Thanks to the spread of the English language and several voice and text messaging tools available, the communication barrier between business owners and their offshore software development teams is less of a problem nowadays. As you know, the key advantage of outsourcing is cost reduction, and the best quality-price ratio is offered in Eastern Europe, particularly in Ukraine. But Quora and Reddit are bursting with questions about the risks of IT outsourcing, in particular, what quality of the outsourced product you get when outsourcing overseas. Let’s see into this.
How to Manage Outsourcing Risks
Besides the analysis of outsourcing risks and benefits, you have to make sure that the code you will get from a mobile or web development outsourcing company is high-quality and reliable and then you have to focus on searching:
- Their previous projects — a portfolio. A good indicator is a company having experience within a particular field, say application outsourcing services for transportation.
- Client reviews, preferably on Clutch.co or similar websites. You want to see their strengths and pros/cons mentioned by several reviewers to understand whether they are an effective team for web or application outsourcing.
- As a bonus, if you have some techies on board, you can take a look at the code they release to the public via GitHub. While this is only a fraction of what a custom software development company can do, a code with clear comments and organized documentation is a good indicator of whether they’re meticulous and well-organized.
Finding the best outsourcing company for your project is not an easy task
If you’re satisfied after examining all of the above, you can proceed to communicate with a right vendor or reliable software outsourcing companies you’ve found and learn about:
Quality Assurance
An offshore outsourcing company should have Quality Assurance in place which means that during the development the product is systematically checked for any mistakes (bugs) or deviations from the technical requirements. This way they prevent mistakes in production.
QA specialists (testers) aren’t the only ones responsible for checking the quality of the code — all participants in the process need to make sure that the code they are returning is working smoothly and as expected. Additionally, the QA process shouldn’t be reserved for the end of the project, it should be conducted regularly within the development cycle.
Quality control in the outsourcing company should be thorough
Reliable outsourcing partners will gladly familiarize you with their quality standards and won’t refuse to include quality requirements in the software development agreement. Thus risk outsourcing can be mitigated even when you involve a new employee (QA manager) in the development process.
Code Guarantees
Okay, so the select outsourcing company has awesome client reviews, a background in your industry, and quality assurance in place. One of the outsourcing risks is code quality. What requirements are typical at this stage?
There’re no questions about software code performing the functions specified in the technical requirements and being delivered on time but you’ve got to be ready for the software revealing hidden bugs when put in production:
- Maybe a particular device model is not handling the app correctly.
- A high load caused by a significant number of users reveals a need for a server-side fix.
- Or some other bug slips in.
Code without guarantees is a no go
What should you do? What insights and rights do you have here? In general, the outsourcing agreement you sign should include statements specifying:
- Acceptance testing period after which the software is considered to be accepted. Usually 5-10 days. During this period, you can thoroughly check a website or app and send a written notice to the outsourcing company indicating what is not working according to the specification and should be fixed at the developer’s expense.
- Software warranty period, a period during which the software should stay free of defects. Usually 120-180 days.
- That software delivered by the outsourcing company is free of viruses or any other malware.
Sometimes an outsourcing company is also requested to provide information on the recommended hardware.
Project Support
A common fear preventing businesses from working with mobile or web development outsourcing companies is that once they get their software and send the final payment developers won’t stay in touch and proceed to work on another project.
A reliable outsourcing company won’t leave you without any support services
While it is indeed crucial for an outsourcing company to have a steady flow of projects to cover its expenses, you can secure project support by
Concluding a separate software support agreement describing support services in great detail. This might be needed for complex web or mobile application outsourcing projects.
Of course, payment, in this case, is negotiated based on mutual agreement between the parties. Providing support after the project is completed is a good practice. One of Stfalcon.com’s clients mentions our support services in his Clutch.co review:
"The Stfalcon team was smart and open. They provided a better technological direction instead of our original plan."
Stfalcon delivered technology recommendations for a multi-platform mobile app, a design prototype, and the backlog with acceptance criteria. Their smart team also provided a better technological direction that the client's original plan. Moreover, they communicated effectively via email and Slack.
CEO, Appointible
Paulius Mačiulis
Timely Delivery
Of course, even if everything mentioned above is in place but the development team fails to deliver the project on time, it is a huge disadvantage. Even if everything mentioned above is in place but the development team fails to deliver the project on time, it is a huge disadvantage. In this difficult situation, you should put the deadline into your outsourcing contract or addendum to it.
Time is money in outsourcing as well
It is also important to have provisions on:
- Delivering versions of the product regularly (usually once in two weeks).
- Terminating agreement in case you aren’t satisfied with the quality of work. In this case, you will need to pay for the work that was performed by the offshore outsourcing company and receive all the code that was developed so far.
Learn why Ukraine is one of the best IT outsourcing countries.
Conclusion
All in all, to mitigate IT outsourcing risks make sure you have discussed and properly documented:
- Deadlines and penalties for not delivering the project on time
- Quality assurance process
- Project acceptance procedure
- Software warranty period
- Project support term
By including these outsourcing issues into your outsourcing agreement you will ensure that the project developed by the outsourcing company will be well-tested, have appropriate warranties and you will receive support when needed. By the way, before hiring an outsourcing company, weigh what responsibilities you are willing to hand over to the service provider, for example, tracking KPIs and metrics and others.
Interested in startup development outsourcing? Need iOS and Android apps or prototyping? Check out our portfolio and contact us today!
You may use our calculator to estimate the approximate cost of app development.
