Outsource Development Teams

Outsource development teams can be a perfect way to control expenses by transferring some of your software development work to outside workers rather than doing them in-house. With the increase in globalization and rapid changes in technology, outsourcing has become both common and more practical. With the growing popularity of freelance workers, the market has created a space for small specialized teams to work with your existing team on large software projects. This article will look at some of the reasons for and risks of outsourcing portions of your companies software development.

But first, why outsource?

Outsourcing as a general idea started in manufacturing. As manufacturing physical products became more popular and demand increased, the competition also increased. Manufacturing parts of products or full products in places that had lower overhead and cheaper labor, was a way to provide the same product at a lower cost. This became the standard in many industries. If you think of the car industry, it is very commonplace to outsource manufacturing of some parts and whole cars to other countries. This trend has been used in the software industry for many years now. Large software projects have been outsourced to India for years now. There is a whole industry that has developed in many countries surrounding outsourcing software development.

With the increase in outsourcing, many companies have more options to choose from. They can choose the software platform they need, and also the size of the team that will fit their specific project. Most businesses don’t have the complete knowledge to complete the projects. But with outsourcing, they are still able to complete their projects on time and within their budget. Having a third-party development team take on that responsibility will free up your employees to concentrate on their core responsibilities.

So with all things considered, why wouldn’t someone want to save money on staffing, software development, and support and maintenance? Let’s look at some of the risks and rewards of using outsource development teams.

Benefits or Risks to Software Outsourcing?

There is currently a lot of interest in outsourcing. This is often brought on by increased competition in the industry and the ever-present need to do more with less money. Many experts claim that there are more benefits than risks in producing software in a developing country and of course there are many great benefits to outsourcing. While you can reduce labor costs, reduce production time, and often improve quality by having a more complete development team, these benefits can often be overshadowed by some of the risks. One of the biggest risks is the management team on the development side. There is a wealth of online organization and productivity tools to help with communication, but the most common reason for projects to fail, are relational and trust issues. With language difficulties, cultural differences, geographical and time distances, these issues can be magnified. But these risks don’t just occur when you are using a nearshore or offshore partner, but also when you are using freelance workers. Some of the risks of working with and outside freelancer or outsource company can be minimized by internal checks and progress updates on both sides. While a freelance worker can leave you hanging with work that isn’t finished, an outsourcing development team can quickly provide a new developer to fill the team to avoid delays in a project. So while there can be many risks to having outsource development teams with the right partner, the rewards can be enormous and mean the difference between finishing your project and generating profits and having a partial project that you can’t market and recover your expenses from.

Win-win Situation in Nearshoring Development

While you must weigh the benefits and risks of outsourcing your software projects, in order to gain the most benefits from the outsourcing experience, you should have a look at the core of outsourcing: trust. In general terms, outsourcing software development is like giving any project to someone else. It can be a bit scary to hand your hard work over to another worker. There are trust issues, communication problems, and expectations that need to be managed. When you add the complications of language and workers from other countries, it can tend to magnify those issues. But, it is possible for everyone involved to have a win-win if those core issues are addressed. Having a structure that addresses those issues before you start your software project, ensures that your web or mobile app will have that success that you need. Finding the right partner that understands these needs and can successfully meet them, is key to making sure your software project meets and exceeds your requirements.

Conclusion

When everything is taken into consideration, using outsourcing development teams can make the difference between having a software project fail and for it to be a success. It does take a shift in how we think about software development, from an in-house team to an outsourced team, but that simple shift has shown to make many companies higher profits and better results.

WebCreek specializes in providing outsourcing teams for your IT departments. Contact us to start the conversation on how we can save money on your next big idea.