The current business landscape favours those who are nimble and able to adapt rapidly with latest technologies. Building a own development team of from scratch is just too much, too time intensive, and too fraught with difficulties for many companies. And that is exactly why many companies look to outsource the development to an existing team.As long as you have a fast Internet connection, chat software and file sharing software, your application development team can work from across the state or halfway around the world. Outsourcing gives your company flexibility and saves you money, but it does have potential pitfalls. Lets explore the top 3 unforgivable mistakes while outsourcing your software application development.
1. Not doing enough research on your vendor
Many companies who choose to go the route of outsourcing is thinking short term. It would be mostly for developing an application or part of it. Realise your important goal is not minimise the cost but to have good quality at reasonable price. Simple google search can help you understand about different vendors and their pricing schemes. However the idea is to further and research more on the company. How long has it been since launched, How many applications it has delivered. If possible test some application or contact the previous clients to know about the company. Also it would be good to seek companies that has local office and has a development team in other country or states. This setup often work well as the people you are dealing with will be in the same location.
2. Not having proper communication
Be it mail or skype or face to face. Make sure you meet your development team or vendor in regular intervals to understand how the project is progressing. Having realistic deadlines and open talk about the expectations would be very useful than emails with contents in CAPS. Sometimes project managers or developers may not speak good english and this could also create room for miscommunications.Companies with Flat management structure are good fit, as the managers work only to satisfy you and not their own management. Having clear user requirement document during requirement gathering phase can help in keeping the expectations aligned.
3. Not paying attention to details
The devil is in details. Simple field validations and report columns can sometime start a huge dispute between you and software development team. Its natural for developers and team to look only into the technical aspect. They may not understand what could be the business implication a small technical setup could impact. This is why as a customer its important to validate and look through the details of the application you develop. Its vital to create test scenarios and use lots of test data to analyse whether the application is doing what it promises to do.
These are not the entire list of mistakes but these are the most common and important ones that you need to make affirmed decision about your next custom software project. Also check out 5 reasons why you shouldn't choose a large consulting firm for IT services and Buy, Build or Outsource? Custom software dilemma posts.If you have any questions regarding outsourcing your software please don't hesitate to contact us. Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic day!
