Crowdsourcing, Open-sourcing, Outsourcing and Insourcing Software Development: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

The software development industry invariably embraces different models and techniques to develop the best user-oriented and cost-effective solutions. The selection of an appropriate software-sourcing model is one of the key factors that influences the entire development process. The various software-sourcing models Crowdsourcing, Open-sourcing, Outsourcing and Insourcing have been adopted to achieve the best software products. Every software-sourcing model possesses several strengths and may be effective in certain types of projects; however, its limitations may restrain the use of it in some other projects. It is very essential for an organisation to investigate the pros and cons of a potential sourcing-model before going to adopt it for their project. This paper presents a comparative analysis of Crowdsourcing, Open-sourcing, Outsourcing and Insourcing models in order to find out the best fit environment and suitability of each model.