The Best Project Management Methodology for Software Development
Developing software with any team can be a challenge. You have to ensure that everyone on the team knows their tasks and completes them on time.
Whether you are looking to source your software development team or looking for a team to partner with, you are likely scouring the options. Development teams exist worldwide, and when budgets are tight, you might be looking to cut costs no matter what.
Outsourcing your software development to an offshore team might seem like a good idea, especially if the companies you are looking at are promising cheaper budgets and faster timelines.
Hiring offshore software developers can be great in some cases, but they might lead to more headaches and more considerable technical debt in the long run.
Offshore Software Outsourcing
Offshore software outsourcing is when a business outsources technical software development to a company, freelancer, or multiple companies in different locations. This is usually a business partnership involving two more companies in various locations around the world.
In addition to offshore outsourcing, companies can also outsource onshore (to a company in the same country or region) and nearshore (in a similar time zone).
Outsourcing is used for many reasons, and usually, this decreases the amount of time and effort one company needs to put toward a given use. If a company sells a product, they might outsource different product stages, such as product development, the production process, shopping and logistics, marketing, and so on.
Similarly, the software development process can be outsourced individually. Depending on the project’s scope or the client’s needs, you might want to outsource different aspects of the project. If you are a software developer, then you might partner with a graphic designer, UI/UX designer, marketer, and so on to keep a project moving smoothly.
Why Consider Offshore Software Outsourcing
There are many benefits to outsourcing software. Outsourcing, in general, allows a team to work with top talent from around the world. This allows a business to hire top IT talent and save costs by hiring contractors or multiple firms.
Outsourcing also allows for workloads to be optimized. By outsourcing, a business can reasonably increase its workload capacity to take on more tech projects. The more projects a team has, the more talent is needed. This helps businesses scale, produce more software projects faster, and handle technical debt more efficiently.
Outsourcing can allow a team to launch faster and reduce the number of risks if everything goes smoothly. With it, you can pick high-quality talent and create your delivery team, one that is hand-picked for the project. From project managers to quality assurance engineers and the developers themselves, outsourcing allows businesses to hand-pick and develop high-quality software more quickly.
As a team, you might want to consider project-based outsourcing as well for better staff augmentation. You could test a specified group with a project type and then use them exclusively for those types of projects. This works well when you can’t find top talent in your neighborhood.
Does Outsourcing Software Development Work
Outsourcing software development works well for specific reasons. For example, outsourcing is ideal for staff augmentation. You can add highly skilled workers to your team for fewer costs, saving money on overhead and employee taxes. You can also consider outsourcing in pieces so that you add different skill sets at other times. This allows your business to scale accordingly and not be overwhelmed with too many new project demands at one time.
If you want to take on a new project type, outsourcing can allow you to do this fairly quickly. You can bring on different aspects of the delivery team when you need it. Finding the right vendor can be difficult, though, and this is when outsourcing projects don’t always work.
If you are looking to cut expenses and go with a cheaper and overseas developer, you might risk finding a lower-quality vendor who fails to deliver on demands. Since the individual is overseas, there needs to be a significant amount of oversight or verification to ensure that you can trust the vendor and that they will follow through on the project.
Outsourcing software development works when you can have a dedicated project manager or part of your management staff paying a close eye to the stakeholders involved. While you might have project managers for each project, consider having a team lead or overseer to ensure that each project follows through on the project objectives.
Answer to: Is Offshore Software Outsourcing the Right Choice?
Outsourcing your software development can work so long as you have the right support in place. Whether or not you need to consider offshore outsourcing is based on the available resources nearby.
If you can’t find a high-quality developer near your business, then you might have to expand your search. However, there are additional concerns when working with individuals in different countries. Be sure to negotiate cross-border payments and secure cloud-based services.
If you want to access top-tier talent unavailable in your backyard, offshore software outsourcing makes sense. If you are looking for a cheap alternative, though, you might be doing it for the wrong reasons, which could contribute to significant technical debt later on.
Consider outsourcing your software development, but be smart about how you hire. Rotate is an experienced, high-quality software developer with experience in web-based software, computer-based, mobile app development, fintech, blockchain, and much more. See how outsourcing your development to Rotate can improve your business operations!
