Planning an offshore development centre: an operating checklist
Questions about people, location, systems, governance and exit arrangements for a proposed longer-term engineering function.
Planning notes
Questions about people, location, systems, governance and exit arrangements for a proposed longer-term engineering function.
Describe the function
An offshore development centre is a commercial term for an engineering function delivered from another location for a client. Its precise scope varies. Define whether the proposal covers recruitment, employment, equipment, facilities, delivery management or only some of those responsibilities.
Confirm people and location
Identify the proposed roles, reporting lines and actual working locations. Review availability, recruitment assumptions, employment arrangements and onboarding. There is no universal minimum team size or setup period implied by the ODC label.
Agree how work is governed
Document product ownership, technical review, access approval, progress reporting and issue escalation. Define acceptance criteria for work and the records needed to review it. Include the client’s responsibilities as well as the supplier’s; a model name is not a substitute for an operating agreement.
Review systems and information
List the devices, accounts, environments and information the team needs. Review access controls, logging, provider configuration and the applicable data-transfer requirements. NCSC cloud-security guidance and ICO international-transfer guidance can inform the questions to take to the responsible specialists.
Plan costs, change and exit
Separate setup costs from ongoing fees and usage-based provider charges. Specify how roles, scope or working arrangements can change. Record notice, documentation, access removal and IP or licensing terms. If build-operate-transfer is proposed, confirm what can transfer, when and on what conditions before treating it as part of the arrangement.
Further reading
For questions about information access and international processing, see ICO international-transfer guidance. For questions to assess a cloud service, see the NCSC cloud security principles.