Finding the right talent is challenging.
With the changing market trends demanding businesses to maintain their competitive edge, offshoring software development has become a lucrative option where you can cut costs and no need to wait for months to get the right talent onboard.
Software outsourcing for startups where a great idea requires perfect execution can save them half of the development costs and time for a market-ready product. Sometimes long-term projects demand working on building a relationship and understanding company cultures before signing for formal mutual consent NDA agreement.
Are there any indications or clues which could help me in assessing if my business is ripe enough to go for such an option? We will highlight key aspects related to when to outsource and how to manage offshore development teams.
What is Offshore Software Development?
Offshore software development is a process where companies hire offshore developers for outsourcing their development tasks fully or partially. Usually, resources/developers are picked from regions from where they get tech support at reasonable rates.
The type of offshoring software development services or the collaboration model for work depends on the project scope.
There are other forms of outsourcing as well like nearshore, and on-shore software development where time zone differences are not much and usual communication is also easy. However, the offshore development approach reduces cost and you get a diverse skillset workforce at much lower rates.
Types of Collaboration Options
Time and material
Developers are paid on the number of hours/time they spend working on the project since the scope of the project is either evolving or complex. Resources can be increased or decreased based on the project requirements.
Fixed price
The scope of the project is clearly defined and the timeline is required for the completion of the project. This means the number of resources and time/hours are fixed and so does the price.
Dedicated development teams
Get your hands down to a dedicated team allocated exclusively to your project and works more like an in-house team. You get direct control over the team and are helpful for long-term complex projects.
Benefits of Offshoring Software Development
On-demand access – world-class expertise and experience available on-demand, here at CodeNinja, you get instant hires.
Diverse talent pool – good developers are scarce and the hiring process exhausting companies like anything, once you opt for offshore development, you open doors for opportunities.
Cost cutting – finding developers in the US, and Europe seems tough. Go for emerging markets or the cities where you will find the most skilled resources at low rates.
Saves time – traditional or conventional hiring takes time and sometimes a good developer hunt takes months whereas if you hire offshore developers, you will get them quickly.
A shared sense of responsibility – offshore software development company takes responsibility for the project quality and delivery which may not be the case with freelancers who work individually and are only interested in the amount being paid.
Related Article: 7 – Benefits Of Outsourcing Offshore Software Development Services
When to Outsource Offshore Software Development?
The engineering workforce is expensive
One of the key reasons why offshore development is outsourced is expensive engineers. With developers getting high wages almost more than half of the fixed costs of an average project, hiring local talent in the West means paying high apart from employee-centric benefits like insurance, bonuses, travel allowance, etc. However, if you hire offshore developers, you save a significant amount of money without compromising on the code quality.
Team scaling needed to be done fast
No one wants to take a back if their business is growing and need more talent onboard. Fast hiring with quality engineers is a tough task which is why outsourcing to offshore development companies can help to a greater extent. If you have the right tech team in place, you can grow your business twofold.
Rare skillset or want to bridge skillset gap
There are times when you need to hire a resource with a rare skillset and that’s when you need to broaden your hiring search. Offshore development not only covers the skillset gap but you get reasonable rates. You gain access to a massive pool of talented engineers and a value-adding extension of your business.
Tight timelines, quick product launch
Time to market is also a key factor in gaining an edge over the competition. In-house development through traditional hiring is time taking whereas offshore developers can be hired quickly especially from service-providing companies like CodeNinja as we have vetted resources available on the bench.
You’re on a budget
Startups or medium-sized businesses cannot afford good developers in-house in most cases so they usually outsource the development part. Offshore developers from Asia, Poland, Ukraine, Brazil, Argentina, etc. Development charges are way lesser than the ones from North America and Western Europe.
Types of Common Offshore Software Development Services
Software development
Software development covers many areas of development like web development, mobile development, e-commerce development, and custom development. Hire full stack developers, frontend developers, or backend developers for mobile and web development.
UI/UX design
Designers can make prototypes or MVPs or a full-fledged web design depending upon the requirements. You can hire a team for user interface design and another for user experience however, teams you can handle both in one service selling are ideal.
System upgrades
Data and store migrations – transferring data from one system/store to another in a secure manner.
Platform update – moving legacy systems (apps, software) to the cloud for improving accessibility.
Process Update – updating old system processes for effective business operations.
App Integration – design, and development of third-party apps and their integration for streamlining the workflow of websites/stores and databases.
Machine learning
ML usage in software solutions for building advanced systems if once developed can learn and improve time for the customer experience. CodeNinja has the right people with the right attitude and tech stack specialized in ML.
QA Testing
Service or product testing required QA Team or QA engineers outsourcing who deploy manual and automated QA practices. You can find freelancers from countries offering offshore development services.
How to Manage Your Offshore Developers?
Shared vision
Offshore Software Development Teams need the drive to work on a product that they know full well so that they could suggest features for improvement. Don’t make the mistake of assigning easy tasks to offshore developers and not giving them the full product vision. Paint them a holistic picture of the product vision, so they could make smart development choices as they progress with the assigned work.
Communicate more, use tools
Over-communication is better in the case of offshore development as when you roam around the office you get the project pulse and updates. Don’t just talk in scrums, talk individually and communicate more and more. Get the right tool permissions, and see if the offshore team will log directly into your backend or if will you have a separate working, etc.
Setup milestones and project deliverables
To ensure success with offshore development teams, you need to break your project into milestones and tentative delivery. Usually, offshore team sync with the local team, and their tasks rely on each other, so streamlining help.
Work schedule overlapping
Try to overlap 3-4 working hours as in offshore development there is usually a great time zone difference. This way, your diverse development teams can perform tasks much more efficiently.
Use pictures and videos
You can use helpful content (documents, tutorials, etc.) for creating an understanding of a certain area. Pictures and videos help in clearing the ambiguity.
Related Article: How to Hire Offshore Developers for Startups? A Complete Guide
Top 5 Underrated Countries for Offshoring Software Development Services
1-Poland
It’s listed in the Forbes list of ‘Best Countries for Business. Almost 2/3 of IT specialists/software developers in this country are working for international firms.
An ideal destination for software development services but the only downside is, the developers’ rates are increasing year after another. The average rate per hour is $40-56 which was not the case year or 2 years back. The Time zone difference from the US is 6 hours.
2-Vietnam
Amongst the top 5 countries in the global services value chain, Vietnam is standing tall. Software developers from Vietnam are well-trained and have a record of successful project delivery.
The average rate per hour is $20-40, quite low and with high quality. The time difference from the US is 12 hours and there is a time zone and cultural difference but the work ethic is good.
3-Ukraine
According to Ukraine’s Information Technology sector NYTimes, there are around 200,000 IT resources in Ukraine and 25,000 join the market each year.
The average rate per hour is $25-46 with a time difference of 7 hours from the US. You will find time zone and cultural differences. But recently Ukraine is gaining an edge, especially in C++ and Unity 3D development.
4-Brazil
Being part of Latin America, Brazil has the largest economy. Java, Python, and SQL are some key areas where their developers are quite strong amongst others.
The average rate per hour is $20-50 and the time difference is of 2-3 hours from the US which is not much. Compared to other Latin American countries, the hourly rates of Brazil and Argentina are higher.
5-Pakistan
If you compare Pakistan with India, you will get more transparent and ethically sound developers. Usually, when offshore development is considered from Asia, India is the first name that comes to mind however, you will get a good work ethic from Pakistan.
The average rate per hour is from $25-50 and the time zone difference is of 10 hours from the US. English language fluency and code quality are good.
Conclusion
When you choose the wrong software development partner, you put your project at high risk. There are tons of things you need to take care of when you do in-house software development apart from the remuneration, admin, and HR-related stuff. On the other hand, you get a whole lot of things already resolved at the offshore software vendor’s end when they sync up with your teams.
Offshore development is the solution for an expensive workforce, and also it bridges the rare skillset gap (what you don’t find in your region, you get from another at half the price).
