Outsourcing your software development team has the potential to increase your company’s efficiency, lessen your application’s time-to-market, and save you money, but only if it’s handled right. Outsourcing growth also comes with its own set of dangers. These can have a detrimental impact on your company’s bottom line and lead projects to fail before they ever get off the ground.
While outsourcing has its own advantages, if it isn’t set up and managed properly, it may soon become a liability to the company’s aims. Let’s face it: finding a reliable development company to collaborate with on your development efforts can be difficult. When a corporation outsources development, the issue gets considerably more complicated.
So, what are the common pitfalls to avoid when outsourcing development engineers? Let’s find out below:
Communication Problems
The most important advantage of outsourcing a software developer, obtaining access to a worldwide pool of talent, simultaneously causes one of the top drawbacks – communication problems. You’ll have to deal with different time frames, dialects, and social norms. Understanding the requirements of the project and the transparency of the output are the most critical elements to consider while interacting with outsourced software engineers.
Practices for creating communication channels with the outsourced remote team include the use of collaboration tools, regular interaction with the distant team via video or voice contact, and periodic hold meetings.
Inability to comprehend the project’s scope
Before you outsource your software development team, make sure you have a clear set of requirements and outputs you need, as well as the estimated delivery date and total project size.
If these details are not communicated, project scope and mismatch of the project plan may occur. The software developers will continue to operate in silos unless these difficulties are resolved, and the gap among your vision and the outputs will expand. Therefore, the first step is to ensure that your objectives and the hired company’s results are in harmony is to ensure that the paperwork is clear.
Poor coding quality
When you work for or operate a non-tech business without considerable coding experience, determining if the hired software engineers are sticking to the quality standards while building your program is a concern. Furthermore, code quality is confusing since there are no clear standards for excellent and low-quality code.
To keep on top of developmental projects while outsourcing to offshore teams, it’s important to communicate expectations, set quality goals in advance, and have frequent briefings with the workforce.
Stakeholders’ ambiguity
Among the most fundamental disadvantages of offshoring is the lack of project ownership. If the outsourcing company you choose hires developers on a contractual basis rather than full-time, project possession becomes a challenge. Incoherent results might come from the back-and-forth of inputs on your task. There is no constant project leader or group responsible for the performance and involvement throughout the project.
Discovering a firm that can become prospective stakeholders in your project and is devoted to achieving the best rather than executing fast fixes is crucial to outsourcing effectiveness.
Gap when signing the agreement
Giving out large sums of money for legal expenses doesn’t seem like a practical choice in the early stages. However, a poorly drafted contract, or one that favors the contractor, may contain gaps that the outsourced team or software engineer might exploit, resulting in significant financial losses.
A correctly prepared contract serves as a road map for outsourced freelancers to follow, protecting you from financial damages if things go wrong.