Software Outsourcing Partnership (SOP) is considered as a kind of risk and reward sharing client‐vendor relationship. Generally, a fruitful outsourcing association might be converted to an outsourcing partnership. The objective of this research is to identify and analyse barriers that are hurdles to vendors in renewing or promoting their ongoing client‐vendor relationship to outsourcing partnership. A questionnaire survey based on the findings of Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was performed with 50 experts. The study identifies five critical barriers such as “insufficient quality of technical capability,” “poor infrastructure,” “poor quality of service,” “communication gap and poor coordination,” and “relational risk.” The results indicate that barriers' insufficient quality of technical capability, poor infrastructure, and poor quality of service were common in four types of experts while insufficient quality of technical capability is common in three levels of experts. Furthermore, barriers were classified based on their criticality from client‐vendor perspective. The results of Spearman correlation test (rs = 0.714 and ρ = 0.000) confirmed that the participant strongly agrees with the outcomes of the SLR. The results suggest that for successful renewal or promotion of their existing outsourcing association, vendor organizations should address all the identified barriers in general and the most common barriers in particular.

中文翻译：

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从业者对软件外包伙伴关系形成障碍的看法：实证探索

软件外包合作（SOP）被认为是一种风险和回报共享的客户-供应商关系。一般来说，一个富有成效的外包协会可能会转变为外包合作伙伴关系。本研究的目的是识别和分析阻碍供应商更新或促进其与外包合作伙伴关系的持续客户-供应商关系的障碍。对 50 名专家进行了基于系统文献综述 (SLR) 调查结果的问卷调查。该研究确定了五个关键障碍，例如“技术能力质量不足”、“基础设施差”、“服务质量差”、“沟通差距和协调不力”以及“关系风险”。结果表明，壁垒的技术能力质量不足、基础设施薄弱、四类专家普遍存在服务质量差，三级专家普遍存在技术能力素质不足。此外，从客户-供应商的角度来看，障碍是根据其重要性进行分类的。Spearman 相关性检验的结果（rs = 0.714 和 ρ = 0.000）证实参与者非常同意 SLR 的结果。结果表明，为了成功更新或推广现有的外包协会，供应商组织应解决所有已识别的一般障碍，尤其是最常见的障碍。Spearman 相关性检验的结果（rs = 0.714 和 ρ = 0.000）证实参与者非常同意 SLR 的结果。结果表明，为了成功更新或推广现有的外包协会，供应商组织应解决所有已识别的一般障碍，尤其是最常见的障碍。Spearman 相关性检验的结果（rs = 0.714 和 ρ = 0.000）证实参与者非常同意 SLR 的结果。结果表明，为了成功更新或推广现有的外包协会，供应商组织应解决所有已识别的一般障碍，尤其是最常见的障碍。