How can you be sure that outsourcing your software development from third-party vendors is not risky for your business? Trust, especially in the IT industry, is hard to develop. There are so many horrifying stories on IT outsourcing from offshore teams because most technology companies enter into partnerships with these software developers without having enough information about them. However, such information is not always available in the software development industry.
Before you decide to outsource, weigh the advantages and disadvantages of offshore development and the possible risks.
Partnering with an Offshore Developer: The Benefits Vs. the Risks
Offshore developers come with both the good and the bad with each benefit having a dark side to it. Here are some of them:
- Thousands of gifted developers to choose from. On the downside, you can take months before you find a team that matches your project.
- Reasonable cost to quality ratio. Low prices don’t always translate to low quality or inexperience. Some countries just have lower costs of living. However, cultural differences might affect the quality delivered by an offshore team.
- It saves on infrastructure costs. If using your business premises, you will have to foot the costs of setting up the necessary infrastructure. Hiring a developer in an offshore company saves you from these costs. Nonetheless, communication with offshore developers becomes problematic if they are in different time zones.
- Trust issues. Still, trusting people, you have never seen or met even if they have a proven performance history.
So, Why Can’t You Trust Offshore Development Teams?
Here are reasons not to trust your development team in another country:
- Inadequate information about the developers
Information about the engineer such as education, experience, projects undertaken and technology stack should inform the decision to hire an offshore company. However, many of these vendors do not provide this info beforehand, and if they do, it is usually not up to date.
- Lack of valuable ratings
Website such as Clutch.co may provide rankings of offshore development companies you plan to contract. However, such ratings may not give an honest picture as companies may arrange their ranking to suit the requirements of Clutch.co
- No face to face interactions
Distance, cultural differences, lack of direct communication with the software engineers and the “communication avoidance” by most of these offshore companies lead to trust issues.
- Risky money transactions with no guarantee
It is hard to follow up on the money transfers, and you can never be sure that the work you get from the offshore team will meet your standards on quality.
- The developer may abandon the project at any time
Software developers may leave your project without notice which leads to losses in wasted resources and time. Furthermore, it would be hard to find a replacement immediately.
What is the solution to these problems?
The alternative is to find a software development team that addresses all these issues in one platform. It should have:
- Thoroughly screened software development shops and engineers.
- Complete and up to date developers’ profiles
- Easy and direct communication with the programmers
- A secure money transfer system
- Flexibility and the ability to scale in a short period.
