| Hi Charles, what you are describing is what I specialize in (outsourced/offshore software project rescue). I run a 4-part audit/assessment: 1. Client education, AKA managing expectations. Educating the client on the principles and challenges of software development. Most know very little about this and it makes their job very frustrating. Every failure of consulting is really a failure to manage expectations. 2. Communication. How are they communicating, what are the problems? This is the most important thing in software development (and business in general). 3. Methodology review. How are they managing the project? What methods and tools are they using? Are the tools configured, integrated, and automated correctly? 4. Developer practices. Mostly based on my programmer productivity talk. You are focused on #4 (and some of #3), which is important, but I find the first 3 way more important for "success." #2 sounds like your biggest problem. When I hire developers (always 100% remote) I prioritize two things: communication skills and discipline. I'll give you one tip: static code analysis tools. This way the tool is criticizing the code instead of you (of course, I agree with code reviews). When I realized how useful this is I started giving talks on it. Also, Gerald Weinberg's The Secrets of Consulting is gold: https://amzn.to/2JvDZnx |