When should you plan on outsourcing your software development?

When should you plan on outsourcing your software development?

The art of outsourcing!

A skill that relatively few people have mastered is outsourcing. While being widespread and widely recognized, there is something that sets some of the practice apart from the rest. The ideal circumstances and steps for outsourcing are those. Two factors motivate businesses to outsource:

1. To acquire a better skill-set for a limited period of time

2. To overcome problems of finances, office space, lack of knowledge, etc.

All situations share one thing in common: outsourcing software development at the correct time can spare the business or entrepreneur a lot of trouble in the future.

When is the right time to outsource?

For Entrepreneurs / Individuals:

It is usually a good idea to outsource software developers when you are a sole proprietor with an innovative idea. Best is most likely just after the ideation process. There are two justifications for doing so:

The developer(s) can be included to provide their comments on how the idea can be realized once the entrepreneur has sketched out his roadmap and written down his project. The outsourced developers might share their experiences and expertise with the business owner to broaden his perspective and encourage parallel thinking.

  • Having someone familiar with a project from the beginning has the extra benefit of aiding with future advancements and making them more flexible to future circumstances.

For start-ups:

The majority of the time, startups are constrained by financial constraints. They do, however, have a core team that can perform the first due diligence on what the long-term road map ought to look like. So, following ideation and just before project implementation, is the optimal moment to outsource development. In this approach, the start-up is also prepared with the exact product blueprint so that the contracted developers know exactly what is expected of them.

The thing to remember here is that the start-up needs to be 100% sure of what and how they want their project to be. Many a times, it happens that ideas get completely changed during the development process. When this happens, it increases the time the outsourced software developer is hired, which in turn, is a financial burden. There are many ways in which a start-up can be assured of their ideas. The best amongst them is carrying out in-depth market research. Conducting surveys, beta testing of ideas, studying competitors or allied industries, etc. can give a pretty better idea of the scope of one’s own project. Of course, there might be changes in the project idea as it develops. That just cannot be avoided. But, the closer the development of a project is to the core idea, the better results.

For Bigger Companies / MNCs:

MNC outsourcing practises are a totally different animal. They don’t experience the same financial difficulties as start-ups or a shortage of strategists. Also, they always have a team of internal employees working on the project’s early planning. Imagine that a business develops an entire project internally, but contracts out the process of integrating specific utilities or modules. Nonetheless, it still stands to reason that any project undertaken by larger corporations is invariably one of considerable scope.

In this scenario, organisations should recruit a senior outsourced developer early on in the development process to become familiar with the project and its component elements. The business may decide to hire more developers as needed in the future. In order to find the next outsourced developer who will work with the team and save a tonne of time, effort, and labour, MNCs should always hire from outsourcing businesses.

Though these are some healthy practices, they are not hard-and-fast rules. In the end, all the projects come with different challenges and the best judge of building a team to help you remains on yourself.

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