Outsourcing Software Development Solutions? Mistakes To Avoid

Outsourcing software development is so much cheaper than getting it done by developers in the US and this alone drives the business to offshore locations such as India, China and the Philippines, to name only a few. However, without due consideration, you could probably end up outsourcing to the wrong company and suffer loss of reputation and revenues. These are the mistakes to avoid when you consider outsourcing to offshore software application development company.

Not Having A Clear Goal Or Aim

Garbage in. Garbage out. This is what happens when you outsource custom software development without having a clear and precisely defined goal. If you are hiring offshore companies for custom software development solutions then it pays to do your homework well and prepare a clearly delineated brief on what you want.

No Due Diligence

If your decision is driven only by cost savings then you are in for disappointment. Caveat emptor. This applies to you. Invest time and effort in due diligence. Get to know the software application development company, its resources, its location, capabilities of its teams, technologies it can work on and, importantly, projects it has completed.

No Detailed Discussions Prior To Assigning A Project

You prepare a brief summary, receive quotes and outsource software development. This is a shortcut to grief. Discuss the project with the team the software developer assigns to your project and have an audio-video chat to find out everything on how they plan to execute it, your role, deliverables and everything else. Better still, give them a trial project to work on. It will tell you everything.

Signing a Long Term Contract

You may assume that signing a long term contract brings you peace of mind and assurance of services and support. Keep it open until you are fully convinced.

Going Direct

Asian countries have genuine offshore software developers with true talent and capabilities. At the same time there are small enterprises with just one or two employees who take on outsourcing and then farm out the work. Results are invariably deplorable. It is better to go through a software company in the US that outsources software development. You have someone in the US who knows how it works in the US and how it works in the country where development takes place and that someone knows who to pick for the job. Success is assured for you apart from safety and security as well as timely completion.

Getting Lured Into Paying For Entire Teams

Offshore software developers naturally wish to maximize revenues and are likely to charge you for teams and hourly rate basis, all of which add up to costs without any great improvement in speed. Pick the team model only if it is justified. If it is not too complex then you could simply opt for the hire a programmer model or dedicated remote based employee.

No Test Facilities

For software to work as flawlessly as possible it must undergo reiterative tests throughout the development lifecycle. If, in your hurry to get product to market you simply choose an offshore software developer that does not have adequate test facilities, it could boomerang on you. It pays to assign projects only to offshore software development companies that have complete in-house validation and test facilities.

Minor But No Less Important

There are small but significant things that could prove to be barriers. One is communication facilities. You need to be on top of the situation as software development goes ahead and communication through any channel is of prime importance. Talk about communication and the language barrier also crops up. If English is the language of your choice then pick an offshore development company that communicates in English.

Avoid these mistakes when you pick offshore software application development company and you can look forward to fruitful collaboration.