5 Keys to make building software with an offshore team easy

What you need to know when outsourcing your software development to an offshore company.

It always starts out so well...

I recently ended an engagement with a company that originally brought me in to do some clean up work on their application. I was told it was an AngularJS application and that it had been in development for 3 or so years. So knowing that, you can imagine my expectation was that this was working, production ready code that just needed a few features built to before launching out. Nope. Not even close. When I got access to the project repo and saw the code, it was a mess. It looked like each person that had worked on the code had followed a different tutorial. In one part there was actually nested instances of angular being run, I have know idea how that even worked. Needless to say, they needed a re-write, no question. So I got to work...

How did it get like this...

After 6 long weeks I had completely re-written the entire application front-end, created a build process, and implemented a CI/CD process. When I presented the end product to the CEO he asked me if I had used any of the existing code base... I answered "No. why would I do that?". His response was incredible to me... "We spent 2 million dollars on getting it to that point." Uhhh... excuse me? You spent how much? Was it for trained monkeys on 1000 typewriters? No. It was spent on in house devs and Offshore Development.

A little digging lead to some answers...

So it turns out that the in house devs they had hired, lied to them about their capabilities. So once they were let go, they hired an offshore team to do the work. Now I've worked with a lot of offshore teams in the past, some better than others, but I've never seen work that bad from any of them. So what was the problem? To me it looked like there were 2 main problems:

1. Very poor communication of project requirements

2. ZERO technical oversight

Both of those reasons, for the in house devs and the offshore team, are what ultimately lead to the loss of $2m. Regardless of your company size, that kind of loss usually means trouble is a brewin' my friend.

So with the backstory out of the way, let's talk about how all this can be avoided.

The Keys to working with an offshore team

These are not the only ones, but they'll get you going...

#1 Know what you want to build

This seems so obvious, but you'd be surprised. Most clients come to us with an un-developed idea, and don't know what it should look like or how it should actually work. Odds are if you don't know, they will never know.

#2 Pick a team that is a cultural fit for your company

Every country has their own culture, communication quirks, holiday schedules, timezones... etc. You need to pick one that will be a good cultural fit for your team. After you will be interacting with them a lot during your project. Which leads me to my next point...

#3 Over communicate

When you think about it, it's the same as when you have a team member working from home. You cannot communicate enough about what you want . You may need to adjust your communication style, or even use more visual tools like screenshots or screen shares. But over communication is a main key to getting the results you want.

#4 Technical Oversight

If you are a software company with internal engineers, this is a no brainer. But, if you are not, then make sure you have someone local that is knowledgable in the technology being leveraged and can review the deliverables. Even better, find a team/company that has a local representative. It's difficult to know what you're getting, especially if you don't know what you're supposed to get ( a-la Yogi Berra).

#5 Planning and process are essential

Whether you use a waterfall or agile process, you'll need a structure in place to be successful on any project. Even more so when dealing with an offshore team. Eluding to #3, planning and process help you know when you should expect shippable code.

Working with an offshore team doesn't have to be stressful. With the right people and tools in place, working with an offshore team will save you time, and save you money. Contact us to find out how we've helped others do just that.

If you have an application you need built, or you need help building out your team, we can help. Logic Factory has the people and expertise to build high quality applications, on time and on budget. Contact us.