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5 DISCUSSION AND
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper we reported on the results of a case study
aimed at the identification and classification of
criteria to support software component sourcing
decisions. The in-depth case study has been carried
out at a Company X, were embedded software for
large complex medical systems is being developed.
Starting point, and empirical basis, for our study was
a list of 34 sourcing criteria derived from a previous
study on the subject (Kusters et al, 2016). In the first
part, in open unstructured interviews, a list of six
sourcing options has been checked at Company X.
One of these options appeared to be non-valid in the
target company. In these open interviews, in that the
software development processes were addressed, also
eight new sourcing criteria could be identified. These
new criteria have been found without prompting and
they appeared to be used in practice in concrete
sourcing decisions. Together with the existing list of
34 criteria the total list of criteria has subsequently
been validated in the second part of the study, in more
detail in semi-structured interviews. The criteria were
confirmed regarding their relevance in practice, by
each of the interviewees. From the 34 criteria of our
previous study the interviewees also confirmed the
usage of 33 decision criteria in their particular
embedded software development environment. In the
semi-structured interviews also the degree of
importance of the decision criteria has been
investigated, with respect to the extent to that a
decision criteria contributes to a sourcing decision.
Various clarifications from experts, to the degree of
importance of criteria, showed interesting examples
of the different viewpoints at sourcing criteria in
practice. When discussing the quality of the resulting
list of 42 criteria we looked at completeness. Eight
new additions to a list of 34 criteria (from a previous
study) does suggest that saturation of sourcing criteria
has not yet been achieved. We are likely to find more
when more, and different types of, companies are
included in the research. On the other hand, by
combining the findings, from our previous study with
the findings from this case study (in a completely
different software development environment), we
believe that a next step has been made towards the
identification of important criteria.
In the third part of the study the list of sourcing
criteria has been elaborated towards an initial
framework of criteria. The Metaplan method
approved to be useful to develop this framework in an
efficient way. The framework, with its eight clusters
of sourcing criteria, almost equally spread over what
could be called ‘management’ and ‘engineering’
clusters, offers a structured overview of sourcing
criteria. The clusters reflect also some coherence
between particular criteria, and the cluster titles point
to a particular type of sourcing criteria. Although
some framework aspects, such as the overlap between
criteria and clusters and the differences in level of
abstraction and aggregation, need to be elaborated
further, we are convinced that our initial framework
is a next valuable step towards support for decision
making in software component outsourcing.
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