信息系统信息技术毕业论文中英文资料外文翻译文献

信息系统信息技术

中英文资料外文翻译文献

外文文献翻译

Information Systems Outsourcing Life Cycle And Risks Analysis 1. Introduction

Information systems outsourcing has obtained tremendous attentions in the information technology industry.Although there are a number of reasons for companies to pursuing information systems (IS)outsourcing , the most prominent motivation for IS outsourcing that revealed in the literatures was “cost saving”. Costfactor has been a major decision factors for IS outsourcing.

Other than cost factor, there are other reasons for outsourcing decision.The Outsourcing Institute surveyed outsourcing end-users from their membership in 1998 and found that top 10 reasons companies outsource were:

Reduce and control operating costs,improve company focus,gain access to world-class capabilities,free internal resources for other purposes, resources are not available internally, accelerate reengineering benefits, function difficult to manage/out of control,make capital funds available, share risks, and cash infusion.

Within these top ten outsourcing reasons, there are three items that related to financial concerns, they are operating costs, capital funds available, and cash infusion. Since the phenomenon of wage difference exists in the outsourced countries, it is obvious that outsourcing companies would save remarkable amount of labor cost.According to Gartner, Inc.'s report, world business outsourcing services would grow from $110 billion in 2002 to $173 billion in 2007,a proximately 9.5% annual growth rate.

In addition to cost saving concern, there are other factors that influence outsourcing decision, including the awareness of success and risk factors, the outsourcing risks identification and management,and the project quality management. Outsourcing activities are substantially complicated and outsourcing project usually carries a huge array of risks. Unmanaged outsourcing risks will increase total project cost, devaluate

software quality, delay project completion time, and finally lower the success rate of the outsourcing project.Outsourcing risks have been discovered in areas such as unexpected transition and management costs, switching costs, costly contractual amendments, disputes and litigation, service debasement, cost escalation, loss of organizational competence, hidden service costs,and so on.

Most published outsourcing studies focused on organizational and managerial issues. We believe that IS outsourcing projects embrace various risks and uncertainty that may inhibit the chance of outsourcing success. In addition to service and management related risk issues, we feel that technical issues that restrain the degree of outsourcing success may have been overlooked. These technical issues are project management, software quality, and quality assessment methods that can be used to implement IS outsourcing projects.Unmanaged risks generate loss. We intend to identify the technical risks during outsourcing period, so these technical risks can be properly managed and the cost of outsourcing project can be further reduced. The main purpose of this paper is to identify the different phases of IS outsourcing life cycle, and to discuss the implications of success and risk factors, software quality and project management,and their impacts to the success of IT outsourcing.

Most outsourcing initiatives involve strategic planning and management participation, therefore, the decision process is obviously broad and lengthy. In order to conduct a comprehensive study onto outsourcing project risk analysis, we propose an IS outsourcing life cycle framework to be served as a yardstick. Each IS outsourcing phase is named and all inherited risks are identified in this life cycle framework.Furthermore,we propose to use software qualitymanagement tools and methods in order to enhance the success rate of IS outsourcing project.

ISO 9000 is a series of quality systems standards developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).ISO's quality standards have been adopted by many countries as a major target for quality certification.Other ISO standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 9000-3,ISO 9004-2, and ISO 9004-4 are quality standards that can be applied to the software industry.Currently, ISO is working on ISO 31000, a risk management guidance standard. These ISO quality systems and risk management standards are generic in nature, however, they may not be sufficient for IS outsourcing practice. This paper, therefore,proposes an outsourcing life cycle framework to distinguish related quality and risk management issues during outsourcing practice.

The following sections start with needed theoretical foundations to IS outsourcing,including economic theories, outsourcing contracting theories, and risk theories. The IS outsourcing life cycle framework is then introduced.It continues to discuss the risk implications in precontract,contract, and post-contract phases. ISO standards on quality systems and risk management are discussed and compared in the next section. A conclusion and direction for future study are provided in the last section.

2. Theoretical foundations

2.1. Economic theories related to outsourcing

Although there are a number of reasons for pursuing IS outsourcing,the cost saving

is a main attraction that leads companies to search for outsourcing opportunities. In principle, five outsourcing related economic theories that lay the groundwork of outsourcing practice, theyare:(1)production cost economics,(2)transaction cost theory,(3)resource based theory,(4)competitive advantage, and(5)economies of scale.

Production cost economics was proposed by Williamson, who mentioned that “a firm seeks to maximize its profit also subjects to its production function and market opportunities for selling outputs and buying inputs”. It is clear that produc tion cost economics identifies the phenomenon that a firm may pursue the goal of low-cost production process.

Transaction cost theory was proposed by Coase. Transaction cost theory implies that in an economy, there are many economic activities occurred outside the price systems. Transaction costs in business activities are the time and expense of negotiation, and writing and enforcing contracts between buyers and suppliers .When transaction cost is low because of lower uncertainty, companies are expected to adopt outsourcing.

The focus of resource-based theory is “the heart of the firm centers on deployment and combination of specific inputs rather than on avoidance of opportunities”. Conner suggested that “Firms as seekers of costly-to-copy inputs for production and distribution”.Through resource-based theory, we can infer that “outsourcing decision is to seek external resources or capability for meeting firm's objectives such as cost-saving and capability improving”.

Porter, in his competitive forces model, proposed the concept of competitive advantage. Besanko et al.explicated the term of competitive advantage, through economic concept, as “When a firm(or business unit within a multi-business firm) earns a higher rate of economic profit than the average rate of economic profit of other firms competing within the same market, the firm has a competitive advantage.” Outsourcing decision, therefore, is to seek cost saving that meets the goal of competitive advantage within a firm.

The economies of scale is a theoretical foundation for creating and sustaining the consulting business. Information systems(IS) and information technology(IT) consulting firms, in essence, bear the advantage of economies of scale since their average costs decrease because they offer a mass amount of specialized IS/IT services in the marketplace.

2.2. Economic implication on contracting

An outsourcing contract defines the provision of services and charges that need to be completed in a contracting period between two contracting parties. Since most IS/IT projects are large in scale, a valuable contract should list complete set of tasks and responsibilities that each contracting party needs to perform. The study of contracting becomes essential because a complete contract setting could eliminate possible opportunistic behavior, confusion, and ambiguity between two contracting parties.

Although contracting parties intend to reach a complete contract,in real world, most contracts are incomplete. Incomplete contracts cause not only implementing difficulties

but also resulting in litigation action. Business relationship may easily be ruined by holding incomplete contracts. In order to reach a complete contract, the contracting parties must pay sufficient attention to remove any ambiguity, confusion, and unidentified and immeasurable conditions/ terms from the contract. According to Besanko et al., incomplete contracting stems from the following three factors: bounded rationality, difficulties on specifying or measuring performance, and asymmetric information.

Bounded rationality describes human limitation on information processing, complexity handling, and rational decision-making. An incomplete contract stems from unexpected circumstances that may be ignored during contract negotiation. Most contracts consist of complex product requirements and performance measurements. In reality, it is difficult to specify a set of comprehensive metrics for meeting each party's right and responsibility. Therefore, any vague or open-ended statements in contract will definitely result in an incomplete contract. Lastly, it is possible that each party may not have equal access to all contract-relevant information sources. This situation of asymmetric information results in an unfair negotiation,thus it becomes an incomplete contract.

2.3. Risk in outsource contracting

Risk can be identified as an undesirable event, a probability function,variance of the distribution of outcomes, or expected loss. Risk can be classified into endogenous and exogenous risks. Exogenous risks are“risks over which we have no control and which are not affected by our actions.”. For example, natural disasters such as earthquakes and flood are exogenous risks. Endogenous risks are “risks that are dependent on our a ctions”.We can infer that risks occurring during outsource contracting should belong to such category.

Risk (RE) can be calculated through “a function of the probability of a negative outcome and the importance of the loss due to the occurrence of this outcome:

RE = ΣiP(UOi)≠L(UOi) (1) where P(UOi) is the probability of an undesirable outcome i, and L(UOi) is the loss due to the undesirable outcome i.”.

Software risks can also be analyzed through two characteristics :uncertainty and loss. Pressman suggested that the best way to analyze software risks is to quantify the level of uncertainty and the degree of loss that associated with each kind of risk. His risk content matches to above mentioned Eq.(1).Pressman classified software risks into the following categories: project risks, technical risks, and business risks.

Outsourcing risks stem from various sources. Aubert et al. adopted transaction cost theory and agency theory as the foundation for deriving undesirable events and their associated risk factors.Transaction cost theory has been discussed in the Section 2.2. Agency theory focuses on client's problem while choosing an agent(that is, a service provider), and working relationship building and maintenance, under the restriction of information asymmetry.Various risk factors would be produced if such agent–client relationship becomes crumble.

It is evident that a complete contract could eliminate the risk that caused by an incomplete contract and/or possible opportunistic behavior prompted by any contracting party. Opportunistic behavior is one of the main sources that cause transactional risk. Opportunistic behavior occurs when a transactional partner observes away of saving cost or removing responsibility during contracting period, this company may take action to pursue such opportunity. This type of opportunistic behavior could be encouraged if such contract was not completely specified at the first place.

Outsourcing risks could generate additional unexpected cost to an outsourcing project. In order to conduct a better IS outsourcing project, identifying possible risk factors and implementing matured risk management process could make information systems outsourcing more successful than ever.

https://www.360docs.net/doc/d14377230.html,rmation system outsourcing life cycle

The life cycle concept is originally used to describe a period of one generation of organism in biological system. In essence, the term of life cycle is the description of all activities that a subject is involved in a period from its birth to its end. The life cycle concept has been applied into project management area. A project life cycle, according to Schwalbe, is a collection of project phases such as concept,development, implementation, and close-out. Within the above mentioned four phases, the first two phases center on “planning”activity and the last two phases focus on “delivery the actual work” Of project management.

Similarly, the concept of life cycle can be applied into information systems outsourcing analysis. Information systems outsourcing life cycle describes a sequence of activities to be performed during company's IS outsourcing practice. Hirsch heim and Dibbern once described a client-based IS outsourcing life cycle as: “It starts with the IS outsourcing decision, continues with the outsourcing relationship(life of the contract)and ends with the cancellation or end of the relationship, i.e., the end of the contract. The end of the relationship forces a new outsourcing decision.” It is clear that Hirsch heim and Dibbern viewed “outsourcing relationship” as a determinant in IS outsourcing life cycle.

IS outsourcing life cycle starts with outsourcing need and then ends with contract completion. This life cycle restarts with the search for a new outsourcing contract if needed. An outsourcing company may be satisfied with the same outsourcing vendor if the transaction costs remain low, then a new cycle goes on. Otherwise, a new search for an outsourcing vendor may be started. One of the main goals for seeking outsourcing contract is cost minimization. Transaction cost theory(discussed in the Section 2.1)indicates that company pursuing contract costs money, thus low transaction cost will be the driver of extending IS outsourcing life cycle.

The span of IS outsourcing life cycle embraces a major portion of contracting activities. The whole IS outsourcing life cycle can be divided into three phases(see Fig.1): pre-contract phase, contract phase, and post-contract phase. Pre-contract phase includes activities before a major contract is signed, such as identifying the need for outsourcing, planning and strategic setting, and outsourcing vendor selection. Contract phase starts

while an outsourcing contract is signed and then lasted until the end of contracting period. It includes activities such as contracting process, transitioning process, and outsourcing project execution. Post-contract phase contains those activities to be done after contract expiration, such as outsourcing project assessment, and making decision for the next outsourcing contract.

Fig.1. The IS outsourcing life cycle

When a company intends to outsource its information systems projects to external entities, several activities are involved in information systems outsourcing life cycle. Specifically, they are:

1. Identifying the need for outsourcing:

A firm may face strict external environment such as stern market competition,

competitor's cost saving through outsourcing, or economic downturn that initiates it to consider outsourcing IS projects. In addition to external environment, some internal factors may also lead to outsourcing consideration. These organizational predicaments include the need for technical skills, financial constraint, investors' request, or simply cost saving concern. A firm needs to carefully conduct a study to its internal and external positioning before making an outsourcing decision.

2. Planning and strategic setting:

If a firm identifies a need for IS outsourcing, it needs to make sure that the decision to outsource should meet with company's strategic plan and objectives. Later, this firm needs to integrate outsourcing plan into corporate strategy. Many tasks need to be fulfilled during planning and strategic setting stages, including determining outsourcing goals, objectives, scope, schedule, cost, business model, and processes. A careful outsourcing planning prepares a firm for pursuing a successful outsourcing project.

3. Outsourcing vendor selection:

A firm begins the vendor selection process with the creation of request for information (RFI) and request for proposal (RFP) documents. An outsourcing firm should provide sufficient information about the requirements and expectations for an outsourcing project. After receiving those proposals from vendors, this company needs to select a prospective outsourcing vendor, based on the strategic needs and project requirements.

4. Contracting process:

A contract negotiation process begins after the company selects a probable outsourcing vendor. Contracting process is critical to the success of an outsourcing project since all the aspects of the contract should be specified and covered, including fundamental, managerial, technological, pricing, financial, and legal features. In order to avoid resulting in an incomplete contract, the final contract should be reviewed by two parties' legal consultants.Most importantly, the service level agreements (SLA) must be clearly identified in the contract.

5. Transitioning process:

Transitioning process starts after a company signed an outsourcing contract with a vendor. Transition management is defined as “the detailed, desk-level knowledge transfer and documentation of all relevant tasks, technologies, workflows, people, and function s”.Transitioning process is a complicate phase in IS outsourcing life cycle since it involves many essential workloads before an outsourcing project can be actually implemented. Robinson et al.characterized transition management into the following compone nts:“employee management, communication management, knowledge management, and quality management”. It is apparent that conducting transitioning process needs the capabilities of human resources, communication skill, knowledge transfer, and quality control.

6. Outsourcing project execution:

After transitioning process, it is time for vendor and client to execute their outsourcing project. There are four components within this“contract governance” stage:

project management, relationship management, change management, and risk management. Any items listed in the contract and its service level agreements (SLAs) need to be delivered and implemented as requested. Especially, client and vendor relationships, change requests and records, and risk variables must be carefully managed and administered.

7. Outsourcing project assessment:

During the end of an outsourcing project period, vendor must deliver its final product/service for client's approval. The outsourcing client must assess the quality of product/service that provided by its client. The outsourcing client must measure his/her satisfaction level to the product/service provided by the client. A satisfied assessment and good relationship will guarantee the continuation of the next outsourcing contract.

The results of the previous activity (that is, project assessment) will be the base of determining the next outsourcing contract. A firm evaluates its satisfaction level based on predetermined outsourcing goals and contracting criteria. An outsourcing company also observes outsourcing cost and risks involved in the project. If a firm is satisfied with the current outsourcing vendor, it is likely that a renewable contract could start with the same vendor. Otherwise, a new “precontract phase” woul d restart to search for a new outsourcing vendor.This activity will lead to a new outsourcing life cycle. Fig.1 shows two dotted arrowlines for these two alternatives: the dotted arrow line 3.a.indicates “renewable contract” path and the dotted arrow line 3.b. indicates “a new contract search” path.

Each phase in IS outsourcing life cycle is full of needed activities and processes (see Fig.1). In order to clearly examine the dynamics of risks and outsourcing activities, the following sections provide detailed analyses. The pre-contract phase in IS outsourcing life cycle focuses on the awareness of outsourcing success factors and related risk factors. The contract phase in IS outsourcing life cycle centers on the mechanism of project management and risk management. The post-contract phase in IS outsourcing life cycle concentrates on the need of selecting suitable project quality assessment methods.

4. Actions in pre-contract phase: awareness of success and risk factors

The pre-contract period is the first phase in information systems outsourcing life cycle (see Fig.1). While in this phase, an outsourcing firm should first identify its need for IS outsourcing. After determining the need for IS outsourcing, the firm needs to carefully create an outsourcing plan. This firm must align corporate strategy into its outsourcing plan.

In order to well prepare for corporate IS outsourcing, a firm must understand current market situation, its competitiveness, and economic environment. The next important task to be done is to identify outsourcing success factors, which can be used to serve as the guidance for strategic outsourcing planning. In addition to know success factors,an outsourcing firm must also recognize possible risks involved in IS outsourcing, thus allows a firm to formulate a better outsourcing strategy.

Conclusion and research directions

This paper presents a three-phased IS outsourcing life cycle and its associated risk factors that affect the success of outsourcing projects.Outsourcing life cycle is complicated and complex in nature. Outsourcing companies usually invest a great effort to select suitable service vendors However,many risks exit in vendor selection process. Although outsourcing costs are the major reason for doing outsourcing, the firms are seeking outsourcing success through quality assurance and risk control. This decision path is understandable since the outcome of project risks represents the amount of additional project cost. Therefore, carefully manage the project and its risk factors would save outsourcing companies a tremendous amount of money.

This paper discusses various issues related to outsourcing success, risk factors, quality assessment methods, and project management techniques. The future research may touch alternate risk estimation methodology. For example, risk uncertainty can be used to identify the accuracy of the outsourcing risk estimation. Another possible method to estimate outsourcing risk is through the Total Cost of Ownership(TCO) method. TCO method has been used in IT management for financial portfolio analysis and investment decision making. Since the concept of risk is in essence the cost (of loss) to outsourcing clients, it thus becomes a possible research method to solve outsourcing decision.

Source:D.C. Chou, A.Y. Chou,《Information systems outsourcing life cycle and risks analysis》, Computer Standards & Interfaces (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csi.2008.09.032

信息系统的生命周期和风险分析

1.绪言

信息系统外包在信息技术工业已经获得了巨大的关注。虽然有许多原因让公司推行信息系统（IS）外包，文献中显示IS外包最突出的动机是“节约成本”，成本因素是外包的一个重要的决定因素。

除了成本因素，还有其他一些原因决定了外包。外包研究所1998年从他们的成员中调查了外包最终用户，发现了公司外包的前十个原因：

减少和控制经营成本,改善公司的重点，获得世界一流的能力,将免费的内部资源用于其他目的，使用国内无法得到的资源，获得加速重组的好处，功能难以管理/失去控制，使资本资金可用，分担风险，和现金注入。

在这些外包的十大原因中，有三个涉及财务关注的项目，他们是经营成本，可获得的资本资金，和现金注入。由于在外包的国家中存在工资差别现象，显而易见的是，外包公司将节省大量的劳动力成本。根据Gartner公司的报告，世界商业外包服务在2002年到2007年，将从增长一千百点零亿美元到增长一千七百三十点零亿美元，近9.5％的年增长率。

除了关注节省成本，还有决定外包的其他影响因素，其中包括成功的意识和风险因素，外包的风险识别和管理，项目质量管理。外包活动基本上是复杂的并且外包项目通常带有一个巨大的风险。非托管外包的风险会增加项目总成本，贬值软件的质量，拖延项目的完工时间，最后还有成功率较低的外包项目。外包的风险在某些领域已经发现，如意外转型和管理费用，转换成本，昂贵的合同修正案，争端和诉讼，服务贬低，费用上涨的损失，组织能力，隐藏的服务费用，等等。

大多数关于外包的出版研究侧重于组织和管理问题。我们认为IS外包项目包括各种风险和不确定性，可能会抑制外包成功的机会。除了服务和管理有关的风险问题，我们认为，制约外包成功程度的技术问题可能已被忽视。这些技术问题是项目管理，软件质量，和可以用来推行IS外包项目的质量评估方法。非托管风险产生损失。我们打算在外包期间辨认技术风险，所以这些技术风险能够得到适当的管理并且外包项目的成本效益可以进一步降低。本文的主要目的确定IS外包的生命周期的不同阶段，并且讨论成功的影响和风险因素，软件的质量和项目管理，和它们对IT 外包成功的影响。

大多数外包举措涉及战略规划和管理，因此，决定的过程显然是广泛的和漫长的。为了在外包项目风险分析上进行全面的研究，我们提议将IS外包生命周期框架作为一个尺度。每个IS外包阶段都被命名，并且在这个生命周期的框架中，所有继承风险都被确定了。此外，我们建议使用软件质量管理工具和方法，以提高IS外包项目的成功率。

ISO 9000是由国际标准化组织(ISO)开发的一系列质量体系标准。ISO的质量标准已经作为质量体系认证的主要目标适用于许多国家。其他ISO标准，如ISO 9001认证，ISO 9000-3，ISO 9004-2和ISO 9004-4都是可用于软件产业的质量标准。目前，国际标准化组织正在制定的ISO 31000 ，一个风险管理的指导标准。这些ISO 质量体系和风险管理标准是通用性的，然而，他们可能对IS外包业务不够充足。本文因此提出了一种外包生命周期的框架，以区分在外包业务中的质量和风险管理相关问题。以下各节从IS外包的需要理论基础开始，包括经济理论，外包合同的理论和风险理论，然后介绍了IS外包生命周期的框架。它继续讨论在预约，合同，后合同阶段的风险影响。ISO在质量体系和风险管理上的标准，在下一节中讨论和比较。最后一节提供了结论和未来研究的方向。

2.理论基础

2.1.与外包有关的经济理论

虽然有许多理由推行IS外包，节约成本是导致公司寻求外包机会的一个主要吸引力。从原则上说，奠定外包业务基础的五个外包相关的经济理论是：（1）生产成本经济学，（2）交易成本理论，（3）资源基础理论，（4）竞争优势，和（5）规模经济。生产成本经济学是由威廉姆森提出的，他提到“公司追求利润最大化的同时，为销售和采购的投入产出控制它的生产功能和市场机会。”很显然，生产成本经济学确定了一个公司可能追求低成本的生产过程目标的现象。

交易成本理论是由科斯提出的。交易成本理论意味着，在目前的经济形势下，有许多经济活动发生在价格体系以外。商业活动中的交易成本是时间和谈判的费用，买家和供应商之间起草和执行合同。当交易成本因为较低的不确定性而低时，公司预期采取外包。

资源基础理论的重点是：“企业中心在部署和具体投入组合上的核心，而不是逃避机会。”康纳认为，“公司是生产和分配的昂贵的拷贝投入追求者”。通过资源基础理论，我们可以推断，“决定外包是为了寻求外部资源或能力，以满足公司的目标，如节约成本和提高能力”。

波特在他的竞争力模型中提出了竞争优势的概念，贝赞可等人通过经济的概念阐述了竞争优势的项目，例如“当一个公司（或企业单位，一个多业务公司）获得

了比竞争在同一市场上的其他公司的平均经济利润更高的经济效益，那么该公司具有竞争优势。”外包的决定，因此是为了寻求节约成本，以实现一个具有竞争优势的企业的目标。

规模经济是创造和维持咨询业务的一个理论基础。信息系统（IS）和信息技术（IT）咨询公司，从本质上讲，由于它们在市场上提供了大量IS/IT专业服务，它们的平均费用下降，所以具备规模经济的优势。

2.2.订立合同的经济意义

外包合同确立了在一个合同期双方需要完成的的服务和收费的标准。因为很多IS/IT项目规模大，一个有价值的合同应列出一套完整的每一缔约方必须履行的任务和职责。订约的研究变得十分重要，因为一个完整的合同设置可消除两个缔约方之间的可能机会主义行为，混淆，模棱两可。

虽然缔约各方打算达到一个完整的合同，在现实世界中，大多数合同是不完整的。不完整合同不仅引起执行困难，还造成了诉讼案件。业务上的关系可能因为不完整合同很容易被破坏。为了达到一个完整的合同，缔约各方必须予以足够的重视以消除任何含糊，混乱，与合同中不确定的和不可估量的条件/条款。

依据贝赞可等人的观点，不完整的订约源于以下三个因素：有限理性，困难指定或计量性能和信息不对称。

有限理性描述人类在信息处理，复杂的处理，合理的决策上的限制。一个不完整的合同来自意想不到的情况下，一些事项可能会在合同谈判时被忽略。合同包括复杂的产品要求和性能测量。在现实中，很难指定一套全面的数据，以满足每一方的权利和责任。因此，在合同中任何含糊或没有限度的声明肯定会导致不完整的合同。最后，可能每一方也许无法平等地获得所有与合同有关的信息来源。这种信息不对称的情况导致不公平的谈判，因此，它成为一个不完全契约。

2.3.外包合同的风险

风险可以被确定为不良事件，概率函数，结果的方差分布，或预期损失。风险可分为内在和外在风险。外来风险是“风险是我们无法控制的，是不被我们的行动影响的。”例如，自然灾害（如地震和水灾）是外生风险。内源性风险是“取决于我们的行动的风险”。我们可以推断，发生在外包合同缔约时的风险属于这一类。

风险(RE)可以通过“消极结果的概率函数和结果发生造成损失的重要性”计算出来：

RE= ΣiP(UOi)≠L(UOi) (1) 其中P（UOi）是一个不可取的结果i的概率，i和L（UOi）是由于不良的结果i造成的损失”。

软件风险也可以通过两个特点：不确定性和损失来分析。普雷斯曼建议，分析软件风险的最好的方法是量化不确定性和与各种风险相关的损失程度。他的风险内容符合上述等式(1)。普雷斯曼将软件风险划分为以下类别：项目风险，技术风险和商业风险。

外包风险有各种来源。奥贝特等采用交易成本理论与代理理论作为产生不良事件及其相关危险因素基础，交易成本理论在第2.2节已经讨论了，代理理论选择代理人（即服务提供商）和工作关系的建设和维护的同时，关注客户的问题，在信息不对称的限制下，如果代理和客户之间的关系变得崩溃，那么会产生各种风险因素。

很明显，一个完整的合同可以消除由不完整的合同和/或任何缔约方可能的机会主义行为引起的风险。机会主义行为是导致交易风险的一个主要来源。当交易伙伴注意到了节约成本或消除在合同期间的责任时，机会主义行为产生了。这家公司可能会采取行动，以寻求这样的机会。如合同没有完全指明放在首位，这种类型的机会主义行为受到鼓励。

外包的风险可能会产生外包项目的意想不到的额外成本。为了进行更好的IS外包项目，确定可能的危险因素和执行成熟的风险管理过程,可以使信息系统外包比以往任何时候都更加成功。

3.信息系统外包生命周期

生命周期的概念最初是用来描述生物系统有机体的一代的时期。从本质上讲，生命周期的长度是所有活动主体从出生到结束的描述。生命周期的概念已被应用到项目管理领域。根据施瓦尔贝的观点，一个项目的生命周期是项目阶段的集合，如概念，制定，执行和收尾。在上述四个阶段中，前两个阶段以“规划”活动为中心，最后两个阶段侧重于项目管理的“交付的实际工作”。

同样，生命周期的概念可以应用到信息系统外包分析。信息系统外包生命周期描述了在公司的IS外包实践中将要履行的一系列活动。赫希海姆和迪伯恩曾经描述基于客户端的IS外包生命周期为：“它开始于IS外包决定，继续于外包的关系（合同期），并结束于关系的取消或终止，即合同的结束。关系的结束驱使一个新的外包决定产生。”很显然，赫希海姆和迪伯恩将“外包关系”看成IS外包生命周期的一个决定因素。IS外包生命周期始于外包的需要，然后结束于合同的完成。这个生命周期重新开始于寻找新的外包合同（如果需要的话）。如果交易成本仍然很低，一个外包公司可能对相同的外包供应商很满足，然后一个新的周期开始了。否则，对外包供应商的一个新的搜索可能会开始。寻求外包合同的主要目标之一是成本最小化。交易成本理论（第2.1节中所讨论的）表示，公司施行合同消耗费用，因此低交易成本将是延长IS外包生命周期的驱动力。

外包生命周期的跨度包括承包活动的一个主要部分。整个外包生命周期可分为三个阶段（参见图1）：合同前阶段，合同的阶段，后合同阶段。合同签订前阶段包括签订合同前的一些活动，如确定需要外包，规划和战略制定，以及相关的外包服务供应商的选择。合同阶段开始于外包合同的签订然后一直持续到合同期的结束。它包括这些活动，如合同过程，转变过程，以及相关的外包服务项目的执行。后合同阶段包含合同期满后要完成的那些活动，如外包项目评估，并决定在未来的外包合同。

图1. IS 外包生命周期

当一家公司打算向外部实体外包其信息系统项目时，信息系统外包的生命周期包含了一些活动。具体来说，它们是：

1.确定外的需要：

合同签订前阶段：

1.确定外包的必要性

2.规划和战略制定

3.外包供应商的选择

合同阶段： 4.合同过程 5.转变过程

6.外包服务项目的执行 后合同阶段:

7.外包项目评估 1 2 3.a 可再生合同 3.b 新合同搜索

一个公司可能面临严格的外部环境，如斯特恩的市场竞争，竞争对手通过外包节省成本，或经济衰退时启动它考虑外包IS项目。除了外部环境，一些内部因素也可能导致外包审议。这些组织的困境包括技术技能的需要，财政拮据，投资者的要求，或者只是关注节省成本。在做出外包决定之前，一个公司需要对其内部和外部的定位进行仔细地研究。

2.规划和战略制定：

如果公司确定了IS外包的需要，它需要确保外包的决定应当满足公司的战略计划和目标。后来，该公司需要将外包计划纳入公司战略。在规划和战略制定阶段，许多任务需要完成，包括确定外包的目的，目标，范围，进度，成本，商业模式，和进程。详细的外包规划，是为公司奉行一个成功的外包项目而编写的。

3.外包供应商的选择：

一个公司供应商的选择开始于建立信息请求（多态性）和征求建议书（招标）文件。外包公司应该提供关于外包项目要求和期望的足够的信息。在收到来自供应商的这些建议，该公司需要在战略需要和项目要求的基础上选择未来外包供应商。

4.订约过程：

合同谈判进程在该公司选择一个可能的外包供应商后开始。订约过程是成功的关键，因为外包项目合同的所有方面应明确规定，包括基本，管理，技术，价格，金融，法律等功能。为了避免产生不完整的合同，最后合同应通过双方法律咨询的审查。最重要的是，服务水平协议（SLA），必须在合同中明确确定。

5.转换过程：

转换过程在公司同供应商签署了一项外包合同后开始。转换管理被界定为“详细的，台级别的知识转移和所有有关任务、技术、流程、人员和职能的文件”。转换过程是IS外包生命周期中的一个复杂的阶段。罗宾逊等人将转型管理的特点归纳为以下内容：“员工管理，沟通管理，知识管理，和质量管理”。很明显，

进行转换过程需要人力资源的能力，沟通技巧，知识转让，和质量控制。

6.外包项目的执行：

转换过程之后，是供应商和客户端执行其外包项目的时候了。“合同管理”阶段有四个组成部分：项目管理，关系管理，变更管理和风险管理。合同中所列的任何项目和其服务水平协议（SLA）需要交付和按要求执行。特别是，客户和供应商关系，更改请求和记录，风险变数，必须认真加以管理和控制。

7.外包项目评估：

在一个外包项目结束期间，供应商必须根据客户的批准提供其最终产品/服务。外包客户必须评估它的客户所提供的产品/服务质量。外包客户必须衡量他/她对客户端所提供的产品/服务的满意程度。满意的评价和良好的关系，将保证下一外包合同的继续。

前期活动的结果（即项目评估）将是确定下一个外包合同的基准。一个公司根据预定的外包目标和合同标准评价他的满意度水平，外包公司还注意外包成本和包含在该项目中的风险。如果一个公司很满意目前的外包商，很可能同这个外包商开始一个可再生的合同。否则，将重新开始一个新的“预约阶段”来寻找新的外包供应商。这项活动将导致新的外包生命周期。图1为这两个备选方案显示两个虚线箭头：虚线箭头3.a.显示了“可再生合同”路径，虚线箭头3.b.表明“新合同搜索”的路径。

IS外包生命周期的每个阶段都是是完全必要的活动和过程（见图1）。为了明确审查风险和外包活动的动态，以下各节提供了详细的分析。IS外包生命周期合同前阶段的重点是认识外包的成功因素和相关风险因素。IS外包生命周期的合同期以项目管理和风险管理的机制为中心。IS外包生命周期的后合同阶段关注于选择合适的项目质量评估方法的需要。

4.合同前阶段的活动：成功的意识和风险因素

前合同期是信息系统外包生命周期（参见图1）的第一阶段，而在这一阶段，一个外包公司应首先确定其IS外包的需要。在确定IS外包的需要之后，该公司需要仔细地制造一个外包计划，该公司必须将公司战略纳入其外包计划中。

为了为公司的IS外包做好准备，一个企业必须了解当前的市场状况，竞争力，环境和经济环境。下一个要做的重要任务是，识别可以用来作为指导战略外包规划的外包成功因素。除了了解成功因素，一个外包公司还必须认识到IS外包可能涉及的风险，从而使公司以制定更好的外包战略。

5.结论和研究方向

本文提出了一种三阶段IS外包生命周期和其相关的影响外包项目成功的风险因素，外包生命周期本质上是复杂的。外包公司通常投资了很大的努力，以选择合适的服务供应商。然而，许多风险存在于供应商的选择过程。虽然外包费用是外包的主要原因，但是公司正在寻求通过质量保证和风险控制使外包成功。这一决定是可以理解的，因为项目风险的结果代表了多少额外的项目费用。因此，仔细管理项目及其危险因素可节省外包公司庞大的资金。

本文讨论有关外包成功，风险因素，质量评价方法，以及项目管理技术的各种问题。今后的研究可能涉及变换风险估计方法。例如，风险的不确定性可以用来确定外包风险估计的准确性。另一个估计风险的可能方法是通过外包的总拥有成本（总体拥有成本）的方法。总拥有成本方法已作为金融投资分析和投资决策用于IT管理。由于风险概念在本质上就是外包客户的费用（损失），因此，它成为一个可能的研究方法来解决外包的决定。

资料来源：D.C. Chou, A.Y. Chou，Information systems outsourcing life cycle and risks analysis, Computer Standards & Interfaces (2008), doi:10.1016/j.csi.2008.09.032