How to Outsource Software Product Development
There are two things that push businesses to outsource their software development: cost reduction and access to specific skills. Focusing on these issues and ignoring other components of cooperation can make software deployment a risky venture. What about domain-specific expertise, the right choice of stacks, a proper analysis of the market and so on?
We believe there’s much more to say about new product development outsourcing procedures and the ways to benefit from them. It’s good to divide products into a few categories depending on their complexity and the duration of your future cooperation with a vendor.
Product design and development outsourcing: in-house team extension
When you are willing to manage the project and have a team of developers next to you, you can pick up this type of cooperation. You will have a project manager, business analyst and the core team players in your office. They will make an analysis of the market, collect requirements and make up a full SRS documentation.
You will outsource some specific tasks and you will not make a remote team deal with planning, scoping and analyzing the efficiency of the programming procedure. Team extension will be as if you had your own team sitting in neighboring rooms.
Software product development outsourcing: short-term contracts
When you have your business running smoothly for some time and you need either to deploy a small new product or update the current one, you can be fine with a short-time contract. Here we mean cooperation that will last less than a year (12 months).
In this case, you don’t have to hire any in-house developers of project managers. It’s great if you have in-house business analysts that know why you need a new product and what things can make it stand out among the competitors.
This type of cooperation is efficient only if the vendor has delivered similar projects for the same domain. For example, you need to make a mobile app that will collect clients’ feedback 14 days before Christmas. You don’t need a heavy app – it can be a new product with a few screens. A vendor should have experience in delivering similar products even if it’s easy to build.
Outsourced software product development services and a long-term partnership
What do we have here and why do we mention the word “partnership”? Well, we believe that finding a technology partner for long-lasting relationships will have much better results than hiring a remote employee. A partner knows and understands the risks and provides you with the right choice of the stack.
You also get all the additional bonuses like:
- 100% expertise in your niche
- A smooth workflow and clear roadmaps
- One team engaged in one project
- High level of trust
- High quality of the end product
You get the bonuses if you pick up the right partner for your business. How can you do that? There are several simple steps to identifying the right remote company for you. The first thing is experience and how good past projects are. The second thing is real reviews from the companies that have been working with a vendor for a long time. And the third thing to consider is expertise in your domain.
How to choose the right vendor?
We’ve already mentioned some things to consider above. But let’s make a checklist for you to follow when looking for the best company:
Relevant experience. If a vendor has ever built similar products it’s always an advantage. You can have a look at the available case studies and analyze them.
Available business analysts. How are they involved in the outsourced software product development? Do they get in only at the early stages? What if you need to change project requirements?
It’s great if there’s someone who knows your business from inside.
Check how long team players are together or if the team is gathered specifically for new outsourced product development.
Check company values and if they somehow coincide with yours.
It may be hard to find the best company that will provide high-quality outsourced product development services. Knowing the type of cooperation you need and the type of project you are willing to build will let you succeed. And a remote vendor will help you reach your goals with the help of expertise and the right choice of the stack.
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