Great ways to manage an outsourced development project

 
Every organization is looking for an outsourced company that they can fully trust. To achieve something like this, you should be sure that your outsourcing vendor offers you effectiveness, flexibility, and security. However, they are just beautiful words that should have a solid foundation behind them.
 

How to make sure you will have high-quality software development with minimum risks?

Before you entrust your project to a vendor, always check:

Reviews and testimonials of clients

During your research on an outsourced company, clients’ reviews are the first thing you should check. You can find feedbacks on the vendor’s website, Clutch.co, and LinkedIn account.

Security Policy

Many companies face cyber and phishing attacks, data leakage, vulnerabilities in their IT-infrastructure. A vendor cannot fully protect you from these risks, but with a strong security policy, they can keep related issues at bay.

Make sure your outsourced company follows standards set by ISO and offers to sign the correct NDA that you should align with your company security.

Agile processes

It would be great but not necessarily that your project might work on Agile processes, as they provide higher work productivity, transparency and optimization, flexibility, and even expense reductions. Usage of Agile methodology in project development will provide bigger efficiency, properly prioritize tasks and create productive collaboration.

Moreover, try to meet with a project manager who will work with you. He or she should discuss with you clear-set goals, ground rules of software development, strong and weak points of the team, and how they will affect your project.

Types of contracts

You should be able to choose between fixed price and T&M types of contracts for your business needs. If the outsourced company does not offer you different variants, opt for another company.
 

 
Test Project

Before you start a full-scale project, it will be great if the vendor can offer a test project. This way you can check their capabilities and decide whether they suit you. Moreover, you will discover their communication skills, time management, and transparency. But remember, the vendor provides a test project for extra costs.
 

How to manage the progress of the outsourced team?

Even though your outsourced team has a project manager and you have discussed all the project milestones at the beginning of it, it is important to pay attention to:

Being in touch with your outsourced team

As we said before, active communication is key to the successful progress of the project. Thus, discuss with the outsourced team the time and number of calls, stand-ups, e-mails during the week or months so that you will have up-to-date information about stages of development, issues, and other details.

Right methods in project management

Try to implement Agile methodology in software development. The main points of it are:

• To alter project progress on the go;
• To organize meetings when they are needed;
• To prioritize tasks according to urgency and milestones;
• To make the development process as smooth as possible so that you can trust the team.

Being aware of cultural differences

When you are looking for a development company in other countries, cultural differences are inevitable. This aspect seems unimportant in comparison with project management or regular communication, however, later the issue will be evident.

You cannot fight the differences, but you should be aware of and respect them. The same goes for an outsourced company. Try to learn more about the country of the outsourced team, social norms, company policies, culture, and discuss mutual solutions with your vendor.
 

Benefits of outsourced development

Outsourced development is a great opportunity for your company if you set it right at the very beginning. It will bring you:

• Fresh ideas and perspectives in your project;
• New talented and experienced professionals from all over the world;
• The economy in time and money, as you do not need to search for developers yourself, pay for their placement and taxes, and other aspects that an in-house team has.
• Opportunity to concentrate on other urgent tasks while the outsourced team will work on software development.