What are some of the issues of Outsourcing and Service Level Agreements?
Function Points have become a standard of any Outsourcing Service Level Agreement (SLA). However the best agreements of the most successful companies that have outsourced, have some very specific items that have saved the companies millions. Outsourcing agents that fully understand their own capabilities, usually have no problem with these. Productivity If I am outsourcing any service, I need to understand my own productivity. If my team(s) can deliver 25 FP/WM, I would require that the outsourcing agent match it and agree to productivity gains in the future. For example, I expect a 20% gain a year from my own staff, so I would also expect it from my Outsourcing agent and write it into my SLA. If they don’t make it, I would require lower fees. Productivity includes project work, support and maintenance. I expect gains in all areas. This requires baseline function point counts and project counts. One of our clients “bit the counting bullet,” paid to have us count and saved more than 50
