Nowadays outsourcing is more about innovation than it is about cutting costs. You can tap into global talent, seize new opportunities, build partnerships and get to market faster. For more than a decade, software development outsourcing has become a common practice as it has proved its efficiency, but common mistakes are still made, mistakes than can seriously affect the development course of the project and its final outcome. In order to avoid unpleasant situations in the outsourcing process, here are 4 mistakes to avoid when outsourcing your software development projects.
1. Going cheap
The price of the project is usually one of the most important factors that are taken into consideration when choosing an outsourcing partner. Finding the best price alternative is not a bad thing, but choosing price over quality can lead to disastrous results. Before deciding on the lowest price, check their credentials, their infrastructure, their hiring process, technologies they use and even their QA system. Make sure to do a thorough check on the company you choose and make sure that they are able to provide the quality and the value that you are expecting. Don’t sacrifice the quality of your project for a few dollars.
2. Forgetting the importance of location
Different time zone, expensive travel, cultural and language barriers are the main problems when outsourcing your projects. Before deciding to outsource take into consideration the time and cultural differences. These aspects have a huge impact on the communication and on your relationship, which will eventually impact the development of your project. Try to find a partner in a location nearby, preferably in the same time zone; the same geographical location usually means fewer cultural differences. Also, in this way you will lower the travel budget and allocated time for meetings. Make sure that your chosen partner can provide you with staff that can speak your language or speak and understand a common international language very well. You want your message to be clearly understood.
3. Communication breakdown
Too often, communication problems can appear inside your own organization, so you can expect this to be even more difficult when you have to outsource work. Ideally, your IT outsourcing partner should become an extension of your organization. Communicate from the very beginning your requirements and expectations, let your new team know that they can communicate freely with you, provide them with a platform where the communication can stay open, implement a meeting schedule and stick to it. Don’t underestimate the speed of communication, use real time systems like Skype or similar. And don’t forget, good communication builds strong partnerships.
4. Poor management
An outsourced project needs management at least as much as an in-house project. I say at least because in most cases it needs it even more. In-house you can be on top of things more easily, but when we are talking about an outsourced project, which is developed in another country, by other teams, you have to get as involved as possible. You can’t expect your partner to manage your business for you. Pay extreme attention to the communication, make sure that they understand what your requirements are and see that the tasks are completed on time. Don’t assume that your new team comes fully prepared from the beginning and just leave everything to them. Make sure that your expectations are clearly understood by everyone and keep communication open.
Choosing to outsource is not easy, choosing the right partner to do the job is not an easy task as well, but when done for the good reasons, outsourcing can help you streamline your business operations and take your business to the next level.
Choose Arnia for your IT outsourcing project.
With hundreds of successfully completed projects for clients ranging from Fortune 500 to Forbes 50, spanning on 3 continents and more than 10 countries we can offer excellent software development opportunities for your business. Our main area of expertise covers web and mobile applications, web design, big data solutions, database management systems, e-commerce solutions, cloud-enabled solutions, content management solutions, business intelligence and R&D.