Benefits and Challenges in Outsourcing Software Development

This article explores the option to outsource software development. Immense benefits an organization can enjoy as a result of this and multiple challenges it may face.

 

Focusing on core business and outsourcing non-core activities to service providers, who are running it as a core business is a common business phenomena currently. The option to outsource software development is the best example for this new and cost effective business strategy.  In a normal business practice, the reasons which lead to opt for outsourcing of software application development is a shortage of skilled resources or budget, require faster delivery or own development team is overloaded.

 

Understanding

A software application development has typically five steps – planning, developing, testing, quality assurance and deployment and monitoring. Involvement of both developer and the client is required in every stage to deliver a product exactly as per the requirement of the client.

 

There are basically two types of outsource software development models – hybrid outsourcing model and captive offshore outsourcing models. The hybrid model is basically a combination of on-site team and outsourced team.  The captive offshore model is primarily a corporate campus based offshore. This offshore campus may be a subsidiary set up by a global corporate to serve the parent company.

 

Benefits

Finding a right employee for software development is a difficult task, but one can have multiple options of getting the service of best software application development vendor locally.  It is important that before outsourcing software application development, you need to verify knowledge, experience, track record of project completion and client lists of the proposed software developer.

 

While discussing outsource software development, the cost benefit is the prime reason behind this decision.  The cost incurred on a software engineer is much lower in countries like China and India compared to developed countries like US or Canada.

 

Following are the clear cut benefit when you outsource your software development project to an expert:

 

•        Cost saving

•        Time saving

•        Flexibility

•        Quality

•        Latest technology

•        Benefit of experience, expertise and innovation

 

Challenges

The main challenge in outsource software development is communication. Different language, different time zone and different culture are some of the barriers which will come up during the project period.  Companies outsourcing software application development need to be ready with their own fool proof quality check mechanism throughout the project.

 

The most common threat to outsource software development is the bad design of UI, lack of innovation due to cultural difference or poor communication.  Some of the handy things one need to do while selecting a vendor for software development is, have a discussion with the development team, verify the profiles of the developers with projects they have delivered, assess the communication ability of the developers and one can also try a pilot project from the vendor.

 

Some of the symptoms you can identify of delayed project is, the developer is always in the learning mode throughout the project, difficulty in discussing problems and solutions and deliverables are not meeting deadlines.