Nearly 1 in 4 software outsourcing projects are failing to deliver according to new research conducted by Vanson Bourne and commissioned by software company Borland.

The research revealed that despite CIOs outsourcing 48% of all testing and development projects, with this number expected to increase by 14.5 percent over the next two years, projects are frequently performing poorly.

The research also revealed that the poor performances of outsourcing programs are resulting in 31% of CIOs, feeling that their positions are threatened.

The research found that multiple changes during the project are resulting in increasing failures and project delays.

The research found that:

• 57% of CIOs describe some of their outsourcing projects as unmanageable, an embarrassment, a nightmare or a total failure

• 81% of respondents said they are not totally confident in their ability to clearly document and communicate project requirements to outsourcing vendors at the outset

• 47% of organisations change the specification of work being done by their outsourced vendor at least once a fortnight or more frequently

• Less than half said they use a dedicated requirements software tool. The majority are relying on spread sheets like Excel and written documents like Word to capture their requirements

Research points to increased innovation from outsourcing overseas