intellectual Property Rights.
The vendor shall obtain any Intellectual Property Rights of third parties necessary to enable the parties to produce and exploit the Work Product or otherwise perform their obligations hereunder. Before commencing, or authorizing commencement of, commercial production, marketing, use or distribution of any products or services based on the software, vendor shall provide the sponsor, at sponsor's request, with a report showing the clearance of all Intellectual Property Rights on which the Vendor's software may be based.
2 Rights in Software.
Any software (programming and documentation) produced by Vendor under this contract shall be owned by sponsor, and, subject to any limitations associated with other Intellectual Property Rights of either party or third parties, sponsor shall have the right to exploit any relevant copyright interest and grant licenses thereto without obligation to another party.
3 Customer's Rights Contingent on Payment in Full.
Sponsor's rights under Article 2 are contingent upon sponsor's performance of its obligations under this contract, including payment of charges due, and no right or license is granted or conveyed by vendor to Customer except when and as such obligations are performed.
4 Exclusive Statements of Rights and Obligations.
This Article mainly discusses confidentiality including the exclusive statement of the parties' respective rights and obligations under this contract considering Intellectual Property Rights. Except as expressly stated in this Article, nothing in this contract or any course of dealing between the parties will be deemed to create a license from either party to the other of any Intellectual Property Right, whether by estoppels, implication or otherwise.

11) What is your price infrastructure?
A: Generally speaking, USD$ 13-17/hour on average. We could provide you a pricing matrix table if you want.

12) What about the payment?
A: We prefer the wire transfer. The down payment for the project is around 30% to 50% of the whole sum, different from the project size and delivery terms.

13) Do you have any oversea presence?
A: Of course, we have representatives and partners in the US in both east and west coasts.

14) How do you work with your oversea client?
A: We consider communication as the most important factor though it is a challenging work. Never worry too much. A sound requirement can still be received from our documented communication process. We also send the progress of the project every week to our client and keep in touch daily.