In the overall picture of offshore software development model, besides technology and probably more important, the other factor is the eSourcing relationship management between client and service provider. There are number of challenges which must be addressed to ensure a successful execution:

No formal criteria/methodology for clients to identify service provider

Critical success factors for the project/service

Maintaining a balance between changing requirements and project/service scoping

Transition of personnel, equipment, and knowledge between the client and service provider is often problematic

Ineffective status reporting by service providers

There are numbers of methodologies and frameworks available that provide guidance and tools to successfully manage the relationships between client and service providers while negotiating and executing offshore software development services and projects.

The eSourcing Capability Model by Carnegie Mellon

One of the well known models is "The eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers (eSCM-SP)" and "The eSourcing Capability Model for Client Organizations (eSCM-CL)" from Carnegie Mellon. eSCM for Service Providers provides 84 Practices, which are distributed along three dimensions: Sourcing Life-cycle, Capability Areas, and Capability Levels.

The eSCM-SP’s Sourcing Life-cycle is different from other quality models as it includes delivery, as well as initiation and completion of contracts where many commonly encountered problems arise. The eSCM-SP offers a five-level path for service providers to enhance value and achieve excellence over time.

The eSCM-SP is designed to complement existing quality models (ISO 9001, ISO 20000-1, ISO 27001, the CMMs®, COBIT® and COPC-2000®) so that service providers can capitalize on their previous improvement efforts, so it can be implemented in parallel with these other frameworks.

eSCM for Client Organizations provides 95 Practices which cover the full sourcing life cycle. This best practice model begins with the client’s strategy for eSourcing, moving through initiation into delivery and, eventually, into completion activities. This results into client developing stronger, longer term, and more trusting relationships with their service providers.