Outsourcing & offshoring: impact on the user experience.

In a June 2003 survey, the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company reported that 51 percent of software executives surveyed have indicated that their offshore development strategy is already underway. Furthermore, another 20 percent of those surveyed indicated that they would move some portion of their product development offshore within the next 12 months.While offshore development has distinct advantages from the cost of labor perspective, it raises a significant number of challenges as well as opportunities for HCI practitioners and companies that wish to develop well designed, usable products. Offshoring is already changing the practice of HCI in industry, and will continue to impact practitioners more significantly over time.