A Case Study of Offshore Development across IS Courses: Lessons Learned from a Global Student Project

As global, virtual teams become more prevalent in the workplace, it is imperative that we, as educators, prepare IS students for this trend. Offshoring, virtual teams, and globalization are themes often discussed in the classroom, but students rarely experience these concepts. This paper is a case study of three globally distributed universities worked together on a project in order to equip students with knowledge and experience about these trends in an IS context. In spring 2008, students from a technical management course in the USA, a project development course in the USA, and a programming course in India worked in teams to propose, design, develop, and test software prototypes. The case study in this paper presents the three phases of this project: 1) planning, 2) execution, and 3) reflection. The planning phase includes the identification of teams, tasks, and technology. The execution phase includes challenges and successes that can be avoided or enhanced in future iterations. Finally, the reflection phase presents lessons learned from the student and instructor perspective as well as perceived value of the project across students, instructors, and industry representatives. In general, students perceived this project to be quite valuable for their future careers and successful as a learning experience, but the project was not without its challenges throughout.