What is web development outsourcing?
Outsourcing web development is popular more than ever now, especially taking into account the high cost and operational challenges associated with hiring and maintaining an in-house IT team. Businesses have further experienced the benefits of the remote development concept during the Covid-19 situation. It is fairly low pricing, convenient, and makes it easier to build and modify a team without a long-term commitment.
As a result, numerous businesses are seeking to outsource their IT and web development work to remote developers in low-cost countries. With certain precautions, this practice entails numerous benefits, and organizations or startups of any scale can easily manage to outsource their web development or support role to resources in another country.
When you hire a developer or an agency to work on your project remotely, and you give them access to your website or a business application for development, it’s important to know the risk and difficulties associated with outsourcing and the measures that you can take to enjoy the benefits of the outsourcing.
In this article
Know the risks associated with outsourcing and the safety measure
Although its been ages now that people have been regularly outsourcing the web development assignment or IT support role to Asian countries, and there is already a well-oiled eco-system in place for remote access, time tracking, project review, and payments, etc., some people still find it unsafe. Following are some of the risks and difficulties that one should be aware of while outsourcing web development or IT support work.
Communication Barrier
Gaining access to a global pool of quality development resources also creates one of the major risk — issues in communication. You’ll need to overcome different time zones, languages, and artistic conventions. Establishing regular channels of communication with the outsourced company or resources becomes of key significance for assuring project success.
When communicating with outsourced developers, apprehension of the project requirements and clarity on the deliverables are the most important factors.
Use of collaboration tools, like Jira and Asana, regular engagement with the remote team via video or audio communication, and stand-up meetings at regular intervals, are best practices for establishing communication channels with the outsourced development team.
Failure in understanding the scope of the project
Before outsourcing development to a remote team, clarity on the necessities and deliverables that you anticipate awaited timeline to deliver, and the overall scope of the project is essential for successful outsourcing. Failure to communicate these details may result in range creep and misalignment on the product vision.
Without resolving these issues, the software masterminds will continue working in silos and there will be a widening gap between your prospects and the real deliverables. The base has to be established by you and the features that you want to be incorporated in the app need to be undoubtedly proved.
A software requirements specification (SRS) document can be an excellent starting point that gives the development company a clear perception of the requirements. For non-tech companies, drafting this kind of document can feel daunting.
I recommend using an SRS template which can help with the attestation process. The best way to handle project requirement understanding issues, however, is to assign a pilot task to the outsourced agency or developer team on an hourly basis payment system.
The short-term and small assignments will give them a chance to understand the architecture and the code of the application, and on the other side, you would get first-hand experience of their skill.
The hourly-based engagement will help in maintaining a scope for the easy exit for both sides if things don't work out well. If confidence is built during the pilot project, you can enhance the resources or the engagement with the agency or the developer.
Code quality challenges
Maintaining code quality when outsourcing development to offshore companies requires communication of prospects, laying down the quality marks in advance, and regular briefings with the team to stay on top of the development efforts. The team that you're outsourcing to should have checked in place to ensure consistency in code quality.
Before you sign on a company, ask if they take measures like code review (both peer-to-peer and with management), unit testing, as well as functional testing. These safeguards will help ensure they've developed a robust operation before releasing it to you.
An established quality assurance process with thorough application testing — including reversion testing whenever any changes are made to the code and use of project management tools for logging of issues and management of backlogs — are some of the basics I recommend you look for when choosing where to outsource your work.
Managing the project
Managing remote teams, though occasionally challenging, is generally a simple process. Once you learn how to do it, effects will become a lot easier. Common tasks include
Project scoping – deciding on which features will make it into the project. Project kick-off is one of the most critical steps for starting a new project.
Planning the project – making the goals and milestones clear and attainable, and responding to changes.
Staying in the circle – having close communication with the team. It’s not a bad idea to record daily or-weekly calls to get updates on the project’s delivery.
Don’t let the nimble development process mislead you. It's still a process, not a reason for chaos. Certain rules must be followed.
Idea and information leaks
Securing the quality and project administration norms for the project reduces the threat of ending up with an insufficient or deficient product. There is, still, one further, an essential thing to bear in mind. IT projects are grounded on knowledge, experience, perceptivity, and ideas – this information defines the project’s competitive advantage.
As you won’t lose this advantage, you need to help your design from being stolen. Subscribing a Non-disclosure Agreement is one way to secure the safety of your idea. Creating an NDA, you need to specify what information is nonpublic and assess its worth. Subscribing an NDA for your design is a standard procedure indeed while asking for estimation, so don’t vacillate to ask for it while looking for an IT company with which to work.
Managing IT projects can be simpler and safer than you suppose. The rule of thumb is to follow the best industry practices regarding the quality and project operation tactics you employ. Of course, you don’t have to know everything – in this case; it’s good to find an IT partner that will introduce you to software development delivery and be capable of suggesting the best result for your project.
Develop a security policy within your company
Even if you're a solopreneur or a small baseline agreeing of 3 people, it never hurts to keep a strict security policy when hiring third-party associations. The security rules should include regular word changes for all your workers and working resources including server access, admin dashboard access (if applicable), and commercial emails.
If you have no former experience with making security programs you may start with searching for information available online with tips like security listings for a website to make sure that nothing is missed.
Conclusion
The cost and flexibility benefits of outsourcing weigh more than any risks or difficulties that people associate with it. Those risks can easily be avoided or reduced by implementing the suggestions mentioned. As corporate knowledge about IT outsourcing continues to advance, the strategy of selective or smart sourcing may become the norm. Outsourcing has so many benefits, the common reasons for outsourcing IT services — cost reduction, business focus, and subcontracting legacy systems — remain sensible goals. Danip technology is a fast-growing outsourcing development agency and it can provide you with safe web development outsourcing
We help you build a remote IT team on an offshore developmental model. You can hire a single resource on an hourly basis, or build a dedicated IT team to meet your unique staffing requirement. A reliable offshore talent is always worth trying, after all, cost-cutting benefits are huge.
References
https://stackoverflow.blog/2019/10/01/pitfalls-avoid-outsourcing-software-development/