Hayden Hong, the CEO of Long Circle, writes:

If a company assumes that outsourcing means that they can toss their R&D projects over the fence (or in the case of offshore outsourcing, across the ocean) and extraordinary results will follow, they’re about to have a learning experience. Outsourcing is a process and processes must be managed to reap the best results.

The outsourced piece involves planning, including these high-level steps:

To read more:

http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/2008/07/21/manage-prepare-outsourcing/