Given the speed at which the industry is rising, offshoring software Development is an affordable business step for technical and economic reasons. By providing a variety of software development activities – from basic coding to custom development, software support and maintenance, mobile device development, website design and development – you not only free yourself from the challenge of recruiting and motivating qualified employees but also ensure that you get the highest quality software delivered to you in the shortest possible period. Ultimately, this lowers development time and increases time-to-market. 

The Offshore Development team is a cost-effective model. There is no need to pay for rent, supplies, and software licenses. Some of the notable advantages of Offshore development include a huge pool of skilled software developers from various countries at low hourly costs. So how can we effectively manage an offshore software development team? There are many problems that you will face during such collaboration, such as difficulties with communication and data security. This blog will walk you through the steps to be undertaken to achieve effective management.

Benefits of Offshore Software Development

• Access to a huge talent pool

You get access to a huge pool of skilled and experienced software engineers with extensive experience in creating international standards and quality software applications. Moreover, as the offshore partner has experience of working for other customers on foreign custom software development ventures, they appreciate the complexities involved.

• Faster and Timely Delivery of Projects

With a team of dedicated staff for each project, you can be confident that you have skilled people working to produce quality software around the clock. You can not only get work done quicker, but you can also make sure that your item hits the market earlier. Also, an external team will provide new ideas to strengthen your business processes, enabling you to incorporate innovation and creativity at each point of the life cycle of software.

• Cost-Effective

Maintaining an in-house experienced IT team that has the expertise of the latest technologies is complicated and expensive.  By offshoring software development, you will not have to invest in IT infrastructure or spend time recruiting, hiring, and training the workforce.

• Enough time to focus on core business

Instead of thinking about handling the complicated and time-consuming phase of software development, offshore software development helps you to focus more on your core business strategy. Without the extra stress of operating and maintaining a software development team, it lets your company focus on core activities.

• Sustained Business growth

Offshore software development gives businesses of all sizes access to an equivalent skilled labour pool, reducing costs and therefore the time required to develop software.  Freeing up time helps you to exploit your talents and core activities and work to expand your company sustainably.

Types of Offshore Development Team Models

• Dedicated Development Team

This model is also known as the Dedicated Resources Model. In this model, Offshore developers are the primary factor determining the quality of projects, since they’re the source of all technologies, code, and architecture. One project at a time for a committed team. It is a long-term, continuous process that involves a permanent support team. Most developers can be terminated after the active development stage ends, with only a few experts who can manage the implementation of code supervision and enhancement.

• Hourly / Time & Material model

This model is used for small or medium-sized projects where it is difficult to determine the scope of work without the possibility of assigning a dedicated developer, as the workload will change during the process. However, as there are strict time limits, the terms can not be modified. The client pays for the total amount of time and effort invested by the developers.

• Fixed Cost Model

Fixed Cost Outsourcing is one of the best and most price-fixed models for medium and small companies. The organization assures that there will be no undisclosed or extra costs involved. This model is ideal for start-ups and small and medium-sized businesses, since they may sometimes be constrained in finances.

Tips to Manage Offshore Software Development Team

• Brief your vision to the team

As you start working with an offshore development team, you must start on the right track. One way to do this is to paint a simple image of the vision of the product. You have got to sell your concept and the functionality that can be included in the business application. Also, you can ensure that the offshore construction team recognizes your goals. This also suggests that you need to address the deadlines for the completion of your business application.

• Maintain communication

Be practical, managing an offshore development team needs clear communication. However, this can pose a challenge as experts are not centred inside the workspace. That said, you should ensure that you over-communicate with the team to track progress so that you can ensure that you connect with the team promptly. This way, you’re confident that the software development team is in the business loop. Having done so, you can receive daily updates and report any new improvements that need to be made to the application.

• Avoid communication barriers

Mostly offshore development teams would be located in different parts of the world. This suggests that there could be barriers which include culture, language barrier etc. It is your absolute responsibility to ensure that you have translation facilities to avoid communication barriers. You should also consider the culture of the offshore team. You have to find out how to obtain clarification without being rude. For best results, you should avoid being in the loggerheads with the experts.

• Keep Vocabulary simple during communication

The use of complex and sophisticated terminology is one of the common mistakes that corporations make. There is a possibility that some of the details may be missed or misunderstood. As part of managing the offshore development team, it is wise to get straight to the point. Short and accurate explanations can go a long way towards describing issues such as sprint preparation.

• Use Collaboration Tools

You should schedule regular demos to check how the development process is going and suggest the required modifications. You can make use of project management tools to monitor the development process and be up to date with the development process. Using project tracking software, you can see how the offshore development team performs and how much time they spend on each task. In this manner you will be constantly involved in the project planning process. It will make the development process more formal and clear.

• One-to-one interaction through video conferencing

The need for a one-on-one consultation with the mavens of software development can never be underestimated. Given the distance between teams, you can make use of video conferencing services. You get to understand the mood and feelings of the team through these experiences. People tend to conceal their reactions/feelings behind the keyboard and emails. If not approached, it will be difficult for you to get to the desired vision. Subsequently, you get a view of the team that works for you. 

• Take Note of Time Zones

You need to figure in the time difference before starting.  If your business is located in the US and the offshore team is in Asia, then there is an approximate time difference of 12 hours. You should be able to change your schedule accordingly.  This means you have to contact the team at a time convenient to both the parties.  In terms of your employees, you need to have shifts or work hours extended. Also, to ensure that there is a fluid flow of knowledge to all parties concerned, you can invest significantly in automated systems.

• Don’t Micromanage the Team

When designing business applications, it hurts when you have a boss who is constantly on your back. It is something that you need by all means to stop. It brings down confidence. The offshore development team must be allowed to work on the coding part and then show the results. This also means that you trust the members of the team to ensure that the task is carried out effectively.

Want to hire an offshore team?

SectorQube offers the best offshore development models for your business and will be able to provide you with the top expertise developers. Please feel free to contact us to find out how we work and collect the right team for your project.

The post Guide to Managing Offshore Development Team appeared first on Writings from SectorQube.