The term outsourcing was first heard in the 1970s, and later, outsourcing software development and hiring remote development teams was welcomed by numerous businesses due to its many benefits. There are multiple Risks of Outsourcing Software development, but with the right approach, one can quickly mitigate or overcome them.
‘Outsourcing‘ is hiring technical experts who can finish specific tasks within deadlines. However, total dependency on the outside may cause trouble, so it is essential to make a wise decision.
The project’s multiple dependencies made it challenging for IT organizations to complete their tasks. Since then, businesses and corporations have been highly dependent on outsourcing. Besides the risks of outsourcing software development and remote team hiring.
This blog will discuss why businesses need to outsource remote software developers and the Risks of Outsourcing Software Development. Later, we will discuss the solutions.
Let’s begin!
Why Outsource Software Development to Remote Developers?
Today, many companies prefer to hire dedicated developers and programmers remotely who can work smartly on their internal projects. To resolve their extra burden, they search for assistance that could be outsourced to manage the streamlined process.
A survey found that 24% of small companies prefer to hire remote workers. In the US alone, 3 lakh people work remotely, and the percentage increased after the pandemic. 58% of employees like to work in their comfort zone.
So, let’s discuss the benefits outsourcing gives to IT organizations.
Cost-Efficiency
budget is one of the key factors in hiring remote software developers. Outsourcing helps you to find a technical expert at an optimum cost. You have multiple choices with outsourcing resources. You can hire them based on hourly rates and save your money. It helps you cut your costs on infrastructure, insurance, health policies, management software, hardware, bills, leaves, and much more.
Multiple Business Models:
By outsourcing development business models, you can delegate part of the workplace. The business model reduces the cost of development. It gives access to a larger pool of resources, reduces cost, increases productivity and quality, and saves time. There are generally three IT business models: offshore, nearshore, and hybrid. Since every model has different advantages, anyone can leverage businesses to concentrate on their internal workflow more efficiently.
Access Global Expertise
Outsourcing your IT business to remote software developers can give you access to a large pool of experts. More experience scales up the scope of your IT business aspects, helping you fill any remaining gaps fast. Since remote software developers have vast years of experience, deep understanding, and successful years of craft in the past, outsourcing would be a significant factor for SMEs and enterprises.
Faster Completion and Project Delivery
an expert remote developer upgrades your product’s success and speed. In outsourcing, the team has a better source of productive tools. They are fast and upgraded as per the marketplace. One important fact is that outsourcing developers are for a limited time to put quality inside your project. The time when your in-house team can’t figure out things due to a shortage of skills, the outsourced developer would assist you in dealing with the internal things. So it is a great option for your IT business without a big cost.
Infuse Latest Technologies:
Outsourcing helps you brush up on your brand value. Infusing the latest technologies extends product performance, allowing remote software developers to focus only on the critical areas. It provides you with quick aid support, the latest software updates, and significant skills that would upgrade the quality of the project and help in business growth.
Team Augmentation:
In team augmentation, you can control everyone’s functioning under outsourcing. Staff augmentation is perceived once the capacity of existing resources is evaluated, and then additional resources are added if needed as per the requirement. This process is known as external hiring.
These advantages of outsourcing can play a vital role in a company’s growth impact. However, outsourcing also causes some risk factors, and we will try to find solutions to eliminate them. Now, let’s discuss the top risk factors of outsourcing and how to overcome them.
Onshore VS Offshore Outsourcing – Which Model One is Best For You
Top 9 Risks Of Outsourcing Software Development & How To Overcome Them
When you decide to outsource, that’s a great decision. Outsourcing distributes your workload to other experts in the niche industry. But there are Risks Of Outsourcing Software Development when you hire people who are not present at your front. It would cause miscommunication, unfit vendors, lack of experience, gaps in trust, and security breaches. Languages would be a big barrier, primarily when clients and developers reside in different countries. Only proper understanding and syncing are necessary to ease the communication flow.
When you rely on someone else, many possibilities could trouble your workflow. Hence, proper planning is a must for your business. Herein, Let’s discuss some Risks Of Outsourcing Software Development and how to overcome them.
1. Lack of Domain Knowledge
Hiring a cost-efficient developer helps you to save money. However, sometimes you opt for the wrong person and lose your credibility. If the hired developer or team is unfit with domain knowledge, it will harm your project value and business identity in the long run.
Solution:
- Recheck the candidate’s profile on authentic resources. Multiple resources are available online, and you can hire the perfect developer. It would be a waste of money and time if you lost your money and time on the misdirection of your project.
- Place all the details regarding business specifications, wireframe, MVP, workflow, prototype, and technical specification, or you can say a blueprint must be displayed on the platform. To get a clear understanding of the internal requirements of the technical project.
- Find a developer experienced in the specific domain and mention it in the requirements. Ask the developer about his previous projects to clearly understand his experience.
2. Improper connection with Remote Developer
Instant connection and touch with remote hiring have been missed and could leverage a severe downfall in performance. It becomes a tedious task to manage the developer remotely. Constant communication, feedback, and applause are generous ways to effectively build relationships with remote developers. You will end up tangled if you lose coordination with him.
Solution:
- Try to do constant check-ins and updates with the developer. This would help them to understand your mindset and work in the same way. Sometimes, a regular connection syncs everything with the business needs and delivers the right result.
- Offer opportunities to remote software developers so they are free to provide their services. The experienced developer would have years of domain experience, making him a great option for you to train your internal team.
- You can choose the remote developer from the offshore networks. Experienced offshore developers know how to work in unusual times in different work environments.
- With constant cabin work, remote software developers suffer from human interference. So it is worthwhile to have informal talks with them, make them feel affectionate and happy, and meet them with locals.
3. Less Understanding of the Project
Many of the outsourcing professionals initially promised you their vast experiences and skills. But you can’t trust them blindly. Sometimes, a hidden risk exists if the developer does not match the expectations. A little understanding of the project will make it in vain. Look into the cause before hiring a remote developer.
Solution:
- It is important to have a vision, goal, and objective. These will evaluate your idea and help you meet your project goals.
- Properly implementing productive tools will help your team improve efficiency and drive successful outcomes.
- A proper write-up will help your developer to manage projects from beginning to end. You can choose the options like Scrum, Prince2, and the project path method.
- Clear your remote developer about questions in project plans: who, why, when, and how they deliver the project. This helps them in the inherent proper planning of projects.
- Plan intuitively, crisply plan, manage documents, task schedule, resource plan, and define an exact visualization tool using Gantt charts.
- Next, you can hold a live meeting and give space to your developer to allow him to connect with other professionals freely.
- Prepare a vendor-specific plan or chart to detail the free plans, skills, tech stack, and MVP required. Spend some time understanding the needs of vendors. Mention everything in the document to ease the remote developer’s understanding of the project.
- Frequent meetings, report submissions, KPI tracking, quick email scheduling, and relevant information must all be looped to ensure the project’s streamlined process runs smoothly.
4. Time Zone Challenge in Remote Teams
IT organizations require the developers to work under a strict time frame of 10 to 7. While in outsourcing, there is no time-bound. It would be an inevitable challenge for companies to work with outside developers. The time-zone issues should be cleared in the beginning to avoid any conflict.
Solution:
The time zone problem will overburden your task. To overcome these, let’s follow the following things;
- Effective employee monitoring is important for companies to leverage productivity outside the offices. Time-tracking software would make it easier for IT companies to track their employees.
- Use a time zone application to handle the tasks in time properly. You get timely updates on when to schedule meetings, presentations, discussions, etc. The application eases your time for any task. You can adjust your meetings according to the country’s timeline.
- CMS tool management helps businesses effectively manage employees’ work. Toggl and Harvest are the most important time-tracking tools to articulate the exact time for different zones of employees.
5. Loss of Control Over the Project
The primary risk in outsourcing your software development project is losing control and comfort when a developer is remote. The professionals inside the organization are agile and ready to work on the project, compared to the remotely situated developers. The mismanagement causes your work and quality in the end.
Solution:
- Remote locations lose control over the project. Geographic distances are a big factor in getting reliable results. To overcome this situation, ensure sound interaction with the developer. Proper monitoring and evaluation of performance should be mandated.
- Choose practical coordination tools like Slack, zoom meetings, conferences, on-site meetings, and other software; it makes it functional for your team and the developer.
- Check whether everything is carried out in the development process’s flow. A streamlined workflow would ensure the reliability of the outcomes.
- Prepare a guideline and plans; place everything, including the stakeholder list, roles and responsibilities, and management software list. This helps the developer understand how and who manages the list of tasks.
6. Confidentiality Infringement
Confidentiality is a big issue. When you share your sensitive information with an outsourced person, you need to care about confidentiality. If you share with an unethical person, then it may baffle your identity.
Solution:
Take proper measures before sharing your confidential data with someone over remote access.
- Ensure that information regarding the company, employees, or business workflow is safely shared.
- Before passing your technical-specific document, third-party integrations, software, passwords, platform, or any business identity remotely, cross-check everything of the developer. After being fully ensured, deliver the things to him.
- The developer must ensure that no leakage of data or cybercrime will be entertained. If, in any case, the developer comes under the policies and standards and would be debarred from working.
- The next step is to sign an NDA (non-disclosure document) with the remote developer to undersign for the authorities. In case any culprit arises later, the legal advisor will proceed.
7. Hidden and Uncertain Costs
Often, in companies, you may not figure out the hidden expenses initially. At first glance, they seem like an excellent resource for your company, but that’s the drill. Hiring the wrong team for your project will harm your brand value. Once you accept their deal, you hire them, but later, they ask you for the extra cost.
Solution:
Talk about the solutions that do not reduce your brand performance and quality.
- Define a smooth estimation of the project’s scope, requirements, and testimonials and organize the cost then. This will clarify which factors require a high cost and a lower price.
- Outlay a proper cost pricing and engagement model suitable for your business. Mention the fixed and dynamic hiring model and reflect it on your website. Based on that, if any remote developer visits the platform, he can choose the matched model per his budget.
- Before signing the service-level agreement with the remote team, understand the briefs or any hidden costs, infringement, or expenses that are not mentioned in the document at first.
8. Service Quality and Performance
When you hire a remote team of developers to outsource your project, make sure that person meets the expectations. Sometimes, businesses hire a developer from an inexperienced person. In that case, you sooner or later compromise the quality of product value. The team manager estimates the business cost low and hires the less skilled person remotely for the organization.
Solution:
To deal with the problem, you must focus on some solutions.
- Always keep in mind that quality is a crucial factor for your business branding, so never compromise on it. Hire a person from authorized websites like Freelancing, Upwork, or Toptal. Where you get acknowledgment of individuals, review their portfolios and check their past work experiences.
- Ask them about any live project and keep in touch with the clients for whom they developed the project.
- Check if the remote developer is well-skilled with the technicalities and tech stacks required with the niche project. The person must be well equipped with essential development, testing, and database management and comfortable with AI.
- Validate if the developer is enthusiastic or not to work with the corporates. Ensure about the previous work experience and performance.
9. Language and Barriers in Communication
Outsourcing may create miscommunication between the vendor and the business expert. Proper communication is essential for them to be in contact with each other.
Otherwise, it alters their meaning and gives them mental illness, which results in challenges. The barrier in communication occurs due to; improper communication, lack of insight, beyond project scope, unawareness of workflow, misdirection, and misunderstanding.
Communication causes trouble for you in the case of remote hiring. It is quite difficult to be in touch with the person situated remotely. The next difficulty is communicating without visuals, and altered information may mislead your conclusion. All the indifferences in time zones, language barriers, and miscommunication rise to misconceptions. So outsourcing virtually does impact your working efficiency and lament you in nowhere.
Solution:
To deal with communication problems, you should follow simple communication guidelines:
- The global language English is used in every organization. Ensure that the remote developer you hire is fluent in English, which is widely used. Misunderstanding can alter the meaning of project discussions. So, ensure the remote developer is well-versed in English and local languages.
- The crucial step is determining how comfortable the developer is with understanding the project’s needs. It is important to sync communication with your developer. Get feedback from the manager in a timely manner to identify areas for improvement.
- The time differences conflict with the delivery of the work on time. Keep in touch with the developer to get the handover on time. Regular communication with the developer would help resolve the issues.
Choose the Right Remote Team to Mitigate the Risks Of Outsourcing Software Development.
Finding the right team of remote software developers, not only cupcakes, comes with hurdles. There always lies a risk factor, and you need to choose the one that would be significant in your business results. Outsourcing the right team could make your nerves a little stretched. Despite the collaboration with remote software developers, it would be tricky for your small and medium-sized business.
You may face trouble hiring remote software developers, but we have successfully showcased every hurdle that troubles your business.
If you hire remote developers for your team, then make sure he is equipped with the critical qualities that would lead to your project’s success. Hire the one with the most suitable technical specifications that match the requirements of a company. The remote candidate should be proficient with both technical and professional competencies. In the case of a remote person, sound telecommunication persists between both sides.
Before hiring the right team of remote software developers, find a few ways to examine his technical information.
- Find the right place to hire remote developers.
- Start with proper screening, interviews,
- Take programming assessment tests.
- After the shortlist, offer them onboarding.
Risks of Outsourcing Software Development are also always there, and proper scrutiny is our only delivery option.
Conclusion
For any IT company, the foundation of its success highly depends on the competence and flexibility of the development team. IT companies are growing significantly in this competitive environment, so it is vital to onboard dedicated remote software developers with state-of-the-art skills to gain exposure to different projects. So, hiring remote software developers and understanding the Risks of Outsourcing Software Development to remote teams.
