A Day in the Life: The Nearshore Project Life Cycle that Saves Times, Stress, and Money

In the software development world, companies are in constant competition to develop the best solutions, in the most efficient time, with the highest quality. But successful completion of these goals requires strategy. Nearshoring is the approach of choice for many top companies in the software world and beyond, and there are plenty of obvious reasons why. Let’s follow the nearshore software life cycle, to see just how and why it saves smart businesses time, stress, and money. 

Discovery: Planting the Seed for Success 

1. Document: Information is key, and nearshoring knows it. Every project begins with clear and efficient communication, maintained throughout the entire cycle: gathering project requirements, producing a prototype, and then agreeing upon this vision. 
   
2. Estimate: Leveraging the efficiency of communication, project leaders ensure that all parties are on the same page regarding time and costs.
   
3. Define project team: With destinations clearly defined, the nearshoring Project Lead takes the reigns. She/he hand-selects the best crew of technical leads, developers, designers, QA analysts, and stylists.    
   

**Did you know? Nearshoring teams are 50% – 65% more productive than those of standard offshore companies. 

4. Client kick-off call: Nearshoring teams always maintain close and open communication with the client. It’s the advantage of being near.

** Fun fact! This entire germination process can happen in just one morning. With teams and clients working in the same time zone, nearshore projects save 12-24 hours of lag time in every correspondence. 

Analysis, Design, and Development: What Nearshoring Teams Do Best 

5. Task assignment: Among nearshoring teams, each member knows what she/he does best. Individuals accordingly agree upon initial project tasks, and get started on innovation. The best part? These teams are agile and dynamic, switching hats as needed to best combat all hoops and hurdles.  

6. Review client requirements: With the first stages of development in place, agile nearshore teams go back to the source. They verify client expectations and put them into action, with rapid-fire communication that guarantees a product free of disappointments. 

7. Stand-up team meeting: Close enough for convenience, the whole team gathers (virtual or not) for a status and progress check. They also decide on the next day’s plan, supported by the project lead’s guiding expertise.

** Did you know? The diversity of nearshore teams is one of their strongest, unquantifiable assets. A mixed bag of talents and experience produces an ever-dynamic process in which development and testing coexist, ensuring both efficiency and quality in the project’s growth cycle. 

Rollout: In Full Bloom

8. Weekly client meeting: Now well underway, the project team weekly meets with the client, to update process and ask for/approve any needed changes. 

**Check it out! Nearshoring efficiency is all about quality at the time of creation. As such, the development phase is at once mixed with tracking. Each project-in-development is also a project-in-review, with teams constantly monitoring KPIs (“Key Performance Indicators”) like quality, cost, time, schedule, and risk. It’s a simultaneous effort of development and quality control, one of the real-time nearshoring advantages that just can’t be beaten. 

9. Internal management meeting: To keep the machine well-oiled and the train on its tracks, our nearshoring project’s management team meets to review. It’s a quick, touch-base deal, maintaining the agility key to nearshoring. 

10. Tracking with Jira and Hubstaff:  The Project Lead uses top IT tracking tools, Jira and Hubstaff, to check the status of tasks. She/he reviews any reported bugs in the system, continuing the project’s flourishing growth. 

11. Weekly project report: Always keeping the client involved, the Project Lead sends a weekly report. It details the projects updates, as well as the total number of working hours investested by each team member. 

** Did you know? Nearshore projects save 30%-60% in prices, compared with North American offices. Nearshoring locations’ currency exchange rates allow competitive prices, while still offering well-paid jobs to local team members. 

Designed to Bear Fruit 

Once at this point, the nearshoring project is quite near completion. After fertile germination, set up for productive growth, which flowers into effective solutions, the process begins to produce fruit. It has cycled efficiently and conveniently until its metamorphosis surpasses all expectations. Only then is the solution turned over to the client–to the sharp enterprise that partnered with an agile nearshoring team– for final approval and sign-off closure. Now, it will surely plant seeds for opportunities and successes.

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A special thanks to Diana Remache and Abhas Srivastava,
the WebCreek nearshoring leaders
who provided this information.

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Sources:

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Meyer, Marc. “Why Nearshoring Is the Next Big Thing in Outsourcing.” Auxis, 11 Apr. 2019.
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