Software outsourcing is a method where a project for developing software is given to outside developers rather than employing internal staff. You may do this by choosing a software development outsourcing provider to handle the entire project or by outsourcing only certain jobs within the project.
Software outsourcing offers competitive benefits that internal teams cannot match. Outsourced software development lowers development expenses while utilizing a worldwide talent pool of software experts.
Many companies are still hesitant to hire outsourced developers and teams who can assist in creating high-quality software. This is mainly because the advantages are not so obvious, but rather, as saying goes, the devil is in the details.
Principal Advantages of Outsourcing Software Development
Cost Reduction
Because you must invest in recruiting, training, and onboarding new employees, employing software developed in-house can be costly. You may save money on these hiring costs when you engage an outsourced workforce. You won’t need to spend money on office supplies or training.
Additionally, the cost of living in developed and developing countries differs significantly. For instance, London’s cost of living is considerably greater than that of a country in Eastern Europe like Ukraine. You can acquire outstanding talent from a developing country like Ukraine for a fraction of the price by outsourcing your software development team!
Innovative Technology and Access to a Global Talent Pool
Working with a wide range of clients has allowed software development companies to amass technical competence. The best software development tools are available to outsourced teams to handle these customers and projects. This makes it simple to adjust to your business’s needs!
The use of DevOps or Agile development techniques may also help outsourced teams be more productive. Additionally, by accelerating time to market, these procedures might assist your business in the rapid development of its technological capacity.
You may reduce the stress on your internal IT staff by assigning time-consuming projects to an outsourced vendor. Your staff may concentrate on tasks that directly advance your company’s growth because these outsourced developers don’t need further direction. Outsourcing to a third-party vendor is better than making your internal development staff manage tasks they aren’t qualified to do!
In this manner, your full-time staff may concentrate on strategic objectives that are appropriate for their level of expertise while the outsourced team works on these specialized software solutions.
To guarantee that the finished software product is stable for a better user experience, your outsourced team can have dedicated resources for testing and quality assurance.
Additionally, since your outsourced developers can have new suggestions for improving your software product, this could encourage further innovation. They could even provide fresh ideas for handling current company issues.
Software Development Outsourcing’s Biggest Challenges and How to Overcome Them
Challenge #1: Communication Difficulties
You might have to overcome issues like language barriers, cultural norms, and time zone variations.
Solutions:
- To manage your processes, use collaboration platforms like Slack and Jira.
- By communicating weekly or even daily with your remote workforce, you can promote transparency.
- Identify any potential language barriers and, if required, employ a translation.
Challenge #2: Security Risks
Your algorithm or software for outsourcing runs the danger of being copied or stolen by a particular employee. Your important data may also be exposed if the database of the outsourced organization is breached.
Solutions:
- Before disclosing your data, request an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) from outsourcing software vendors. They are prohibited from disclosing trade secrets under this agreement.
- Include a paragraph addressing intellectual property rights in the contract if your program is proprietary. Any future copyright infringement concerns will be avoided thanks to this.
- To keep an eye on your outsourced developers, use performance monitoring tools. You can monitor what they are doing and accessing with the use of this.
Challenge #3: Coding Quality Problems
If you’re a non-tech company without considerable coding experience, adherence to quality standards may be a problem in addition to problems caused by misunderstanding.
Solutions:
- Verify whether the outsourcing company for software development has a well-established quality assurance procedure that includes code review and unit testing.
- To remain on top of the development activities, have regular meetings with the team.
- For tracking issues and managing backlogs, use project management tools like Trello and Basecamp.
What Is the Process for Outsourcing Software Engineering?
Software engineering outsourcing is a difficult effort with several difficulties and risks. With the aid of a good software engineering partner and a strict method to follow, you can really be successful at it. And while that procedure may vary from business to business and industry to industry, we can summarize it into 5 essential phases that govern how everything functions.
Defining the goals and parameters of the current project is the first stage. Here, you decide what you want to build, how much you can afford to spend on it, what goals you aim to attain, and how long it will take to complete. All of this must be completed before you ever consider outsourcing, mostly because you must fully comprehend your project before you can choose the right kind of outsourcing contract.
Outsourcing Research
With the specifics of your project in hand, you can now investigate the outsourcing companies that could effectively accomplish your project. This implies you’ll need to look for suitable businesses with the knowledge and work history your project demands. You must narrow down your selection of outsourcing organizations, comprehend their models and services, and assess each one’s caliber, reputation, and other factors. This is a time-consuming procedure.
The Beginning of the Project
It’s time to start your project when you’ve chosen the outsourcing company that best suits your demands. To put it another way, you must meet with the outsourcing developers team, outline your objectives, and create a plan of action. It is crucial that you specify your role in this process so that you are clear on what to anticipate going forward.
The outsourced team may begin working on the actual software engineering process after the strategic planning is done. This may imply several things depending on the engagement model you’ve chosen:
- Begin working with your internal team with the assistance of the outsourcing experts.
- Outsource the project’s component that you require the outsourcing provider to complete.
- Delegate the whole job to the outsourcing company for completion.
You might choose staff augmentation to fill in any skill shortages on your team, outsource a part of it that is beyond the scope of your team’s expertise, or outsource the entire project so that you can concentrate on other, more urgent tasks.
When the Project is Finished
The outsourced developers will adhere to the predetermined schedule and supply the deliverables in accordance with the agreed-upon route. Naturally, a lot of modifications and improvements to this procedure will be made in response to your comments. The software’s readiness is the natural outcome, but that doesn’t imply the process has to finish there. Depending on the project type, the outsourcing partnership could continue to offer maintenance, updates, and additional development.
As you can see, outsourced developers offer quite a lot of benefits, and companies all over the world are already working with these specialists. But in some companies, the decision of outsourcing stays on a discussion stage for years because of irrational fear that these developers are not worth their money, and it is better to hire a full-time team. However, numerous successful cooperations started to turn things around, and more and more outsourced developers are appearing every year. We hope that everything you have learned from this article will help you to make the right decision.