Before outsourcing software development, what should I know?

The 4.0 industry nowadays shows the importance of technology in the business, which not only plays the role of an advertising method to boost up the development but also opens the new business opportunities in the market. Therefore, it is easy to understand if many companies invest in developing their technology department or outsourcing a trusted software development team to build up the website or mobile application. As a part of the business, do you have any ideas before joining the trends of business in the world – upgrading your software appearance? Maybe this blog can help you to answer this question.

Clarify what you need

Do you know 12% of software development projects fail due to lack of communication, and another 12% fail because of unclear goals? Yes, this information is collected from SourceSeek’s 2017 Global Software Services Report, and this proves that the first step to follow the world trend should know what you need. This can be one of the most essential tasks which decide the success of the whole project. 

Of course, if you don’t know what you need, so how your development team know? And this can result in the delays in the processing timelines and increasing your budget.

For example, firstly, you plan to build up your company website without considering a professional website design. Then when you finish the whole plan as well as ask for approving the budget, you see the needs of professional design. You see, your budget and timeline, both have to increase a little bit to meet your requirement. 

Select the most suitable type of outsourcing

Local, nearshore, and offshore are three types of outsourcing your software development, and each one has its own strengths and weakness. Therefore, stakeholders should consider the requirements to select a suitable solution. 

Local outsourcing can help the developer team and the investor easily to communicate and understand the idea of the project. So, the problems caused by time zone or language. In contrast, it may limit the ability to work with the talent software development team based on geographic location. 

Due to outsourcing partner is a neighbouring country, nearshore outsourcing may increase the change of meeting more talent in a different country, and also avoid the issue with time zone and culture and communication style, but sometimes, language and budget can be the challenge. 

Offshore outsourcing – the final solution occurs when companies partner with a developer team in a different region. Then the companies can meet more talents with lower cost but in a different language, culture, time zone.

Finally, depending on your requirements, you can make the most suitable choice. 

Well prepare to protect your IP (Intellectual Property)

In the world that every idea can turn into the successful business, NDA (non-disclosure agreement) plays an important role to protect the idea-er. Therefore, before starting to share your idea to any software provider, you have to work with a legal consulting company to build up the legal document. 

The NDA should clarify each person in charge, the ability, roles and responsibility with any confidential information.

Have your own growth strategy

The roadmap, yes, this one can help you determine your scope, timeline and process to promote your software. Knowing what you want then preparing the detail document of objectives and strategy will be useful in the future with your business. 

 A clear growth strategy can enable your team to prepare for future adjustments if there are any updates. 

Build a visible Milestones

With your own strategy, all the milestones should be achievable, measurable as well as based on reality. These points can create big impressed by our big boss and all the customers who visit our website, watching our testimonials or receiving comments from their connection.  Once you get the idea of the timeline, you can arrange the testing team to work to meet the deadlines. 

Don’t forget your budget

Of course, understanding about an investment or how to drafty calculate the cost of building an app can help you make the general idea of creating an app. Additionally, finding a suitable IT outsourcing partner who commits and goes along with you will have you strictly follow the planned budget. Some trusted website or community as clutch, topagency… may suggest some idea to you while finding your service provider. 

In conclusion, building an app is a complicated project and require your carefully pay attention to every step. Collecting some knowledge about outsourcing may help you feel more confident while making a final decision on your way of success.