Table of Contents
Introduction
The pandemic has transformed entire business operations from in-house to remote work. Now companies are hiring remote employees in multiple, distributed geographic locations. All over the world, businesses are getting tremendous cost-cutting and timesaving benefits of hiring remote employees like offshore software development teams.
There is no doubt hiring an offshore software development team is a smart move. You can save your budget by avoiding hiring an in-house team and gaining advantages from a global deep talent pool. The Offshore development teams are certified as they have high-quality programming expertise of the latest technology stacks.
Zepto Systems has been developing diverse outsourced software development projects for the last 13 years. Today we are sharing our extensive practical experience and exploring crucial factors to consider for successfully managing the offshore software development team. You can complete the project with maximum output. We will empower you to handle the offshore software development team effectively and guide you step-by-step so you can maximize the productivity of your development team and get maximum outcomes.
What is actually misconception between offshore software development and Software Outsourcing?
There are three vital terms linked with hiring remote software development teams. Most people often use these terms interchangeably however, there is a significant difference between these three terms.
1: Offshore Software development
Hiring a remote software development team from outside the country with significant time zone differences and more travel distance is called offshore software development. Businesses mainly focus on hiring a development team from a different continent in Offshore software development.
2: Software outsourcing (OnShore)
You exclusively focus on hiring developers from within the same building or city and the same country or same region. In this outsourcing model, you hire a team from within the country.
3: Software outsourcing (NearShore)
When you go outside of your country to hire a remote software development team, you exclusively focus on nearly with short distance a neighboring country within the same continent.Businesses are adopting software development outsourcing increasingly, the success ratio of offshore development is 43%, and the 72% success ratio of Agile software development. However, a surprising figure is around 40% of offshore software development teams fail to meet clients’ expectations.
An effective way to Manage Offshore Development Teams
The most effective way to manage an offshore software development team is by implementing the appropriate protocols before initiating the development project. Always follow the best practices before signing the contract with your outsourcing partner, and today, We are exploring these practices one by one.
1-Tracking the time and day-to-day development activities
You can’t control development expenses without daily monitoring. Always keep billing terms and conditions as a first step before initiating the contract with your offshore software development partner.
- Decide which IT outsourcing pricing model will be suitable for your project?
- Make proper clauses regarding how are you paying your programmers? Are you paying hourly charges and, how to handle extra working hours?
- You need to deeply analyze the quote you received and how they calculated the per hour cost.
- How did your outsourcing partner prepare the final estimation?
- Are you getting a similar product according to your project requirements and, the development cost is justifiable?
You need to monitor the working hours of your developer. Ask your vendor if they have such tools that can allow you to monitor the daily development process. The monitoring development process may help keep the development team in the right direction.
When you analyze the software development programming, if you find any coding errors, you can fix them on the spot without any delay. It will ensure that you are handling the software development team effectively.
2-Project Management Policies and Toolset
Managing IT outsourcing partners efficiently, you need an efficient project management toolset.
- The right project management toolset will enhance collaboration and communication between the in-house employees and the offshore development team.
- Establish technical protocols and permissions to manage authorizations about logging into your backend data systems.
- Will developers work separately or as a team?
- Will they share work after completion of tasks?
- Quickly finalize security clearance for the offshore development team.
- Make permissions what they can access and what they can’t access.
Resolving all these queries step by step on a priority basis will help you manage offshore development efficiently.
3-Agile Development Methodology
Agile development methodology protects the whole software development process. It is a wildly well-known technique and benchmark for a successful project. Internationally Agile development is the most adaptable practice for all offshore software development providers.
Complete align your all development processes and ultimately managing offshore software development teams can be easy. The result will come beyond your expectations.
4-Define internal Security policies and procedures
Allow the offshore software development team to understand your internal policies and procedures.
- You have to share the complete security road map with your offshore development team.
- Define is there need to give access to front or backend systems.
- Always share documented protocols and processes with your offshore development team.
- It will help your offshore development team to understand organizational processes and work ethics.
This clear communication will boost the productivity of your offshore development team and enable you to revisit your internal security policies and procedures.
Allow the offshore software development team to understand your internal policies and procedures.
- You have to share the complete security road map with your offshore development team.
- Define is there need to give access to front or backend systems.
- Always share documented protocols and processes with your offshore development team.
- It will help your offshore development team to understand organizational processes and work ethics.
This clear communication will boost the productivity of your offshore development team and enable you to revisit your internal security policies and procedures.
5-Schedule and Achieve 24/7 programming ability
The big concern for business owners is how to manage the international software development team? Businesses require appropriate planning as the first step before starting the project.
- An effective way of handling offshore development teams is to prepare comprehensive planning, to achieve a non-stop development cycle.
- How software programming will, shift back and forth from the in-house team to the offshore development team?
- You can ultimately enhance programming speed by appropriately shifting tasks according to the time zone difference between both teams. You can achieve 24/7 programming ability and deliver the project on time.
Your business can get a competitive advantage IT market by hiring offshore software development experts. Globally certified offshore developers are an intangible asset for any organization.
6-Enhance Offshore software development team's Productivity
Successful handling and managing the offshore software development teams depends on effective collaboration. You should communicate and collaborate with your offshore team effectively and seamlessly, and as a result, your project completion will be successful.
You have to do comprehensive planning before initiating any mid-size or large-size project and choose an expert offshore software development team. Successful project delivery also depends on seamless interaction and collaboration between the offshore software development team and project manager from the core development team.
Always link offshore development teams with the core departments on which their work depends, otherwise there is a chance delivery of the project may fail or delay.
You need to utilize the right platforms for effective collaboration with the offshore software development team. Most businesses use a different platform that enables them to communicate in real-time with the offshore software development team. These tools are free and easy to use so here are some of the favorite tools:
7-Platforms for Remote Collaboration
The successful management of the offshore software development team is to create an environment of collaboration between offshore team members and the in-house team. Give value and appreciation to each team member and consider them an important member part of project success.
These communication platforms can enhance effective communication and collaboration. The offshore development team and the in-house team can effectively collaborate in real-time, regarding the crucial tasks by utilizing these platforms. They can share credentials securely and communicate by audio and video conference.
1- Email:
The fundamental tool of any formal and effective communication between in-house and offshore teams is email. Email is an economical way of direct communication tool. Make communication protocols to maintain internal security and assign company email addresses to all offshore development teams.
2- Live Chatting Tools,
Live communication platforms are tremendous platforms to communicate and collaborate in real-time with the offshore development team. It enables the project manager to stay connected with the offshore development team and manage the tasks effectively. like:
- Zoom,
- Google Meet,
- Skype,
- Slack, or
- Microsoft Team
3- Productivity Enhancing Tools
Utilizing productivity-enhancing tools are necessary for managing offshore software development effectively. You can put all your project materials in one place by using these productivity-enhancing tools:
- Basecamp
- Asana
- Trello
- Jira
8-Evaluation and feedback
The effective way to manage the offshore development team is to evaluate their performance and give feedback with positive suggestions regularly during the project development cycle. During the entire project development cycle, always listen and welcome positive and constructive feedback from the offshore software development team. Keeping offshore software development team in the right direction, always give constructive suggestions, your future expectations, and overall satisfaction from their work.
Give them confidence and share your organization’s goals and expectations. They will feel like part of your organization so, eventually, their productivity will increase, and the project will complete successfully beyond your expectations. Your honest feedback will help offshore development team members to improve their performance. It will help other customers read your reviews about this company and know the level of their services before going into contract.
Final Thoughts
Today in this article, we clarify your concept of how to manage effectively and efficiently an offshore software development team. Handling the offshore team is the next step after finalizing the outsourcing pricing structure and the contract agreement with your outsourcing partner.
Zepto Systems is a UK-based IT outsourcing company and it has been providing unparalleled offshore software development services worldwide by utilizing agile software development methodology. Zepto Systems is the best choice as an IT outsourcing partner if you are looking to hire a highly productive offshore development team. You have already understood how to manage an offshore team effectively. Following above mentioned important points, you can enhance productivity, reduce cost and increase the quality of development.
Contact us, and you don’t need to worry about managing the offshore development team because we are working with our clients for the last 13 years.