How to discover and manage an Outsourcing development team?
Hiring an offshore developer’s team is now considered as one of such solution. McKinsey states that major concerns of the businesses are great demand for financial pressure, communication channels, and increased cybersecurity dangers. So, companies try to find a flexible offshore partner that can provide a suitable and quality solution for affordable prices. However, the offshore market also experiences many changes. Outsource software development is a hard task, particularly in practice from home. Some issues can disturb the cooperation with your offshore development team, such as the low level of internet speed, digital approval, management or communication issues, and the increased cybersecurity pressures. Therefore, during the lockdown, the selection criteria for a trustworthy partner have also changed.
Where to Find an Offshore Development team?
For many years India and Eastern Europe have been the major destinations for the outsourcing market. However, the virus crisis has made major changes to the customers’ demand for things. Unluckily, due to the virus crisis, in India, more than 50% of work on different projects is not being completed. The region of high internet speed, logistics, and other elements obstruct the value of provided services in this state. On the other hand, Eastern Europe keeps struggling and providing cost-effective services without compromising on quality. In this lockdown situation, IT offshore developers propose even more remarkable settings of cooperation both to their potential and existing clients.
WHY YOU SHOULD HIRE AN OFFSHORE DEVELOPMENT TEAM IN EASTERN EUROPE?
The Kearney Global Services location index 2019 states that due to business desirability, nine countries of Eastern Europe have made it the top outsourcing destination. Eastern Europe covers the united talent pool of more than 1M expert developers. Poland, Romania, and Ukraine are leading states in the Eastern European outsourcing market. These states have more than 100,000 tech experts that can support businesses in a wide selection of industries, as well as telecom and healthcare. Moreover, the state covers excellent STEM and computer science training. Ukraine has one of the major shares of STEM and computer science graduates in Europe. According to the report of Times Higher Education World University, this state has a large considerable number of great universities. Moreover, Eastern Europe has a great level of digital embracing, which is essential for outsourcing development in the time of lockdown. Romania, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus have made it to the A.T Kearney digital significance level. This region has been taking serious actions to survive the crisis with the least losses. For example, the IT companies in Ukraine started assembling their progressions long before the lockdown taking place. To ensure their customers’ and employee’s safety, many vendors have established business stability plans and certified a smooth adjustment to outsource work mode. So, signup an offshore development team from a trustworthy developer providing company is the best way to stick it out in this crisis.
HOW TO CHOOSE AND SIGN UP AN OFFSHORE DEVELOPMENT TEAM?
In this crisis, you have to find a trustworthy partner who can support you to satisfy your business requirements. In this critical situation, the criteria for choosing an outsourcing vendor have been changed. So, you need to select a team that has a developed security plan, effective supervision, and flexibility. Here are several major aspects that make you able to find a reliable vendor from whom you can hire a reliable outsourcing team. These aspects are established security plan, efficient agile processes, strong employer brand, client reviews, compact project management expertise, strong knowledge sharing policy, precise communication skills, as well as providing different pricing and cooperation models.
ESTABLISH SECURITY PLAN WITH YOUR OFFSHORE DEVELOPEMENT TEAM
These days, we go through even more cybersecurity issues, as the teams are no longer associated with the secure business set-up. Phishing bouts, structural liabilities, data damages, and high pressure on IT systems are new prospects these days. To reduce these threats and discover an excellent outsourcing team, you should discover a vendor with an advanced security plan. Before making the final decision always check that the vendor providing offshore development team covers the terms with international security morals such as PCI, ISO, and HIPAA. These plans must ensure the security and safety of your private data.
COMPACT PROJECT MANAGEMENT CAPABILITY
Successful meetings, set up clear objectives, sharing knowledge, and leveraging team member’s assets are the key task of effective management.
The absence of office practices and atmosphere may cause lower efficiency of an offshore development team. However, an experienced project management team can solve every issue by setting or upgrading ground orders, as well as by cooperating with the project manager. Here are some rules that an outsourcing team have to follow:
- Collaborating about variations and conclusions in the Jira tickets
- Time reporting in more depth manners and on a daily routine
- Discovering communication channels and work times
Efficient Agile Processes
Agile practices such as regular stand-up, sprint scheduling, making task backlog, presentations, and demo sittings make it easy to manage an outsourcing team and work more expertly. Thus, a vendor with well-organized agile processes will make sure high work efficiency that results in decreasing working time and cost respectively. Moreover, in this time of crisis agile practices ensure to provide flexibility. Actually, with agile practices, you can form up smaller agile teams for maximum productivity, more attention to highlighting, specific approvals, and to extend out the practice of technology that supports active collaboration, etc.
Strong Employer brand
An offshore developer providing a company with a strong employer brand can assist you in finding qualified developers for your project execution and to expand your team’s capability. The major cause of employees take off is the deprived employer brand. So before signing up a contract with an outsource company, carefully check whether the potential vendor offers a team with professional progress, comfortable working environments, fair reimbursement, and preparation plan. If the vendor’s cost rate associates with the percentage of workers who don’t run over prospects, this is a good sign of business success. But if the company offers a high-cost rate among the highest performers, this points out that the vendor does not provide enough benefits and loses out to its contestants on the market.
Client’s Reviews and Recommendations
Client reviews and recommendations can help find the best outsourcing partner in the region; it is something you can trust and rely on. So, for the client’s review and testimonials, you should visit the research vendor’s websites, Clutch.co profiles, and LinkedIn accounts. On Clutch.co you can hear about how effective the cooperation with this outsourcing service provider was for other companies, and what the complications were other clients go through, etc.
The strong knowledge Sharing Policy
The two major methods of sharing knowledge can assist a business to build a strong knowledge sharing policy; these are from a client to a partner or a previous partner to a new one. A knowledge-sharing policy should declare some aspects such as working practices, people, and products. Without a strong knowledge sharing policy, it is hard to transfer knowledge from a previous partner to the new vendor. Therefore, when you shift from on-spot development to outsourcing Development team, you have to provide an established track record of completed projects developed from both clients and their previous partner. In the time of crisis, you need to select a team that can regulate the continual adjustments. A reliable outsourcing service provider deals with different cooperation and pricing models with maximum flexibility.
Strong communication skills, interest, and Transparency
Before setting up cooperation you need to know the meaning of communication with your vendor. Always select a partner who can ensure to identify your project needs, follow your orders, and communicate with you without any issue. These aspects indicate that the partner is willing to follow all the rules and prospects to avoid mistakes. This is one of the most important aspects to think of in this lockdown time.
LEGAL ASPECTS YOU SHOULD KEEP IN MIND
Contracts Types: You should select a partner that offers several types of contracts, such as T&M, fixed price, and Dedicated development team. So, you will be able to choose the one that meets your desires and benefits your business from collaboration with an offshore development team. Collaboration Models: For an offshore expert’s team set up, there are three major collaboration models, such as a managed team, an extended team, and an outsourcing team. All these collaboration models have their features and work for different purposes, which could be considered. According to McKinsey’s reference, it is good to multiply your partner and have different outsourcing vendors from different countries.
How to Manage an Outsourcing Development Team?
Here are several aspects you should keep in mind to manage your outsourcing team in this crisis time.
Communication
Lack of communication and misunderstandings can disturb the working process and effectiveness of results. So, make sure your commination with your partner is satisfactory for your project implementation as well as for the project management team.
You have to be quick to respond and always available for your project management outsourcing team. It is better to set your response time to your developer team and clarify the channels where the team members can contact you throughout the communication time. However, if your team members also reveal their response time, you will be able to address them at the right time.
Moreover, it is also very important to identify the precise communication channels for your outsourcing team.
Productivity
In the time of lockdown, this way will help you to keep your high work productivity and manage your outsourcing team. Here are some key points that will able you to keep stability in managing your outsourcing team and get maximum business benefits.
- Clarify everything to your outsourcing team. For example, their tasks, main concern, what is to be completed, and what outcome you are expected
- Monitor the working, efficiency, and success of your outsourcing developer team
- Evaluate the executed tasks and plans that you have cleared to your team
- Setting up regular feedback on your team working and productivity
- You can use different time tracking application to monitor the working time and project execution time of your team
- Clarify your prospects and make them realistic
- Socializing with your offshore team members is a good way to influence the work effect. You can create a progressive atmosphere among your team members by setting up daily interactive routines
Establish and promote online meetings and workshops to keep your outsourcing team connected and motivated
Project Management of an outsourcing development team
Agile practices are the best ways to manage your project and make it successful, mainly with an outsourcing team. Agile processes can adjust the ways you treat common and simple work aspects.
Here are some examples:
Adjusting Flexibility of Tasks, instead of changing target:
This trick helps to monitor the working practices in a better way as you have firm indications to follow. Moreover, your offshore developer’s team can adjust the existing situation as well.
Keep fewer documents, but covering all of them:
In this time of crisis, documentation has to be as defined as always as the lack of communication may obstruct the information accessibility, which can be challenging, especially for beginners.
Consistent Improvement sessions:
You have to make sure that both software management and product management are on the same channel.
Guiding expositions:
Guiding sessions also play an important role in recognizing areas of development for an offshore development team. Moreover, several implements can support you to allow such activity, for example, Miro, Linoit, FunRetro, Ideabordz, and TeamRetro.
Application of Scrum Frameworks:
The Scrum managers clarify the engineering teams to use crucial standards accurately to avoid miscommunication.
