Outsourced Talent: How to Control Quality, Coding Skills and the Final Product?

Thousands of national and international companies have been practicing software development outsourcing for years. It is not a surprise that even Internet giants delegate some product development to the outsourced teams. This strategy mirrors a tendency towards globalization and digitization in global labor force.

Why to choose outsource: The reasons behind

Outsourcing software development gained its popularity thanks to numerous undeniable benefits it can bring to a client. In the first place, one will get an access to a big choice of coders with necessary tech skills at competitive price no matter where a vendor is located. The facts speak for themselves, as the global market size of outsourced services worldwide has already reached 92.5bn USD and it still counting, according to a recent research paper published by Statista.

Company owners that are ready to try outsourcing strongly believe that external specialists can improve their business’ efficiency. That is why the former prefer outsourcing to in-house development for a number of reasons.(source)
However, outsourced software development always involves some risks like limited control, disrupted communication, and security challenges. Nevertheless, if you evaluate outsourcing web development benefits and risks thoughtfully and organize the whole process correctly, you will enhance the potential of the business.

To establish a systematic workflow and to avoid any negative effects in the course of cooperation with software development contractors, it would be great to have an outsourced manager who will perform a number of duties:

- Outlining a draft with project requirements, budget, and target dates.

- Conducting a scrupulous analysis of the offers from prospective partners in terms of their success stories and solutions they have already created for other companies.

- Working closely with a project manager in order to set up unbroken information exchange and collaboration between the in-source and outsource workers.

- Controlling product development and achievements to see whether developers meet the time lines and budget.

To control the overall outsourcing software development may seem laborious especially to enterprises, which have decided to outsource their product for the first time. However, you should not be frightened away by some possible challenges. You can avoid all the risks arising in the course of project managing if you follow basic guideline.

Tips on how to supervise a remote project successfully

Plan everything carefully

When it comes to outsourcing, planning is essential. You should outline the main goals and outcomes with a vendor, so they have a clear vision of what you expect from them. To avoid workflow disruption, it is recommended to specify the requirements and apply different project management tools like workflow metrics and Gantt charts that help assess potential risks in advance.

Using a particular instrument, you can ensure effective cooperation with an outsourced team, control every aspect of work, track their progress, analyze the achievements, change your plans if required so the projects follows the schedule. A big choice of management tools is always at your disposal.(source)

Keep track of quality

Being one of the most important aspects of software development quality control requires special attention. Before signing a contract with a freelance developer or a firm, you should make sure they follow the latest international quality standards and have documents proving it. Unlike poor software developers, reliable contractors will provide you with all necessary certificates immediately upon request.

To get a flawless product in the long run, you should implement QA during the whole lifecycle of outsourced product development. You can negotiate with the contractors and request them to use different types of testing including static, dynamic, visual, A/B, White and Black Box, and other. The bigger variety of tests they use throughout different stages of development, the more valid are the results of quality check. So, make sure your software product gets properly tested before going any further.

Control coding quality

There are no distinct criteria for good or poor coding since it is viewed as a set of peculiarities that should be compatible with the outsourced team. Seasoned developers know that decent code must be clear and maintainable. If your code follows the best coding conventions of the programming language, you are likely to get a bug-free solution.

To maintain the required code quality you should communicate your ideas and pre-define the quality requirements before contracting with an outsourcing firm. You can also demand from the team to apply code review as well as various testing. These measures help ensure that the end software product is robust enough.
So, Quality Control in outsourcing is what keeps your MVP from falling flat at the very start.

Introduce transparent time tracking measures

Telecommuting has become a common practice in today’s technological era especially in times of global lockdown. Hence, companies tend to apply different monitoring systems to watch both their in-house employees and remote contractors. According to the survey conducted by Gartner, 80% of enterprises will use a wide range of tools to control their workers.

Therefore, in case you still do not have own management system you need to think of introducing some or you will have to utilize vendor’s tools. To imp, you should know their basic features allowing for evaluating the project results at any time. Such popular tools as Toggl, Hubstaff, and Timely can be easily integrated with your company’s software.

Time tracking solutions inform you on how much time the contractors spend performing this or that task. Such measures help you determine adequate payment for the work done. Transparency of time control gives ground for changing monthly bills in case you notice some inconsistency between the planned and spent hours. Moreover, this management technique motivates the remote developers to work more effectively.

Establish effective communication

In the context of software development outsourcing, rapid and unbroken communication is a key aspect of collaboration between the business and its partner. If it is poorly executed, it jeopardizes the strategies, goals and the end product of the project. As specified in the report by Project Management Institute, executives all over the world believe that poor communication translates into failures and losses.

To establish healthy communication, decide on remote communication tools you will use to stay in touch with your developers team. If you sync up regularly, you create friendly atmosphere that contributes to higher productivity. Digital era gives you a wide choice of communication tools including video conferences, messengers, regular emails, etc.
To keep abreast of what your contractors are doing, you should arrange regular meetings with them not to miss out some important details of the project. Sending emails as follow-ups after each meeting is also a good idea since you can shed light on some ambiguous details of the discussion and help everyone understand what they should do.

All in all, a decent software outsourcing company can surely demonstrate its proficiency and credibility level by providing you with every single proof without hesitation. The things you should pay attention to are:

- A substantial portfolio of successfully performed case studies.

- A team of seasoned professionals with all the necessary qualification certificates.

- Positive feedback and reviews from previous customers that can be found across the Internet on trusted research and review platforms, like Google reviews, Clutch, TrustPilot, GoodFirms, SoftwareSuggest, and suchlike.

-A concise yet meaningful business playbook, flowcharts, etc., to explicitly describe the entire software development process flow of the outsourcing company you’re going to hire.

- Clear and transparent cost estimates to budget for project costs.

- Smooth interaction between you and the outsourced team that enables 24/7 communication, end-to-end quality control and monitoring, on-demand reporting, feature improvements on the go, and other options you’d like to have while hiring a good software outsourcing company.

HebronSoft can bring you successful and remarkable experience from working on solution development across various industries. We understand that perhaps the worst thing for a company to outsource is to keep tight remote control over the outsourced project. Our team is ready for fruitful collaboration within which both parties are aware of possible bottlenecks and stay aligned with each other. Feel free to contact us, and set yourself up for success with HebronSoft.