A checklist is considered important because it includes the important details which could be possibly overlooked. The benefits of a checklist is very important be it as a grocery checklist or an outsourcing checklist.

There are many kinds of guide in outsourcing but this one written by Johanna Rothman is the one that I consider as "timeless" because it covers the essentials very well. There are 11 factors in her checklist and here it is:

-Train the outsourcing staff.
-Qualify the vendor
-Assign one of your best project managers as your internal Project Manager
-Plan for your in-house staff to shift their work hours
-Document the requirements
-Develop an appropriate change process
-Select outsource projects with nonvolatile requirements
-Plan for each project to take longer and cost more, especially at the beginning of an outsourcing relationship
-Insist that the outsourcing company keep the same team for your project's duration
-Make sure you have the tools, information systems and processes in placeto support the outsourced teams
-Verify that the people who said they'd be working on the project are the ones actually working on the project

Though some of the factors here are self-explanatory, an in-depth look would not hurt. That is why I decided to tackle these factors in my upcoming blog posts. If you have anything that you wish to add, please do so :D