Offshore development is an excellent investment for companies as it entices them with the lowered cost of operations and faster turnarounds. Outsourcing can either be a success or a unique recipe for a disruptive change.
With increasing cases of disaster stories related to outsourcing multiplying exponentially, it is up to you to educate yourself on the cons that are running in your industry and do a risk analysis and management of the situation at hand. The blog below does not go into both the demerits and merits of Nearshore Outsourcing but only seeks to make you aware of the few things that can go wrong.
1. Communication
Communication problems are one of the most common issues when it comes to outsourcing even when it is of the nearshore variety. Even communication problems are of different types, what you’ll notice is that the causes do not stem from the difference in cultures or difference in thinking, it is due to the lack of a transparent process.
The transparent process can be achieved by starting with a tightly scheduled cycle or meeting both daily and weekly. In the world of Agile Software, a daily stand-up is already expected. But all firms do not follow the Agile methodology, which means that this thing should be adopted into your outsourcing job too.
2. Project Management
An online project management tool is invaluable and for any software development team, whether in-house or outsourced. These teams also should have distinct sections for reporting of bugs, questions and tasks.
If you do not make a schedule around this tool and how it is supposed to be used, different people will use it for various purposes.
3. Clear Guideline
Writing a clear requirement document is a tricky hurdle to overcome. What usually happens is that the home team takes hours or days to write a text and listing all the guidelines only to be answered by a barrage of questions.
It can be avoided if the document is concise and accurate while going over everything in a sufficient amount of detail. It is essential to have everyone on the same page and develop a standardised procedure so that both the authors and readers understand the requirements similarly.
4. Share your business Context
Often what happens is that the ideologies and vision of the business are not shared or conveyed clearly to the nearshore software development company. It is one of the reasons why nearshore software outsourcing can fail. The knowledge possessed by the on-site team should be shared or passed onto the nearshore development company for best results.
5. Large teams
A large team has a higher chance of failing, and multiple layers of management can cause chaos. It is advised that if you are planning to get into nearshore software outsourcing. A highly skilled small team would be better than a large group consisting of average developers.
6. Copyright and Patent Violation
No matter how close the nearshore development company is, it is still located in a foreign land with different laws about copyright and patents. If they do not take copyright violations seriously, your work can be sold to another company even with an exclusive contract with you having no power.
Sign in to leave a comment.