There is no obvious answer when it comes to determining how to outsource IT project work. The four key options are to perform the work onsite, offsite, nearshore, or offshore.

Each of these options has positive and negative attributes, and each project should be evaluated individually before choosing a strategy. Some projects are best to keep in-house for development, while others, typically the more routine or highly defined, are perfectly suited for other development approaches.

Projects that are on a tight time schedule and require constant interaction between the client’s developers and the vendor’s developers are best suited for onsite or offsite development.

For other projects, such as large software upgrades, where the processes are well defined and the timeline is far enough out, nearshore or offshore may be the best options.

Following is a brief list of benefits for each of the core IT outsource development strategies.