Managing Distributed Teams Using Agile Methods: An Implementation Strategy for Regulated Healthcare Software

Omega is a small medical software company focusing mainly on highly customized software solutions around patient communities, telemedicine and workflow optimization. The company has been in operation for nearly 10 years, with many successful project implementations, but has had little growth in this period. A set of recommendations are established for setting up an offshore team for software development, as well as moving infrastructure to the cloud to decrease costs. An analysis of strategy and process revision is required to ensure that this risky transition is effective. This paper will analyze risks and objectives in regards to moving to offshore development for a portion of software development. It will dentify necessary corporate structure, roles and processes to ensure efficient development with virtual teams. It will outline the use of ‘agile’ methodologies for software development in regards to offshore teams, as opposed to traditional project management methodologies. In addition, it will establish an analysis of costs and return on investment for moving to cloud for server hosting and corporate IT infrastructure.