A typical product lifecycle consists of a number of activities product architecture, high level design, low level design, product re-engineering, product migration, product implementation, testing and so on. A company may want to test the waters by outsourcing only a part of one these activities- this may make more sense for a large product. Some of the models for OPD are given below:

• Outsourcing non-software development activities: This can include testing, creation of manuals and development of monitoring applications for the product, monitoring the product and basic level of support. This can be a good starting point in an OPD engagement as this will give the vendor an opportunity to understand the product, and the customer an opportunity to gauge the capabilities of the vendor.
  
• Outsourcing Non-Core development activities or certain modules of product development: In this model, the software development activities which don’t form the core functionality of the product are outsourced. The product company can give clearly identified modules of work to the product company. For example, a financial services company may outsource the development of a web front-end to an existing legacy product while retaining the development and maintenance of their core product. Product integration capabilities both for the vendor and the customer are important in this.
  
• Team Augmentation: In this model the OPD vendor’s work force is considered an extension of the product company’s team and they work in tandem with the OPD vendor’s team having full access to the source code.
  
• Complete Product Development Outsourcing: In this model the complete product development is outsourced to the OPD vendor.
  

PhiStream uses any of the above models in order to assist your company in the following areas of outsourced product realization:

• Product Development
• Product Reengineering
• Product Technical Support and Maintenance
• Product Implementation