In today’s world where having a software application for your company can bring a great business opportunity, organizations prefer to outsource an excellent offshore software development team that has enough experience and engineering capacities to help them meet their requirements. And the main reason for this is that offshore developers can offer tech and domain expertise as per their requirements in budget. These offshore developers follow best practices for technologies like Node.Js, Java, PHP, Angular.Js, and more to offer secure applications.
In this blog, we will learn everything about offshore software development and have a glance at steps that teach the methods to find, hire and manage an offshore development team. This article covers all the aspects regarding outsourcing destinations, how to choose the best one out, how to select the right offshore development partner, and what are the steps to hire a remote team of the best developers in the market.
Who is an Offshore Developer?
An offshore software developer is someone who is hired individually or as a part of a dedicated offshore development team to work on a particular task for a predefined time. Some software development companies open a new office as their offshore development center in another country and they make the hired developers permanent employees just like the local team.
Why Hire Offshore Software Developers?
As per a survey by Deloitte’s global outsourcing, about 72% of the business organizations prefer to have software development outsourcing for their in-house development. To know the reasons behind companies going with an offshore team, let us go through some of the points.
1. Increased Productivity and Reduced Development Time
When it comes to hiring offshore developers, it not only increases the productivity level in your firm but also saves a lot of time that goes behind software development. Time is a very important factor when it comes to startups who are born in cut-throat competition and want to make their mark in the market.
Therefore, with the help of a dedicated offshore development team in place, companies don’t have to invest their time in HR activities like handling employees and project management routines. The reason behind it is that all these things are taken care of by the vendor company.
Besides this, hiring offshore developers can save a lot of time that goes behind training new employees. This is because the majority of the outsourced employees already possess all the different skills that are required.
2. Cost-efficient
When it comes to software development, one of the major aspects is the cost. And the reason behind it is that the companies need to evaluate how much it is going to cost them to hire an offshore developer, and will it be cost-efficient or not? To answer these questions, there is a survey by Quartz, there are around 46% of startups in the market that fail as they run out of money. Therefore, startups prefer hiring offshore development teams. They help companies save a lot of time and money that goes behind office rent, recruitment fees, and more.
So hiring offshore development services is cost-efficient and the money you save by hiring the team, you can spend on the creation of an MVP. Besides this, offshoring developers in some Asian countries can be cheaper than that in Western Europe and the US due to the lower cost of living.
3. Flexibility
When it comes to the web development process, flexibility is one of the best things to have. And this is why companies prefer to have project managers and software engineers who can handle the workload, easily collaborate with each other, and work efficiently without any hassle. Besides this, companies prefer to hire offshore developers as they might be currently facing issues related to scaling their team and making required changes in the technology stack as per the project’s stage and scope.
Though these kinds of changes are common while developing software, they are more seen in a startup environment. Therefore, more than any other firm, a startup prefers hiring offshore developers who can be easily moved from one project stage to another without any problem.
4. Access to a Larger Talent Pool
The major advantage of hiring offshore development teams is easy access to talented developers. Sometimes it becomes difficult to find high-quality offshore developers in countries like Western Europe and the US. And the reason behind it is that many tech giants have already employed the best software engineers. Therefore, to get a talented remote team, companies go with outsourcing. They hire developers from Asia and Eastern Europe.
Where to Start From to Hire an Outsourcing Developer?
Whenever you are planning to hire offshore developers, considering the following steps can help you go through the process with ease.
1. Defining the Business Goals
When you plan to outsource tech talent, the first step is to identify the set of problems you want to resolve. This will help you make the hired skilled developers understand the problems. You must also define the prime objective of your project and the reason why you want to create this product. Then you can break all this information into smaller and measurable milestones with deadlines.
2. Skills Evaluation for the Project
Once the business goals are defined, the next step is to identify the technology stack, expertise, technology stack, and the skills that are required for the project. Besides this, you must also define the project roles like business analysts, QAs, developers, and project managers.
3. Budget Planning
Budget is one of the most crucial components for any company. Therefore, the planning of the process of software development needs to be very precise. First of all, the firm owner must define the initial size of their capital and should also define the areas that can help in saving money. After that, the owners must start the process of finding the investors to whom they can show their MVP beforehand.
Where to Look For While You Hire Offshore Development Team?
There are many offshore software development companies across the world. One can choose any country as per the preference. But the most important aspect of choosing the right country is the culture and time zone. To add more to this, here are some of the places that you can consider while hiring offshore developers.
1. Latin America
Some of the best options for outsourcing third-party services providers or best offshore developers are Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil. Besides, places like Chile have observed great growth when it comes to offering outsourcing developers. This place has claimed the 27th spot for its professional developers in the HackerRank rating in the world.
2. Eastern Europe
When it comes to finding the most reliable and reputed IT outsourcing destination, Eastern Europe is the best choice. The main reason behind it is its rapidly evolving IT industry, cost-effectiveness, and growing talent pool.
Some of the most popular destinations in Eastern Europe are Ukraine, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Belarus, Latvia, Hungary, Moldova, and Romania, Poland.
Eastern Europe has more than 1,051,000 software developers with both soft skills and technical skills. These offshore developers have more than 50K ICT graduates entering the market every year. Besides, Poland and Ukraine are the two countries that have amazing developers of every required skill set.
3. Asia
In the list of offshore countries, Asia stands at a very important place. It has around 4 million software and mobile app developers. Some of the leading countries in Asia for outsourcing are China, India, and the Philippines. In all these countries, India leads with 2.75 million developers. And this number is followed by China and the Philippines with 590K and 190K software developers respectively.
Steps for Hiring Offshore Developers
Here are some of the steps that you can consider while hiring offshore development team –
1. Check at their Proven Track Record
The first thing that you can do is find out the developers’ proven track record by checking their work and ranking on sites like LinkedIn and Clutch. Besides this, you can also contact the previous clients of the developers and ask if they would recommend them or not.
2. Ensure the Access to the Latest Code
There are times when the developer may refuse to release the source code because of any personal conflict. This can cause a big problem for any organization. So to avoid such a situation, the best thing to do is have complete access to the code from the very beginning. This term must be written in the contract that the hiring company and the developer sign before starting the project.
3. Ask for the Workflow
It is a must to ask for the workflow that the hired offshore software development company is going to follow for your project. This can help you find out their way of interacting with other clients and resources. You can also ask about their flexibility level and if they can increase the resources when required. The main reason to do all this is that sometimes it happens that the hired company’s workflow might not suit your requirements. And to know that before signing the contract is very important.
4. Avoid Fixed-price Payment Model
When it comes to hiring an offshore software development firm, you must avoid choosing the fixed-price payment model as this model comes with around 25% of additional costs and it covers the risks. Therefore, instead of a fixed price payment, the hiring company must go for the time & material model. This type of model enables you to have greater flexibility for your software development project.
When you do this, you will only have to pay only for the work you ask for. And you will not have to negotiate with offshore companies for every small change.
5. See if Hired Team Agrees with all the Offerings or Not
If the offshore developer or the hired team of developers claim that they will be able to fulfill all your needs then it can be considered as a red flag. Because there are no chances that the developers can be sure at the beginning that they can offer everything that you are asking for. And if a company claims this then it means that they haven’t actually gone through requirements and don’t know if they have the required skill set. Therefore, hiring offshore development companies can be beneficial as they have various types of skill sets. So, you don’t have to make any new adjustments.
6. Find the Perfect Project Management Tool
Having a perfect project management tool can be very beneficial as it simplifies the working process. It helps in managing the project, collaborating tools & team members, and tracking other tools. This type of tool can help in tracking the tasks and progress of the team members, lead discussions, leave comments, and more.
7. Be Proactive
The owner of any company must be proactive, especially when working with an offshore software development team. He must be able to go ahead of the next day’s task and see to it that everything is going as planned.
8. Request Frequent Deployment
When you hire offshore developers, request them to show you the demo of your project on a weekly basis. This helps in keeping track of the work.
Conclusion
As seen in this blog, there are many businesses that hire offshore developers to boost their capabilities, fill the skill gap, and bring their products to the market at a faster rate. Though finding the offshore development team is a struggle, it’s worth it. You must pay attention to the crucial aspects like seeing the chosen vendor is a reliable partner. Besides, you must follow some basic steps while hiring the best offshore software developers. These steps are – choosing the right outsourcing destination, searching about the chosen company’s expertise, track record, & security issues, singing the contract, establishing effective communication, scaling the hired team as per the business requirements, and delivering a reliable and secure product to the end-users with the help of the hired offshore developers.