After deciding to create a new piece of software or an application, you need to decide how to organise the development process. One of the major questions that you will need to address is whether to employ an in-house or outsourced software development team.
Finding talented tech specialists to bring in-house can be difficult, particularly if you are short on time and resources. As a result, an increasing number of businesses are opting to outsource software development in order to save money on operating costs, taxes, overheads and the cost of product development itself. Not to mention the amazing access they can get by outsourcing to diverse talent pools in different countries!
If you have a conservative business model, you might be thinking about recruiting a local, in-house development team. Nevertheless, due to time-consuming interviews, onboarding procedures, and long preparation lead times, this choice of path typically takes up more time and resources. Must be added here defitsit competent staff. Moreover, organizing an in-house team is considered an outdated approach in the industry. If you find a reliable partner in an outsourcing developer who will work in the interests of your business, they will have high motivation and a high degree of involvement, and such a partnership will become long-term and will completely replace the in-house team.
However, many companies share a number of common fears about outsourcing software developments. These might include cost, expertise and efficiency worries, or fear of losing control.
But are these fears built on solid foundations? And are they caused by past negative experiences, or simply by what people have heard?
Well, it's time to dispel some of these fears about outsourcing your software development. By choosing the right outsourced development team, you can have confidence that they'll do an amazing job for you.
Read on to discover five key fears about software development and how you can put your mind at rest:
Fear #1: Outsourcing is more expensive than in-house
Although many people worry that outsourcing is much more expensive than an in-house development team, they simply need to take the time to work out the costs in order to get a better understanding. And by doing this, their fears will disappear!
Before beginning a project and deciding on whether to use in-house or outsourced developers, you need to crunch the numbers that are reflected in your team's expenses.
A major concern when outsourcing software development is wasting money. Outsourcing is typically chosen because of its low cost when compared with bringing people in-house.
By building your own in-house team from scratch, you will have to consider costs like hiring, onboarding, office space and salaries, plus the money wasted while you take a long time to get the workers oriented and get your project off the ground. And even after the talent acquisition costs, developers change jobs on average every 2.7 years - so the likelihood is that you will have to do it all again in the not so distant future! If it was an episodic project and it will end, and a new one has not yet begun, you will also have to spend money for the downtime of an expensive specialist. And also don't forget to count three salaries to the total costs in case of parting with an employee.
If you choose to go with an outsourced software partner, you should still be careful with the costs, but by working out expenses beforehand you will be able to get a much clearer picture, and you can see where costs can be cut. Before you begin the project, talk to your outsourcing partner about whether or not they will fulfil your standards and what it will take to get things done.
This will include calculating management costs and day-to-day management, and the potential for change requests. If you can do this, you'll be able to make an accurate budget and keep your costs down.
Fear #2: Onboarding is a long and complicated process
With a new project, you want the onboarding process to be as swift and painless as possible so that you can minimise your expenditure and time to market.
The length of onboarding all depends on the internal processes your partner has in place, including their knowledge database, communication and record-keeping practices.
The best way to reduce onboarding time is by spending enough time planning and preparing, and by providing the access to all necessary resources for the developers.
So make a list of your specifications and assign responsibility to different people for different areas of the process. Talk about the project's deadlines and scope, outline productivity metrics. Create a knowledge database. Inquire for visibility if the outsourcing partner confirms that they have a track record of successfully completing similar ventures. And how can you stay informed about the developers' onboarding progress? By having daily check-ins and updates (1:1 meetings) to make sure that the process is running smoothly.
You and your team must also be prepared to collaborate with the outsourcing partner you hire during onboarding. Build a calendar of when people will be available and search for overlaps in the schedule to keep everybody in line and keep everybody communicating clearly.
Fear #3: Management issues
Many businesses are concerned that the outsourcing procedure might be difficult to manage. However, by having a checklist of things to stay on top of, management of the project becomes much easier.
To ensure high quality throughout the project, it is important to have closely defined task requirements and open communication with the team at every touchpoint. All stages should be subject to rigorous analytics to ensure good quality and consistency. This should involve code reviews, quality assurance checks and other checks in line with your own specific metrics. The MVP strategy should be well thought through and incident protocols need to be in place.
Equally, in order to maintain a good level of productivity, you can use a variety of resources for communication, project management, or performance monitoring. A well-chosen approach (Scrum, Agile) enables consistent delegation of roles at each level of product creation and ensures that everything runs smoothly. By keeping in line with the onboarding plan and following the product roadmap, everybody should know what they're doing and be able to stick to the plan. Additionally, CI/CD is a useful way to get continuous feedback from your own team. This increases the transparency of any problems in the team and encourages responsible accountability.
And finally on the management front, deadlines are essential to keep motivation high and the project running according to your defined timeframe. This includes keeping up with sprints and the roadmap, transparent reporting, and regular demos and edits based on feedback.
Fear #4: Outsourcing means fraud & low quality
When it comes to outsourcing software production, sometimes you can find such a situation - at the first meeting you are shown one project team, and in fact your project is being implemented by others.To avoid this, the outsourcing company after the first acquaintance must ensure the possibility of communication with the project developers. The outsourcing team must be ready to conduct regular meetups and online video conferences.
To make sure that the outsourced development team suits you at the presale stage, you need to check your new partner's reference. Meet the team prior to onboarding. Process of communication and all development software should be transparency. Also, you can protect yourself legally with an NDA, which will ensure that your ideas and processes are kept secure and secret.
In terms of assuring product quality, you need to make locating a competent vendor a top priority. Inform them of any questions you might have, as well as any unique situations. If they're the right outsourcing partner for you, they'll be able to guide you through any possible threats and provide solutions to avoid them.
Throughout the project, conduct regular code reviews, QA/QAA testing, demos of products and features, as well as beta testing. With these regular checks you can measure up the development team against the benchmarks that you've set, and you can easily replace team members if they aren't a good fit for your project.
But by choosing the right development team to help you, they will have a high level of professionalism at the heart of everything they do.
Fear #5: The teams are hard to manage and motivate
When you are outsourcing a project, you may feel that the team interaction is limited and that an in-house team might be much easier to manage and motivate. This is especially the case if your outsourced team is remote - they may be hundreds or even thousands of miles away!
But by picking the right team to help with your development, you can easily put your fears at rest.
Most crucially, you need to select an outsourced partner which is committed to keeping their developers motivated. Their HR department should be adept at encouraging and motivating their staff to give their all on each project.
This will involve the way the partner manages their developers' workload so that they do not become overwhelmed, and stay focused on the task at hand. Additionally, the HR team of the outsourced company will need to give continuous feedback. This could be via 1:1 catch-ups, where they can track each person's progress, recognize their achievements, and outline ways to improve and grow.
Additionally, your partner should regularly present the team's progress, give team feedback and celebrate wins and milestones, no matter how small. This will create a positive culture, keeping everyone motivated and on track.
And of course, a great way to build a team culture is by being able to switch off and enjoy each other's company socially as well! The HR team of your outsourced partner will promote informal communication channels, which are essential so that people aren't afraid of voicing their concerns and seeking help to overcome challenges. Plus, meet-ups should play a role in building strong working relationships. This could be in the forms of happy hours or corporate parties.
Bonus: Losing one's expertise
You might have spent years building up your set of skills and bank of ideas, so how can you guarantee that an outsourced team will be able to bring them to life? This is a major fear for many companies. By choosing the right development team to take the reins, you can be confident of a successful outcome.
Make sure that you find a team with similar projects in their portfolio and has the knowledge of the necessary tech stack and processes, as well as continuously populated documentation and repo ownership.
Communication is also key. You will gain more interest in the quality of work by asking the right questions. Inquire about how every outsourcing partner you're considering screens, hires, and trains developers. Furthermore, the outsourcing partner should be able to clarify how they train their developers to follow their internal processes and maintain continuity.
Conclusion: Get the team right, and everything will fall into place
If you make the most of the development team with a full circle outsourcing process, then you will get a good value service that provides amazing results and creates a long-standing partnership from which you can benefit further in the future.
The main secret of a successful partnership with an outsourcing company is to choose the right provider to work with. If this company can dispel all of the fears mentioned above, then you can guarantee a successful project.
The software company that is involved in the client's business must act as a team and a partner rather than just individuals, in order to create a collaborative environment. Not just technical skills are required, but soft skills too, and the developers need to remain motivated during the development process. When planning the project, you need to anticipate the needs and expectations of the customer, and so do the developers.
To work with a software development team with the expertise and experience to bring your project to life and puts a smile on your customers' faces, speak with OmegaLab today!