Project Quality: The Achilles Heel of Offshore Technology Projects?

Technology projects today are being increasingly executed in project sourcing structures that span country boundaries. However, the performance implications of such offshoring efforts are often ambiguous vis-à-vis those that are executed within country boundaries. Further, little is known about project execution capabilities that may be central to improving the performance of offshore technology projects. This study attempts to shed light on the above issues using data from technology projects distributed within and across country boundaries. The study findings are twofold. First, a comparative analysis of project performance across 702 technology projects reveals that projects executed offshore realize significantly lower performance related to quality and technical goals compared with projects executed within country boundaries. Second, a subsequent in-depth analysis of the offshore technology projects in the sample highlights the enabling but differential performance effects of project execution capabilities. Specifically, we find that while risk management planning capability is central to improving project adherence to schedule and budgetary goals, agile project management capability is central to improving project adherence to quality and technical goals in technology projects executed offshore. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings, implications for technology research and practice, limitations, and directions for future research.