9 quick tips when outsourcing software development

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Are you facing challenges when outsourcing your company’s software development? Here are nine simple steps that’ll help you succeed.

1. Determine your budget

You get what you pay for. If you’re on a budget, go to the lowest bidder. But if you want software that’s elegant and reliable, expect to pay a reasonable amount.

2. Aim for longer-term contracts

If you want better services, I’d advise you to seek long-term contracts. This allows the outsourced team to put dedicated resources into your project. The team will also know your business inside out, which makes them more motivated about your project’s success. They’ll perform better as a result. On the other hand, short-term engagements may be cheaper, but won’t guarantee you the expected outcome by the deadline.

3. Be engaged

Set goals. Once you have a list of all your expectations, planning with the vendor becomes simpler. You’ll also need to get your colleagues ready to communicate with the outsourced team.

Your participation throughout the project is very important. This sends a message to your partner that you want your project to succeed. In fact, I’d encourage you to engage with the vendor every day.

4. Go Agile, forget Waterfall

Greater adaptability and faster response times in the software development process are important. As such, agile methodology is preferred over traditional waterfalls methods. Agile gives you greater transparency and superior results within the shortest time possible. It’ll help you save costs.

Cheap isn’t always good. Steer clear of the lowest bidding programmer if you can afford it.

5. Visit your offshore partner

You need to trust the offshore vendor you’re working with. Seeing is believing: it helps to visit the business partner occasionally to see how it operates. It also shows you’re engaged. Why not also treat the visit as a chance to take a vacation?

## 6. Make sure your vendor allocates resources to testing

People are prone to mistakes. Check that they’re allocating time to identify bugs before the software is released.

7. Conduct code reviews with vendors

If you’re a programmer yourself, you’d know how good software architecture is built and what good code looks like. If you’re not, get a colleague or consultant to help. By doing regular code reviews, you’d get familiarized with the code early and know how to build on it once the project is handed over to you. You might even learn a thing or two about your vendor’s methods.

8. Address technical debt and refactor code

Before the project is turned over to you, check if there are opportunities to clear technical debt and refactor bad code. You’re doing yourself a favor by saving time on maintenance later.

 9. Check if the vendor uses advanced techniques like continuous integration