  Context: Backsourcing is the process of insourcing previously outsourced
activities. When companies experience environmental or strategic changes, or
challenges with outsourcing, backsourcing can be a viable alternative. While
outsourcing and related processes have been extensively studied in software
engineering, few studies report experiences with backsourcing. Objectives: We
intend to summarize the results of the research literature on the backsourcing
of IT, with a focus on software development. By identifying practical relevance
experience, we aim to present findings that may help companies considering
backsourcing. In addition, we aim to identify gaps in the current research
literature and point out areas for future work. Method: Our systematic
literature review (SLR) started with a search for empirical studies on the
backsourcing of software development. From each study we identified the
contexts in which backsourcing occurs, the factors leading to the decision to
backsource, the backsourcing process itself, and the outcomes of backsourcing.
We employed inductive coding to extract textual data from the papers identified
and qualitative cross-case analysis to synthesize the evidence from
backsourcing experiences. Results: We identified 17 papers that reported 26
cases of backsourcing, six of which were related to software development. The
cases came from a variety of contexts. The most common reasons for backsourcing
were improving quality, reducing costs, and regaining control of outsourced
activities. The backsourcing process can be described as containing five
sub-processes: change management, vendor relationship management, competence
building, organizational build-up, and transfer of ownership. Furthermore, ...
