Outsourcing has always been there in some form or the other but today it is a buzzword in the IT industry. Offshore IT development and software development in particular is the most strategic advantage that most of the IT ventures are capitalizing on. But is it really the best alternative to in-hose development? Let’s look at both the sides of the picture.
Advantages of Offshore software development: Outsourcing is one of the best measures to stretch your budget and still get the highest quality. You can get your project done in time and that too of best technical standards. Outsourcing is strongly driven by the economic value it adds to your business.
You are not troubled by the infrastructure and equipment investments. But instead get ready state-of-the-art furnished offshore development centers to develop high quality IT solutions.
Saves you from operational nightmares and no worries of training professionals and retaining them.
You add on to your IT capacity by hiring the best offshore vendors. Technical competence is enhanced since you are working with the best IT professionals.
Consequently, outsourcing is the best solution to get the highest ROI and remain in step with competition by getting developed the highest quality IT solutions. But when it comes to outsourcing to an overseas vendor are you really confident that it will stretch your budget and not end up with a big hole in your pocket? There are a few pitfalls of outsourcing, which you need to be cautious of:
Lower quality than expected: you might end up wondering was that a profitable bargain or not because you have lost on the quality in the process. So, to avoid this you need to work harder when choosing an OSP. Get the sample codes checked by experts, analyze their coding standards, investigate into their bug tracking systems etc.
Poor project management: also impedes the quality and turn around time of the project. So, you can have your onsite executive who monitors the progress and keeps a check on the scheduled timelines.
Subcontracting: is another evil as the overseas service provider may exaggerate its potentials and skills and finally subcontract it. You need to check the company’s profile, success stories and check on the references given.
Communication gaps: this is a typical problem with an overseas-outsourced project. Language and cultural differences add up to all this. So you need to agree upon certain fixed standards of communication that are easy to follow by both of you. Make sure that the service provider’s personnel are well versed with English. That will make your life much easier.
OSPs always place emphasis to highest advantageous projects so to avoid getting neglected its better to freeze your time schedule and milestones in advance and follow them stringently. You should document the penalty in case the OSP fails to meet the deadlines. You can also work out some incentives as well in case of on time completion of a project.
Finally, if anything goes wrong in your professional relation with the OSP, you should have well laid out contract that lists everything and anything transparently, so that the loss of time, money and resources is minimized.
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