M. Ali Babar, M. Vierimaa, and M. Oivo (Eds.): PROFES 2010, LNCS 6156, pp. 146–160, 2010. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2010 Critical Success Factors for Offshore Software Development Outsourcing Vendors: An Empirical Study Siffat Ullah Khan 1 , Mahmood Niazi 1 , and Rashid Ahmad 2 1 School of Computing and Mathematics, Keele University, Keele, ST5 5BG, UK s.khan@epsam.keele.ac.uk, mkniazi@cs.keele.ac.uk 2 College of EME, National University of Science & Technology, Rawalpindi, Pakistan rashid@ceme.edu.pk Abstract CONTEXT – Offshore software development outsourcing is a contractual busi- ness of high quality software production with significant cost-saving. OBJECTIVE – The objective of this research paper is to analyse the factors that influence software outsourcing clients in the selection of offshore software out- sourcing vendors. METHOD – We have performed questionnaire surveys with 53 experts. We asked the participants to rank each success factor on a five-point scale to determine the perceived importance of each success factor. Our survey included success factors identified in the previous findings of systematic literature review study. RESULTS – Our study reveal both cost-saving and appropriate infrastructure as the most influential factors in the selection of outsourcing vendors. Our results also indicate that appropriate infrastructure, cost-saving and efficient project management are common success factors across different groups of practitioners. CONCLUSIONS – Cost-saving and appropriate infrastructure should be con- sidered as the prime factors in the selection process of software development outsourcing vendors. 1 Introduction Software development outsourcing is a contractual business between client and ven- dor organisations in which a client(s) contracts out all or part of its software develop- ment activities to a vendor(s), who provides agreed services for remuneration [1]. Offshore software outsourcing is dramatically changing the business economics in the overall outsourcing industry due to the availability of skilled human resource and pro- vision of high quality software at low cost [2]. This research focuses on the need to gain an in-depth understanding of the range of criteria used by the software development outsourcing clients for the selection of software development outsourcing vendors. Understanding the selection criteria will help software development outsourcing vendors in addressing those criteria in order to be fully ready for software development outsourcing initiatives. This may also help to ensure the successful outcome of offshore outsourcing projects and long lasting relationships between clients and vendors.