What, Why and How of Offshore Software Development

The Ultimate Guide to Offshore Software Development

Technology has impacted every aspect of our lives. From simple tasks such as grocery shopping to financial investments, there is a tech-solution for everything!

With the development of technology, many innovative solutions have come up in the market to simplify these tasks, thus leading to the growth of the SAAS industry. SAAS i.e. software as a service industry has emerged as a result of technological development and automation. From simple software that helps you split up your monthly office budget to major team management and operations software, SAAS has covered a vast range of industries and tasks.

As the popularity of SAAS rises, so does the requirement of skilled software engineers to further these innovations and catapult this software to another level to stay abreast with competitors. Companies are looking to build effective software development teams to build upon these ideas.

One of the ways is to build an internal team with people with different skillsets. The management builds different teams to manage and streamline the entire process.

Currently, software development is managed through what we call ‘DevOps.’

What exactly is DevOps? DevOps is the systematic approach to the software development process through systematic collaboration between the IT development and operations team. The entire ideation, execution plan and the final development process is carried out in coordination between each team.

There are a lot of amazing team management tools in the market that can help organizations optimize the process of coordination between these teams. Daily meetings, ideation processes and a clear vision of the product can truly help in faster and more efficient software development process possible through DevOps. Thus, DevOps is quite necessary to streamline software development.

The Emergence of Development Technology and the Need for Advanced Skillset With the introduction of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence, a lot of processes are carried out by AI. Many companies are experimenting with AI to aid in the development process. However, one cannot neglect the human aspect when it comes to software development.

As mentioned before, companies are in need of a quite specific skillset to help execute existing ideas and build a product similar to that planned out.

Many times, it happens that an organization’s in-house team may prove to be insufficient or lagging in certain skillsets that may hinder the software development process. That is why companies often look to hire an offshore software development company to help them with the same.

Countries such as Latin America and India have been producing some top-notch software engineers in recent years. Companies in developed countries are now looking to opt for talent from these countries to better their software development process through a targeted skill set.

Tips for Outsourcing Your Software Development Process Opting for offshore software development services is a big deal and requires a lot of important decisions to be made. Once the idea of the product to be developed is clear, organizations need to audit their internal resources as well as the budget required for the development process.

This has to be in line with the checklist of the skillset that shall be required to execute the same. For e.g. what language will you’re backed and frontend of the software is to be developed in and the amount of workload that will have to be put in the same will determine the quality and the number of developers that you will then need to hire. This will help you in selecting your offshore software development team based on their experience and expertise compared to your requirements.

While looking to hire an offshore software development company, there are two ways to go about offshore software development:

1. Offshore software development that is complementary to an in-house team One of the situations in which organizations might be required to hire offshore software development team would be the lack of efficiency or skillset within the in-house team. It might also be possible that the amount of workload that is to be put in might turn out to be difficult to manage for the in house team who in fact do possess the skills and the aptitudes required for the development. Or the team may be better at ideation than execution.

In such a situation, it is best to hire an offshore software development service to fill in the gaps and effectively carry out the software development process to deliver an effective product in time. The in house team is aware of your product and knows the details off your vision and what you need to create inside out. Therefore the team can be responsible for brainstorming and ideation of how the development process must be carried out. An initial blueprint of the product can also be created by the team. The final execution and the development process can then be outsourced to an offshore software development company with a developer’s team that matches your requirements.

This way, the offshore development team is working as an external team complimenting your in-house IT and operations team. Even tech giants such as Google and Apple have utilized this strategy for certain projects to their advantage. Many start-ups in developed countries with limited budget also use the same for their software development process.

2. Outsourcing the entire development process Organizations can avoid building an in house team altogether and can outsource their entire software development process to an offshore software development company. This is implacable especially in start-ups with ideas that lack a good tech team to execute said ideas. Even certain mega-organizations that deal with a non-tech related field also outsource their entire projects to external software development companies instead of hiring an in-house technology team. Once you have an idea of the kind of software you want to create and the requirements that you have in executing the same, you need to start your research. In the case of outsourcing the entire software development process to an offshore company, you need to be aware of the company’s expertise and the amount of experience they have in the same. With the internet at your disposal, you need to research through social media, previous clients, and the work that companies have done so far. Also, check out references that you gain from word of mouth. Once you have your company pinned down, you simply need to convey your idea to the team lead and the software engineers and the work will then be entirely taken over by that team.

Apart from this, another trend in the offshore development process has emerged called near-shoring. Companies in Europe and Latin America are now engaging in near shoring where they outsource their software development processes to teams in the nearby area rather than hiring an in house team. This helps them effectively manage local client requirements and coordinate with the offshore team easily with lesser resources due to reduced physical distance.

Thus there are a lot of ways in which companies can leverage offshore software development services be it complimentary to their in house developer team or opting for external team altogether.

Benefits of hiring offshore software development services When strategized properly, well thought out offshore software development process can be extremely productive and effective. A well-planned strategy for outsourcing the development process and hiring offshore software development services has a lot of benefits:

1. Larger talent pool With the global development of technological innovations, countries around the world are generating differently skilled software engineers. Considering the possibility of offshore software development, you also get a larger talent pool to select from. The skills that you require may not be the expertise of your country.

Offshore software development process gives you the opportunity to pick and choose software engineers from a larger talent pool with expertise in the kind of product development that you may be looking for.

For e.g. software engineers from certain countries may be expert in AI development while others may have perfected another language. You can hire the best for your product and your company to execute your ideas as per your vision with no limitations.

2. Quicker development process Hiring an offshore software development team, as mentioned before requiring a lot of thought and consideration. However, once you hire the team that has the expertise and experience, the kind that you are looking for, the software development process becomes faster and more efficient. The right kind of offshore development company can make the software development process extremely productive and effective. Given a deadline and a clear idea, expert developers can deliver the product in a much earlier timeframe than you would have expected from an in-house team.

Some companies also have larger teams in coordination to help meet the deadlines. Thus, you can launch your product in the market as early as possible with an offshore team on your project.

3. More streamlined software development With a small in-house team or only the ideation team in place, the entire process of software development can at times be haphazard. With an offshore team of software engineers in place to develop the product, it makes the process really efficient and streamlined. You can have systems in place to coordinate between the ideation team and the development team working offshore. With team management tools such as Trello, Asana, Slack, etc. it becomes really easy to manage your projects and to optimize communication within teams as well.

Apart from this, you need not coordinate with the entire team and manage only the team lead or the authority managing the offshore team. These help in reducing miscommunication and create a direct management chain that helps in streamlining the whole process where one team hands over the tasks to be done who in turn complete it and deliver it back to you.

4. Budget-friendly Hiring an offshore software development company to carry out the product development process is more of a trend in developed countries. This is because there is an imbalance in the skillset i.e. the number of skilled software engineers as compared to the requirements. For companies in the developed countries to outsource their processes is a cost-effective process.

The cost of software development and the salary to be paid differs from country to country. Outsourcing can be a really budget-friendly option in some countries as compared to others. Apart from this, in software that requires a range of different skillsets for it to be developed, hiring an offshore software development company may be more cost effective than hiring a team consisting of software engineers skilled in different fields. Thus, offshore software development is a relatively budget-friendly option.

5. Easy management With an offshore development team in place, it is easy to manage the whole process.

Rather than checking on each individual developer and coordinating among them for each aspect of the product, the entire task is done by the team. Organizations need not coordinate with each developer individually, rather only communicate with the team leads or the authority managing the offshore team. Outsourcing the development process in a way makes managing product development easier and quicker.

Apart from this, you can also use project management tools to keep track of development and then check up with the offshore project coordinator. Tracking progress with a given deadline is easier with an expert offshore team in place. Once you have your systems in place and hand over the development process to the offshore team, half your responsibility is over. With their own individual development systems in place, you only require to gain daily or monthly progress reports to see if the development is going in the direction you hoped for. Software development management is relatively productive and simple with an offshore team.

To conclude: In conclusion, with proper research and careful consideration, any offshore software development company that you hire can work wonders for you, helping you avail all these benefits.

With a lot of tools along with the internet at your disposal, you must research well before you opt for one of these offshore software development services.

The correct strategy in place will help you deliver a top-notch product that can then work wonders for your company.

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