Hiring Offshore Development Team for Your Project: Things to Consider!

Getting your software developed from a dedicated offshore team may look skeptical at first. However, when you opt for offshore development services, you will get the end product delivered at a cost-effective price without any compromise with the quality. Having a remote team doesn’t mean that your team will be working on their own terms. Instead, you will have the right to manage your project in the way you want. Whether it is planning, creating milestones, tracking the project progress or doing code-reviews, you will be the one in control of every phase.

Where to Start From?

1. Define Business Goals

Clearly identify your requirements and expectations from offshore developers. Determine the primary objective of your product and try breaking it down to measurable milestones. Then create a project charter defining the deadlines for those milestones.

2. Evaluate the Skillset

It is very important to identify the technology stack, expertise, and skills required to deliver the project. In case you are planning to develop a hybrid mobile app, you will most probably hire flutter app developers or React Native developers.

Also, think about the roles you require to plan, implement and manage your project. Do you require dedicated developers only? Or do you need designers, quality analysts, business analysts, or any other professional?

3. Plan the Budget Strategically

Budget is often an important factor for every company regardless of its size. Therefore, assign a budget to your project. While creating the project charter, assign a particular amount to each milestone. It will help you evaluate the ROI at the later stages.

4. Collect Valid Information Regarding Offshore Development Companies

There is a long list of offshore development companies operating in different parts of the world. All of them come with a different set of advantages. Therefore, shortlist the agencies that will not only understand your work culture but also ensure the best price/quality ratio.

5. Consider Agile Developers Over Traditional Developers

Look for a company that shares an exciting work culture environment. They should believe in encouraging the developers to focus on problem-solving abilities instead of simple software programming. Therefore, partner with an outsourcing company that can help you at every stage of the development cycle and do much more than simply programming.

Before moving ahead, let’s address a few challenges!

Challenges While Hiring Offshore Development Companies 

1. Time Zone Difference

If the offshore team is located in a different time zone, see if they are able to synchronize according to your time. The challenge can be turned into a major advantage if the developers have experience working with your industry.

When your in-house employees get back home, your offshore developers can immediately start working on the project. And you will see a lot of work done by the next day you come to the office.

2. Lack of Face To Face Communication

There’s a chance that communication can be a barrier between the in-house team and offshore developers.

Solution: You can easily visit your offshore team from time to time and spend time together. Well, video conferencing will also help a lot but don’t directly start with work-related questions. 

3. Too Many Offshore Development Services

The abundance of outsourcing companies in different geographical locations brings both benefits and confusion. It becomes challenging to choose between different companies and trust them.

How To Find Reliable Offshore Development Team?

After completing the necessary prerequisites, it is time to move ahead onto the next stage. You can find out or even hire dedicated offshore developers via the following sources:

• Recommendations from your acquaintances.  

• Social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.

• Networking on conferences, hackathons, and seminars.

• Tech talent marketplace.

1. Proven Track Record

Check out the company’s reputation on websites like Clutch or GoodFirms. Take a close look at their LinkedIn profile and see which clients they have worked before. If possible, try to contact their previous clients and take feedback from them. See if they recommend the services from this offshore development company or not.

2. Ensure That You Have Access To The Code

Sometimes the team of developers refuses to release the code because of their personal conflicts. So, make sure that you have access to the code with one of the prerequisites of the participants in their project. Also, make sure, you are the owner of accounts like GitHub, TFS, cloud and other platforms.

3. Evaluate Their GitHub Account

GitHub is one invaluable resource when hiring a team. GitHub acts like an online showroom where different offshore development team collaborates on open source projects and contribute. Also have a look at how clean, readable and structure the codes are.

You can start by checking metrics like:

• The total number of followers

• Date of joining GitHub

• Relevant keywords

• Number of contributions

4. Check Workflow

Find out how the offshore company interacts with the clients and allocate developers to the project. Ask if they are flexible enough and willing to add a few more dedicated developers thereby expanding the team whenever required.

There is a possibility where the company’s workflow may not suit your requirements. So, it is good to know this before you sign the contract.

5. Ignore the Cheapest Quote

Company giving the cheapest quotes will be delivering third-class services. It is a possibility that you may end up paying more after the completion of the project. As someone else will have to correct the complete code that has been written.

So, it is recommended not to focus on low-cost but cost-effective rates. If you are not sure about the overall value, you can use the outsourcing cost calculator and evaluate the expense to develop your software. 

Look for a company that offers comprehensive solutions. So, you don’t have to search for another company for marketing and other tasks.

6. Don’t Prefer Fixed Priced Payment Model

Whether it is mobile app development services or website development, a fixed price includes a minimum of 25% additional cost to cover risks. Time and material or dedicated team model is the right choice while outsourcing IT services.

7. Own Good Project Management and Communication Tools

Exchanging lengthy emails is an outdated way to share information and give instructions. Consider a company that believes in utilizing modern project management, tracking and messaging tools like Slack, Jira, Trello, Basecamp and more.

These tools will thereby help you keep an eye on your project and tasks progress by having a discussion, commenting and getting to the point.

8. Should Be Proactive

Proactiveness is one of the most significant skills. Therefore, your offshore developers should stay one step ahead &  keep improvising to make the process better. If everyone in your team is doing 100%, everything will remain on track. As a result, you become more confident about your team & can direct your focus on other important matters.

9. Frequent Updates

Ask your team to share weekly or bi-weekly work reports on the project progress. Ask for a live demonstration of the new modules and functionalities to ensure that you are in sync with your team.

For the same purpose, it’s best to first create a prototype or Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and then work on the full-fledged end product.

Finally, ensure that your team:

• Has experience working with similar projects in the past.

• Regularly brainstorms you with new ideas.

• Comfortable to put forward their questions or queries.

Closing Thoughts

Working with a virtual team has always proven to be successful. However, you need to first define your requirements, expectations and create a plan of action to overcome the challenges that can become a roadblock.

After that, you just have to take care of the above-mentioned aspects and begin your search for a reliable offshore development team!