The Ultimate Guide for Offshore Development in 2023

Hiring a software developer is one of the best things that you can do for your brand. Whether you want to offer software development or a software product to clients and customers or you are seeking personalized development to have on retainer, hiring a software developer is a good choice.

You have a number of options when hiring a developer. If you can afford to bring on an employee, hiring an in-house developer on salary is an option. You can also hire developers as contractors, freelancers, and offshore agency third-parties.

Due to the ​cost savings​ and the amount of talent available, many people consider hiring offshore. There are some clear benefits to hiring offshore developers, so we understand if this is the route you want to go. However, there are some things to consider.

Here is your ultimate guide for offshore development in 2021:

What is Offshore Software Development?

Offshore software development​ is part of outsourcing. Outsourcing workers or teams are extremely common. When you outsource, you are hiring someone else to do a job for you without taking them in as an employee under the company.

When hiring offshore (as opposed to just outsourcing), you are hiring someone who is located in another country and usually across multiple time zones. This allows a business to tap into top talent, save money, and scale its business at a reasonable pace.

Offshore hiring can happen in every industry. When you hire offshore software developers, then you are likely seeking a software development team, a freelancer, contractor, or individual worker/employee to contribute to software development. This person or team might do everything related to the software development process, or they might fit into your company’s already established processes.

It’s important to note that there are other types of outsourcing hires. You could hire someone nearshore, which could be someone within a similar timezone as your organization, or onshore, which is someone in a similar geographical location, country, or region.

When outsourcing for software development, the biggest distinction you’ll need to make is what specific job types the vendor will provide. If the developer can’t provide all of the services, you will still need to manage those aspects of the project or hire more support.

Benefits of Offshore Development

There are clear benefits to hiring offshore, which is why this is so popular in the software development industry:

• Access to top talent
• Clear and more efficient workflows
• Access to industry expertise
• Fewer risks
• Faster product development
• Scalability
• Higher quality products

Additionally, there are three main categories of offshore hiring: delivery teams, staff augmentation, and project-based outsourcing. And each of these types can tap into the unique benefits that are available.

So you can hire a whole ​delivery team​ that works alongside the client’s in-house team. Offshore delivery teams will typically have their own scrum master (or project manager), engineers, and testers. Hiring an offshore delivery team is great for scalability, and you still get high-quality products too.

Compared to offshore ​staff augmentation​, which will offer on-demand services through an extended team setting. This type allows you to scale more efficiently. Hiring for staff augmentation will save you more money, but you might not get as efficient a workflow or access to the top talent.

If you want full-scale development, then you’re looking at ​project-based outsourcing​. This type might be project to project, or you can come to an agreement, and they will provide all of the necessary things to build a piece of software, test it, establishing workflow, and so on. This is by far the most popular form of outsourcing and usually brings in the most talent.

Choosing the Right Offshore Company

Since you will be working closely with this company, and hopefully in the long-term, you want to make sure that you are prepared for this business relationship and nurture it. When choosing an offshore company, consider the following:

• Do you have standards for workflow and communication set up? Typically you will need digital software to facilitate this, as you won’t want to go over email.
• Since you are producing a tech product, then you’ll need to establish standardized security protocols. This is extremely important in the content that you are sharing with your team but also in the products that you produce.
• Recognize that by hiring offshore, you have the best talent at your fingertips. You can vet the team to make sure that you are always getting high-quality software. Try a test run to see if you like the company’s business model and product.

Choosing the right company for software development is a lot like choosing business partnerships​. You need to make sure that the relationship will work before you commit to large contracts.

Try not to hire a company when you ​absolutely​ need someone, as you are likely to have some crossed-wires when it comes to project expectations and quality. Also, be sure that the partnership has time to take on your project. You might find that the company may be willing to work with you, but maybe they aren’t prioritizing your needs.

Key Steps to Consider When Working With an Offshore Developer

Before you hire a developer, consider the following steps:

Know Your Goals: ​Know why you’re coming to the developer. You should have some idea of why you want a developer, whether it is for time management, ​niche products​, or improved workflows. This should be clear from the get-go so that the developer you hire is aware of the relationship needs.

List Your Needs/Priorities: ​Your planning before you hire comes down to what you need and expect from the developer. Even if you are hiring a full-time (project-based outsourcing), you’ll at least need to establish key priorities of your business.

Establish Your Vision:​ As part of a company, you’ll have an idea of the company vision. Your developer needs to buy into this vision, so make sure it is straightforward for them. Consider writing down your contract in terms of what each business can do (each company business) so that both parties can come to the same terms.

If your company works with software, then there are times when it is the right move to hire offshore. Consider hiring if you don’t have quality software engineers available to you in-house, if your workload has increased, or if you have a specialized product that you would like to provide.

Software development​ is highly complex, so sometimes there are projects that you can’t seem to manage on your own. If this is the case, then hiring an offshore developer is often a good idea as they might have the specialty skills to complete the project and manage the project complexity.

Other times you can hire offshore developers for consulting. In any case, hiring offshore maximizes your money spent, so you know that you can spend more freely and still get access to high-quality software.