1、 外文翻译 原文 Trust in software outsourcing relationships: An empirical investigation of Indian software companies Material Source: Information and Software Technology Author: Nilay V Oza, Tracy Hall , Austen Rainer , Susan Grey This paper investigates trust in software outsourcing relationships. Our ana
2、lysis of the literature suggests that trust has received a lot of attention in all kinds of business relationships. This includes inter-company relationships, whether cooperative ventures or subcontracting relationships, and relationship among different parts of a single company. However, trust has
3、been relatively under-explored in software outsourcing relationships. In this paper, we present a detailed empirical investigation of trust in commercial software outsourcing relationships. The investigation presents what vendor companies perceive about getting trust from client companies in outsour
4、cing relationships. We present the results in two parts(1)achieving trust initially in outsourcing relationships and(2)maintaining trust in ongoing outsourcing relationships. Our findings confirm that the critical factors to achieving trust initially in an outsourcing relationship include previous c
5、lients reference and experience of vendor in outsourcing engagements. Critical factors identified for maintaining trust in an established outsourcing relationship include transparency, demonstrability, honesty, process followed and commitment. Our findings also suggest that trust is considered to be
6、 very fragile in outsourcing relationships. In this paper, we analyses Indian software outsourcing vendors views on the role of trust in software outsourcing relationships. The study is based on an empirical investigation of 18 high maturity software vendor companies based in India. We aim to invest
7、igate the critical factors to achieving trust in outsourcing relationships. In this study, we consider software outsourcing as the contracting out of part or all of a clients software activity to a vendor company 13. The client is usually a company that outsources software activity to another compan
8、y (i.e. a vendor company) and a vendor is referred to as company that delivers the work for the client and receives remuneration as agreed. The scope of this empirical investigation is limited to software outsourcing vendors based in India who provide software systems and services to clients in mult
9、iple countries. Every company in the study has achieved CMM level 4 or 5 and therefore has high maturity software processes in place. With more companies outsourcing their software related operations, issues associated with the management of outsourcing relationships have attracted significant resea
10、rch interest. Current trends in both workforce composition and the organisation of the workplace suggest that the importance of trust is likely to increase in coming years. It is projected that people with very different backgrounds will come into contact and deal closely with one another. A diverse
11、 workforce is less able to rely on interpersonal similarity and a common background . In this context, the development of mutual trust provides one mechanism for enabling employees to work together more effectively. Trust has also received a great deal of attention in other fields such as network or
12、ganizations, organizational literature, health sector, computer science and social sciences. Furthermore, trust has been studied in personal relationships such as trust within a family or a society and trust in professional relationships such as trust in business partnerships, strategic ventures and
13、 international business. Indeed there is increasing evidence reported in the literature confirming the importance of trust in business relationships. Although software outsourcing increasingly involves a subcontracting business relationship between companies from different countries, there has been
14、little investigation of trust in the context of software outsourcing relationships. Given the potential importance of trust in outsourcing relations and the lack of research in this area, we have undertaken an empirical study of trust factors in outsourcing. We conducted a review of trust definition
15、s across disciplines to develop a working definition of trust in the context of software outsourcing relationships. Widely accepted definitions on trust are found in the sociology 20, social psychology 16, organisational19 and management literature 21. Despite disagreements, the definitions show tha
16、t researchers across disciplines converge on two important issues about trust 19: The willingness to be vulnerable (risk) (Positive) expectations. However, it is argued whether trust is about taking risk or assuming risk. Furthermore, some researchers define trust as confidence in expectations 20 an
17、d others define trust as confidence in expectations that others will do what is right 22. On the basis of our analysis of the literature, we present the following working definition of trust in the context of software outsourcing relationships: Trust in software outsourcing relationships is clients
18、and vendors having positive expectations of each others actions, while having a rational interest in maintaining that relationship in the awareness of the risk in those expectations. There are only a few studies in software outsourcing which attempt to investigate the role of trust in outsourcing re
19、lationships。 Sabherwal 23 suggests the role of trust in outsourced development projects is critical and can increase the likelihood of project success. Zviran et al. 25 in their case study of outsourcing relationships found that the gradual development of trust can lead companies from being simply c
20、ommitted to a contract to becoming long-term strategic partners. Humphrey 26 states that trust is the foundation for an effective contract. He argues that when a trusting relationship is assumed, the software development process has a new degree of freedom, requirements can be handled more rationall
21、y, and a great deal of expensive documentation becomes unnecessary 26. Our study seems to be first of its kind in terms of investigating trust in a large number of high maturity software outsourcing companies of India. Out of the population of 78 high maturity companies (64CMM level 5, 14 CMM level
22、4), 20 companies (15 CMIM level 5 and 5 CMM level 4) participated in this research. Two interview recordings could not be retrieved due to an audio recorder problem. They are not included in the investigation. Eighteen cases are analysed. Given the population of 78 high maturity companies in India,
23、the response rate for this study of 20 participants in total is 26%. All of these companies are of Indian origin with a presence in multiple countries and a client base in Europe, USA, Australia and Japan. All companies have been in the outsourcing business for more than 5 years. All of the intervie
24、wees have direct experience of managing software outsourcing projects. However, in this study, the importance of undertaking software outsourcing project can be considered more than just the number of employees in the company. In this study, we have not analysed yet if there is any impact of demogra
25、phics on the results. Vendors believe that relevant references help clients to get an idea of their strengths to undertake the outsourcing work. References were considered as the primary source of initially achieving trust by vendors. One vendor said: References help us to a great extent, if I pull
26、out a long customer list then people will say see they are working with scores of such companies, they can work for us. Furthermore, vendors also reported that it is important to give the relevant reference to the client. References should not be referred randomly but chosen based on the prospective
27、 clients interests such as the area of business, outsourcing objectives and geographic location. On the basis of the literature and this empirical investigation it seems that a better understanding of software outsourcing relationships is required. Consequently, attention to trust research in other
28、disciplines is worth exploring as to its relevance to software engineering research. In software outsourcing, maintained trust-based relationship can bring out better results in outsourcing projects particularly in geographically dispersed outsourcing projects. Most interviewees considered trust bui
29、lding from the initial stage of the relationship. Showcasing their references and past experiences in managing outsourcing projects is a primary aid to achieving trust. Maintaining transparency throughout the outsourced project and demonstrating outcomes seem important to maintaining trust throughou
30、t the relationship. The importance of trust in software outsourcing was clearly identified by interviewees in this study. Trust achieving factors such as the reputation of the company, expectation management, and effective communication are also identified in most other studies on trust (Parkhe, 199
31、9; 12,37. Although many of our findings on trust are consistent with other studies on trust, the criticality of the factors differs from the other studies. For example, transparency throughout the project is the most important factor to maintain trust. Although, transparency is indicated in many oth
32、er studies, it has not been reported to be of the high importance. Our investigation provides only a preliminary outline of how trust develops in outsourcing relationships. These findings are limited in the sense that this study only presents how vendors get clients to trust them and not the other w
33、ay round. The other part of the relationship is also important which is how clients get vendors to trust them. Furthermore, the information provided by the vendors can be considered as highly reliable due to their long experience in the software industry, outsourcing business and their senior positi
34、on in the company. Furthermore, all the participating companies have been successful outsourcing vendors for a long time with the experience of a number of successful outsourcing projects and high maturity processes. These companies are most likely to have identified appropriate strategies to manage
35、 relationship well. 译文 软件外包的信任关系：一个印度软件公司的实证调查 资料来源 : 信息与软件技术杂志 作者： Nilay V Oza, Tracy Hall ,Austen Rainer ,Susan Grey 本文调查软件外包的信任关系。我们的相关文献的分析建议表明信任已经得到了众多商业业务关系的注意。这包括公司内部的关系即合作经营或分包关系是否存在单一公司不同部分。然而 ,信任在软件外包关系中相对来说还是没有充分开发。 在本文中 ,我们在商业软件外包的关系中呈现信任关系的详细的实际调查。调查描述关于外包关系那些供应商公司从客户公司得到了怎么样的信任。我们把结果分为
36、两部分：首先在外包实现信任关系；保持外包关系中的信任。我们的研究结果证实，在外包关系中实现信任关系最关键的地方在于过去外包供应商的客户关系参考和经验。 在本文中 ,我们分析印度软件外包业务供应商对软件外包业务关系这个角色的看法。这项研究是以 18 家高度成熟的印度软件供应商企业的实证研究为基础。我们的目的是调查在外包关系中实现互信的关键因素是什么。在本研究中 ,我们考虑软件 外包作为缔结软件供应商公司客户活动的合同的部分或全部。客户通常是一个公司，软件外包活动对其他公司（例如一个供应商公司）和供应商来说是指公司收取报酬作为同意提供客户工作。 本实际调查的讨论范围仅限于以印度为基地的软件外包供应
37、商对在多个国家的客户提供的软件系统和服务。 每个公司在这项研究中都取得了 CMMlevel4至 5级并且因此在有些方面具有高度成熟的软件进程。 随着更多的企业外包他们的软件相关操作，外包管理的相关问题已经引起了重大研究兴趣。当前的趋势同时在劳动力构成和劳动力组织的工作场所建议信任的重要性在未来几年 可能增加。这是预计不同背景的人将会与彼此密切的接触和应对。不同背景的员工比较少能够依靠个体之间的相似性和普通的背景。在此背景下 ,彼此信任的发展提供了一个机制来确保员工共同工作能更有效率。 信任已经收到了其他领域很大的关注例如网络组织、文学组织、卫生部门、计算机科学和社会科学。此外，信任已经在人际关
38、系上取得了一定的研究例如在合作伙伴关系，战略投资和国际企业。事实上越来越多的证据表明文献确认对商业关系中信任的重要性。 虽然软件外包越来越涉及到不同国家的公司之间转包合同的商业关系。这里有个小调查关于信任在软件外 包背景下的关系。在外包关系和缺乏这方面研究的领域，信任因素是一种潜在的重要性。我们已经着手信任因素在外包方面的实证研究。我们回顾了跨学门的信任的定义来发展一个在软件外包关系背景下实际的信任的定义。在互相信任的基础上普遍接受的定义出现在社会学、社会心理学、采矿地质学和管理文学。尽管有分歧，定义显示关于信任因素，研究者们跨学门地集中在两个重要学科。一是愿意变得脆弱 （风险）。二是（正面）
39、期望 然而 ,对于信任是否是关于承担风险和冒险的说法仍有争议。此外 ,也有一些学者定义信任是一种期望值，其他学 者定义信任是一种期望值并且其他人会“做正确的事”。基于我们文献的分析，在软件外包关系的背景下我们提出以下信任的工作方面的定义。软件外包的信任关系是客户和供应商对彼此的行动有积极期待 ,一边有合理的兴趣在维持这些期望方面的风险意识的关系。 在软件外包方面只有少数的研究试图探讨在外包业务关系信任的角色。Sabherwal建议互信关系的角色在外包发展中是非常关键的并能增加项目成功的可能性。 Zviran et al在他们的外包关系的研究案例中发现信任的逐步发展会导致企业仅仅致力于一份合同而
40、无法成为长期战略合作伙伴。 Humphrey认为信任是合同有效地基础。他指出 ,当存在一个信任的合作关系，软件发展进程将会有一个新的自由度，需求也会变得更加合理化，大量的昂贵文件就变得不必要。我们的研究在调查信任因素在印度许多高度成熟的软件外包企业方面似乎是首项研究。从 78家高成熟度的公司 (64家公司 CMM5级 ,14家公司 CMM四级 ),20家公司 (15家公司 CMIM5级和 5家公司 CMM等级 4)的人参与了这个研究。由于音频录音机的问题，两个面试记录的录音不能被检索。因此他们不包括在调查中，18例进行了分析。给出印度 78家高度成熟的公司的人 ,有 20家参与者反应率是26%
41、。所有这些公司起源于印度在多个国家存在，客户主要在欧洲，美国，澳大利亚和日本。所有的公司在外包业务方面有超过 5年的经验。所有的受访者有管理软件外包项目的直接经验。 然而 ,在此研究中 ,进行软件外包项目的重要性被认为是不仅仅是在公司的员工人数。在本研究中 ,我们没有分析在结果上是否有任何影响人口统计学的。供应商相信有关科技资料帮助客户来了解自己的优点进行外包工作。参考文献被供应商认为是最初的主要来源来获得信任。一家厂商说 :“参考文献在很大程度上帮助我们 ,如果我拿出一段客户名单就会有人说 看到他们正与许多这样的公司一起工作 ,他们可以为我们工作。”此外 ,供应商也报道给予相关的参考文献对于
42、客户也是很重要的。参考书不应该被随机援引但选择是基于客户未来的利益例如商业地区，外包目标和地理位置。 根据文献和实证调查看来，对软件外包关系有更好的理解是必需的。因此，注意信任研究在其他学科相对于软件工程的研究是值得探索的。软件外包维持关系能带来了很好的资源外包项目的结果。大多数受访者认为互信能建立初级阶段的关系。展示他们在管理外包业务方面的参考资料与过去的经验是实现信任关系的主要援助。在维持在外包项目和演示结 果的透明度似乎对于维持整个信任关系很重要。在本研究中软件外包方面信任的重要性被受访者明确的鉴别。实现互信在互相信任的基础上还发现在大多数其他的研究中如公司的声誉，预期管理和有效地沟通。
43、尽管许多对于信任因素的发现我们跟与其他人的研究是一致的，但是信任的临界因素是不同的于其他人的研究的。例如 ,在这个项目中透明度对于维持信任关系是最重要的因素。尽管透明度在其他研究中被表明没有那么高的重要性。我们的调查对于在外包关系中如何发展信用关系只提供了初步的轮廓。本研究只显示供应商如何得到客户信任而不是另外一种方式，这些发现 在一定程度上被限制。 此外 ,在软件业、外包业务和在公司的地位的经验证实供应商所提供的资料被认为是高度可靠的。此外 , 所有参与此项活动的各家公司已经成为成功的软件外包供应商很长一段时间了，并具备很多成功的外包项目经验和高度成熟的发展过程。上述公司的最有可能具有被认同的合适的策略来很好地管理外包关系。
